So now, apparently, it's not enough that the online pubs get encased in carbomite and posted only and forever in PDF. No. The hell with any idea that content would be presented via a flexible format accessible in a range of delivery methods suited to different users' needs. Now we're marching boldly forward to the new frontier of impossibly unwieldy content formats. We're going to put the key content out there in Flash. Like this:
http://digital.waterefficiency.net/publication/?i=11368
The innovation — the REVOLUTION! — we're courting here is the hot new idea that (get ready) users will be able to pretend to turn the pages, just by clicking on the corners of the pictures. Wow. What an a-MAY-zing leap forward in online content delivery. Yawn.
When asked whether we, too, could implement the page-flipping "tool," I reminded my breathless colleagues that a move in that direction from PDF would be a moderately huge transformation with unknown consequences for browse access, search, metadata indexing, long-term accessibility, and workflow in the Publications department, among other effects. It's more of an end-to-end content delivery strategy than a tool, and a highly questionable strategy at that. But no. It's just too damn cool not to do.
The thing that just bugs the pee outta me as that what you gain from this Flashification thing is nothing more than the stooooopid page turning animation. Other than that, you have nothing to show -- NOTHING! -- for all the brain damage and work and fuss and downright inconvenience. Are users going to save the .swf file locally they way they do PDF? If you want to prevent them from doing so, then that may be another benefit, but it's a big part of current practice here that people do save locally. How searchable are these things? How much space will they take on the server, and how long will users wait to download them? None of that matters, as long as you can pretend to turn pages. Jesus, these people are such fucking morons.