“Books are social spaces”: Challenges in Collaborating Across File Formats in Independent Publishing

Abstract

This paper investigates the challenges faced by independent publishing professionals as they collaborate on multiformat books. We ran four structured participatory design sessions with 16 professionals to collect detailed examples of how they appropriate their specialised but isolated authoring tools, and negotiate the tensions between their personal needs, objectives, expertise and even values. We found that collaboration breakdowns arise primarily from interoperability problems across file formats rather than a lack of coordination across applications. We introduce the novel concept of ecologies of formats to characterise these findings and show that the interplay of formats and people is essential for reducing friction in publishing. We then introduce information synchronisation graphs, a notation tool that reveals recurring patterns in ecologies of artifacts and use it to analyse four publishing workflows. We conclude with recommendations for the design of collaborative publishing systems and suggestions for improving the organisation of their work practices.