The latest version includes a new analytics feature, improved Word ingestion, global stylesheets, and more.

The Manifold Team is proud to announce the release of version 6.0.

Our complete list of release notes for this version details all of the new additions, but here are some of the highlights, with links to the corresponding sections of our documentation.

Analytics. Built from the ground up, our analytics tools provide usage data at the site, project, text, and text-section levels. We are committed to protecting our users’ privacy, so all reported data is anonymized.

Word Ingestion. With version 6, we’ve transitioned from PanDoc to Mammoth to power our Word to HTML conversion. The Mammoth engine produces better results and allows us to map Word styles to HTML styles. This means that if you use a custom style in Word, it will persist into Manifold, where you can assign it a specific type of rendering using a stylesheet.

Global Stylesheet. In addition to existing text-level stylesheets, Manifold now includes a global stylesheet that is applied to every new text as it is ingested. Utilizing our new Word engine and our capacity to export any text to EPUB, you can create an EPUB file from a Word document within Manifold.

Because we upgraded a number of underlying systems in v6, there are quite a few data migrations included in this upgrade. Please be sure to backup your installation prior to upgrading. If you run into problems, please feel free to get in touch with us.

Our next version, 7.0, will focus on helping teachers and students get the most out of Manifold, including OER work funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a localization feature funded by Melusina Press and the University of Luxembourg. For more on where we’re going, check out our development roadmap.

As a community-driven, open platform, we depend on our users’ feedback to improve and develop Manifold for everyone. We welcome discussion and suggestions through Github, Slack, and email.

Thank you for being part of our community,

The Manifold Team

The digital publication platform Manifold Scholarship will enter a new phase of its development, supported by two major grants, one from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and one from the National Endowment for the Humanities, allowing Manifold to solidify its structure for future sustainability and to expand its work as a leading provider of digital Open Educational Resources (OERs). Manifold, a collaboration between the GC Digital Scholarship Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center, Cast Iron Coding, and the University of Minnesota Press, is an open-source platform that enables publishers to create media-rich, interactive digital publications and extend the educational benefits and access of this scholarship to more communities. “Manifold is an innovative platform that exemplifies the University’s vision of integrated research and teaching,” says Chris Cramer, Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota.

We are delighted to announce the release of Manifold version 5.0, which is available for download here! The centerpiece of this release, a new Access Controls feature, will allow users to limit access to selected projects on a Manifold installation.

With this feature, publishers can switch on restricted access to any existing or new Manifold project, and can grant project access to any number of registered users on a Manifold site. The potential use cases are indeed manifold: Publishers of scholarly journals and conference proceedings can share publications with a base of subscribers or members. Teachers can create educational materials that can be shared only with students in a particular class. Works in progress can be shared with a select group of peer reviewers. Creators of collaborative projects can share drafts with a team for feedback. University presses can use Access Controls to serve exam and review copies or potentially offer paid access to course texts, opening up new revenue streams through the platform.

Here's to 2019! The Manifold Team sends good wishes to all as we head into the shortest day of the year and turn toward 2020. I've asked each team member to share a good memory from the year, a Manifold gift (be it moment with someone in the community, a favorite feature, a resolution). We're happy to be working together and with all of you.

Doug#

I’m excited that two of the “iterative,” work-in-progress book projects we launched in 2017 on the Manifold platform — Whitney Trettien’s Cut/Copy/Paste and Darren Wershler, Lori Emerson, and Jussi Parikka’s The Lab Book — are now on the verge of being completed projects, to be launched on the platform and in print this coming year.

In the last training of the season, Terence met with Jeff Gallant, Program Manager of Affordable Learning Georgia; Joy Woodson, Assistant Director for Marketing Communications; and Lucy Harrison, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Library Services and Executive Director of GALILEO.

Great to be back in Athens this week. Really looking forward to kicking off @ManifoldScholar training and talking about open textbooks with @jeffwgallant and the @ALearningGA team.

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) November 19, 2019

Last week, Manifold Digital Projects Editor Terence was at the University of Georgia Press—the oldest and largest publisher in Georgia—exploring new digital initiatives and publishing models with Director Lisa Bayer and Executive Editor of Scholarly and Digital Publishing Mick Gusinde-Duffy.

Brisk morning here in Athens, GA. After an enlivening run in the hotel fitness center, I'm now getting ready to head over to @UGAPress for two great days of @ManifoldScholar training. All that thanks to @Mickodopolous for setting a fantastic schedule!

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) November 13, 2019

Terence wasn’t the only one tweeting:

@ManifoldScholar training today with @tremayning @UGAPress. We’re learning how to create iterative #OpenAccess books in the beautiful @DigiLab_UGA pic.twitter.com/09SHkQOfnl

— Lisa Bayer (@lisambayer) November 13, 2019

This week we find Manifold Digital Projects Editor Terence in Atlanta meeting with Dr. Rosetta E. Ross. Dr. Ross, along with members of Spelman College's Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Daughters of the African Atlantic community, is creating a new journal entitled Black Women and Religious Cultures. The journal seeks to examine the roles of religions, positively and negatively, in the lives of Black women, transnationally. In addition to publishing meeting proceedings from the Consultation of African and African Diasporan Women in Religion and Theology, the journal will include articles from participants in their growing community, facilitating an exchange of knowledge.

In this post, we find our digital projects editor, Terence, traveling to Houston, Texas, to meet with the Arte Público Press digital team: Executive Editor Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Carolina Villarroel of the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, and Digital Programs Manager Lorena Gauthereau. The conversation revolved primarily around their recovery mission, the presses digital initiatives, as well as intro publications aimed at younger members of the Latino community. And, of course, all the amazing cuisine that Houston has to offer.

This week brought Terence from one Manifold hub to another, New York City, to meet with Elizabeth Della Zazzera, Digital Producer, and Jaime Fuller, Web Editor, at Lapham’s Quarterly.

Not only did I have an awesome birthday last weekend, I'm now in NYC getting ready to meet with @ElizabethDZ and @laphamsquart to talk all things @ManifoldScholar. YES! And that's to say nothing of the impromptu team mtg. @jojokarlin and I had over dinner last night!

— Terence Smyre (@tremayning) October 9, 2019

In this post, we find our digital projects editor, Terence, traveling to the University of Kentucky to meet with Intermezzo editors Jeff Rice, Eric Detweiler, and Sergio C. Figueiredo. The conversation revolved around integrating Manifold with their series, which encourages writers to experiment with form, style, content, and approach to break down the barrier between the scholarly and the creative.