A Short History of EBooks Part 13

Ten years later, Peter Schweitzer, inventor of the @folio project, the prototype of a reading device, wrote in an email interview: "The luck we all have is to live here and now this fantastic change. When I was born in 1963, computers didn't have much memory. Today, my music player could hold billions of pages, a true local library. Tomorrow, by the combined effect of the Moore Law and the ubiquity of networks, we will have instant access to works and knowledge. We won't be much interested any more on which device to store information. We will be interested in handy functions and beautiful objects."

Marc Autret, a journalist and graphic designer, wrote around the same time: "I am convinced that the ebook (or "e-book") has a great future in all non-fiction sectors. I refer to the ebook as a software and not as a dedicated physical medium (the conjecture is more uncertain on this point). The [European]

publishers of guides, encyclopedias and informative books in general still see the ebook as a very minor variation of the printed book, probably because the business model and secure management don't seem entirely stabilized. But this is a matter of time. Non-commercial ebooks are already emerging everywhere while opening the way to new developments. To my eyes, there are at least two emerging trends: (a) an increasingly attractive and functional interface for reading/consultation (navigation, research, restructuring on the fly, user annotations, interactive quiz); (b) a multimedia integration (video, sound, animated graphics, database) now strongly coupled to the web. No physical book offers such features. So I imagine the ebook of the future as a kind of wiki crystallized and packaged in a format. How valuable will it be? Its value will be the one of a book: the unity and quality of editorial work!"

= Cybers.p.a.ce and information society

Over the years, I asked people I was interviewing by email how they would define cybers.p.a.ce and information society. Here are a few answers, to open new perspectives that will happily replace a "conclusion" for this book.

According to Peter Raggett, head of the Central Library at the OECD (Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development): "Cybers.p.a.ce is that area 'out there' which is on the other end of my PC when I connect to the internet. Any ISP (Internet Service Provider) or webpage provider is in cybers.p.a.ce as far as his users or customers are concerned." And the information society? "The information society is the society where the most valued product is information. Up to the 20th century, manufactured goods were the most valued products. They have been replaced by information. In fact, people are now talking of the knowledge society where the most valuable economic product is the knowledge inside our heads."

Steven Krauwer is the coordinator of ELSNET (European Network of Excellence in Human Language Technologies). "For me the cybers.p.a.ce is the part of the universe (including people, machines and information) that I can reach from behind my desk." And the information society? "An information society is a society: (a) where most of the knowledge and information is no longer stored in people's brains or books but on electronic media; (b) where the information repositories are distributed, interconnected via an information infrastructure, and accessible from anywhere; (c) where social processes have become so dependent on this information and the information infrastructure that citizens who are not connected to this information system cannot fully partic.i.p.ate in the functioning of the society."

Guy Antoine is the founder of Windows on Haiti, a reference website about Haitian culture. For him, cybers.p.a.ce is "literally the newest frontier for mankind, a place where everyone can claim his place, and do so with relative ease and a minimum of financial resources, before heavy intergovernmental regulations and taxation finally set in. But then, there will be another."

Henk Slettenhaar is a professor in communication technologies at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. For him, cybers.p.a.ce is "our virtual s.p.a.ce. The area of digital information (bits, not atoms). It is a limited s.p.a.ce when you think of the spectrum. It has to be administered well so all the earth's people can use it and benefit from it (eliminate the digital divide)." And the information society is "the people who already use cybers.p.a.ce in their daily lives to such an extent that it is hard to imagine living without it (the other side of the divide)."

Tim McKenna is an author who thinks and writes about the complexity of truth in a world of flux. "Cybers.p.a.ce to me is the distance that is bridged when individuals use technology to connect, either by sharing information or chatting. To say that one exists in cybers.p.a.ce is really to say that he has eliminated distance as a barrier to connecting with people and ideas." And the information society? "The information society to me is the tangible form of Jung's collective consciousness.

