About OpenMute Services

OpenMute Press – helping you make your book using Print on Demand, short-run press, eBook, mobile and tablet forms. Explaining and integrating the world of ePublishing, via training, or consultancy on workflow and/or sales/distribution systems

R&D – we are always interested to hear from people who want to partner on technology projects in gestation. Currently we are working on eBook conversion, web video/IPTV and Open Source

Digital Strategy – how can cultural organisations make use of digital technology to better connect with their audience, share artistic and resource material, and win artistic and financial support

OpenMute Press

• * OpenMute Press provides consultancy and book making services covering all aspects of digital publishing, including POD (Print On Demand), eBooks and bespoke hand binding

• * We try and provide a one-stop-shop for the hybrid book producer, offering services and consultancy in book design, production, printing, online distribution, sales, web stats and social networking

• * As a group of book and magazine lovers, including technologists, designers and publishers, we are dedicated to the technologies of publishing – ancient, medieval, Open Source and zine – and reflect this in our personalised approach

• * OpenMute Press can translate your project into any of the evolving contemporary publishing formats (Print on Demand books, eBook, Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Droid, Apps, social networks, websites, Amazon Search Inside, Google Books, LibraryThing, as metadata)

• * For book design, we are as confident working with the latest digital print machines as we are sourcing bespoke hand bindings and finishing (we have close, longstanding relationships with a variety of printers and binders)

• * We provide SEO and web analytics to monitor your publication across the web and social networking platforms and track the effectiveness of your promotional work

• * OpenMute Press can take your book out into global sales and distribution channels; ISBN book store systems, Amazon, online distributors, eBook/Kindle, iTunes and the iPhone apps market

• * All our publishing and production services can be tailored – we are happy to do a quick health check, or an in depth review; likewise to set up in-house POD or eBooks production systems

OpenMute Press has years of experience in book design, layout and production management, together with a thorough understanding of editorial process, including proofing, style guides, indexing, etc. We have been in the POD business since 2005 and worked with DTP print design since the days of Quark 1.0. We can also bring in editorial services from a network of experienced freelancers.

R&D

OpenMute's Research & Development agenda is to support independent media production. We have a particular interest in 'expanded publishing', which is how we describe the field of publishing as it transforms to engage with digital media (presently encompassing ePublishing, digital video and publishing from archives).

Our current R&D projects are:

• * Progressive Publishing System: PPS acts as a content repository, enabling publishers to access new ePublishing platforms, like tablets and eBook Readers, as well as increase their reach by connecting to sales distributors like Amazon, Apple and Ingrams. Its backbone technology is a strong, basic eBook conversion engine.

• * Common Practice online video network: a year-long pilot project currently in development, aiming to establish documentary production, post-production and archiving processes for its nine member organisations, helping them to translate their talks, editorial and educational programmes for the multi-platform environment [More on Common Practice at http://www.commonpractice.org.uk].

• * Hybrid Publishing Consortium: a collaborative development network committed to tackling key obstacles for independent and academic publishers involved in ePublishing. HPC is working with international partners to build a technology stack supporting open access, Open Source publishing.

Digital Strategy

A digital strategy is an individual project plan drawn up by a cultural organization for the creative and efficient implementation of new technologies, helping them to:

• * better connect with their audience

• * share artistic and resource material with their audience

• * get their audience to support the organisation both artistically and financially

The development of such a strategy also enables organisations to better understand their position within the context of the web, and how they might go about making positive changes to develop their on-line presence. This means that, not only do organisations begin to consider how to better present themselves in terms of communication and marketing, but also to consider how cheaper, often free, solutions can be found to improve back-office administration.

Our work in this area has been informed by the projects 'Art of Digital London' and TheKnowledge, both of which were developed in dialogue with London and UK arts organisations and funded by Arts Council England. Our consultancy covers the following areas:

Web consultancy

Audience
Understanding the size of your present audience, assessing where your potential audience is, connecting those audiences with your work; also, how to report to your colleagues and collaborators

The basics
We can also carry out an assessment of your digital infrastructures and make sure they are performing properly, offering a set of recommendations for fixes to your problems. This covers things like; email lists, video, audio, eCommerce, accessibility, RSS, surveys, SEO, ePublishing, CMSs, CRM etc.

Social networking
For most organisations, good implementation of social media tools can easily bring a doubling of their reach, and once you have a stable basis you can try out programs to help you with artistic and public connections. Social networking involves setting up a working process, giving it constant attention and then monitoring, to ensure you're effective

Workshops

OpenMute has since 2009 run the following workshops:

• * How to Build a Digital Strategy

• * Project Management

• * Covering the Basics

• * Revenue Generation Online?

• * Digital Innovation for the Arts

• * Publishing – The Digital Word and the Arts

• * Video – Public service content? Producing video for online and mobile platforms

• * Sound: Post-copyright communities

• * Digital Archiving and UnLibraries

• * Locative Media and gaming

• * Revenue generation

Drupal - consult, design & build

• * Web consultancy (strategy): how to develop your organisation online; communicate your message, grow audiences and increase revenues

• * Design & build: we can work on small additions to your web presence or complete a full website implementation. Drupal is our preferred Content Management System (CMS) and then we plug all the other Web 2.0 tools you need into it; Amazon store, MailChimp, Vimeo, Music Sales, LibraryThing and so on

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has meant that professional and cutting edge facilities can firstly be incorporated into your web site and secondly that your presence on the web is now distributed accross many different locations.

We can help you choose the right tools web 2.0, then configure and integrate them, and train your staff in their use. Examples might be Sound Cloud or Amazon's fulfillment services for product shipping. Many services now incorporate an element of social networking, for example your website comments might deploy 'Disqus' to combine comments from different places across the web

Art of Digital London & TheKnowledge

AoDL
The Art of Digital London (AoDL) programme was initiated by ACE to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of a London RFO network, which investigates the relationship between art organisations and digital technology.

AoDL now runs a monthly Meetup group to discuss different digital issues http://www.meetup.com/Art-of-Digital-London

TheKnowledge
A wiki environment created specifically to facilitate peer-learning in the cultural arena. TheKnowledge incorporates a set of clear learning guides about the use of digital tools in culture, helping cultural workers to keep up to date and addressing the specific needs of cultural organisations and their digital strategies.

TheKnowledge: http://theknowledge.aodl.org.uk/

TheKnowledge is supported by Arts Council England.