Most of the information resides in the subconsciousness but browsing technology has made the information more retrievable which in turn allows us greater self-knowledge both as individuals and as human beings."

CHRONOLOGY

[Each line begins with the year or the year/month.]

1968: ASCII is the first character set encoding.

1971: Project Gutenberg is the first digital library.

1974: The internet takes off.

1977: UNIMARC is created as a common bibliographic format for library catalogs.

1984: Copyleft is a new license for computer software.

1990: The web is invented by Tim Berners-Lee.

1991/01: Unicode is a universal character set encoding for all languages.

1993/01: The Online Books Page is a list of free ebooks on the internet.

1993/06: Adobe launches PDF, Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat.

1993/11: Mosaic is the first web browser.

1994: The first library website goes online.

1994: Bold publishers post free digital versions of copyrighted books.

1995/07: Amazon.com is the first main online bookstore.

1995: Mainstream print newspapers and magazines launch their own websites.

1996/03: The Palm Pilot is launched as the first PDA.

1996/04: The Internet Archive is founded to archive the web.

1996: Teachers explore new ways of teaching using the internet.

1997/01: Multimedia convergence is the topic of a symposium.

1997/04: E Ink begins developing a technology called electronic ink.

1997: Online publis.h.i.+ng begins spreading.

1997: The Logos Dictionary goes online for free.

1998/05: 00h00.com sells books "only" in digital format.

1998: Library treasures like Beowulf go online.

1999/09: The Open eBook (OeB) format is created as a standard for ebooks.

1999/12: Britannica.com is available for free on the web (for a short time).

1999: Librarians become webmasters.

1999: Authors go digital.

2000/01: The Million Book Project wants to digitize one million books.

2000/01: Gemstar TV-Guide International buys the 00h00.com.

2000/02: yourDictionary.com is a major language portal.

2000/03: Mobipocket focuses on readers (software) and ebooks for PDAs.

2000/07: Non-English-speaking internet users reach 50%.

2000/07: Stephen King (self-)publishes a novel "only" on the web.

2000/08: Microsoft launches its own reader (software) and LIT format.

2000/09: GDT is a main bilingual (English, French) free translation dictionary.

2000/09: Numilog is an online bookstore selling "only"

digital books.

2000/09: Handicapzero is a portal for the visually impaired and blind community.

2000/10: The Public Library of Science works on free online journals.

2000/10: Distributed Proofreaders helps in digitizing books from public domain.

2000/10: Gemstar TV-Guide International launches the Gemstar eBook.

2000/11: The British Library posts the digitized Bible of Gutenberg.

2001/01: Wikipedia is a main free online cooperative encyclopedia.

2001: Creative Commons works on new ways of respecting authors' rights.

2003/09: MIT offers its course materials for free in its OpenCourseWare.

2004/01: Project Gutenberg Europe is launched as a multilingual project.

2004/10: Google launches Google Print to rename it Google Books later on.

2005/04: Amazon.com buys Mobipocket, its software and ebooks.

2005/10: The Open Content Alliance works on a universal public digital library.

2006/08: Google Books has several partner libraries and publishers.

2006/08: The union catalog WorldCat is available for free on the web.

2006/10: Sony launches its new reading device, the Sony Reader.

2006/12: Microsoft launches Live Search Books (and drops the project later on).

2007/03: Citizendium works on a main "reliable" online cooperative encyclopedia.

2007/03: IATE is the new terminological database of the European community.

2007/05: The Encyclopedia of Life will doc.u.ment all known species of animals and plants.

2007/11: Amazon.com launches Kindle, its own reading device.

2008/05: Hachette Livre buys the digital bookstore Numilog.

2008/10: Google Books settles a lawsuit with a.s.sociations of authors and publishers.

2008/11: Europeana starts as the European digital library.

2009/02: Amazon.com launches Kindle 2.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to all those who kindly answered my questions over the years. Most interviews were published by NEF (Net des etudes francaises / Net of French Studies), University of Toronto, Canada. They are available online . Some interviews were directly included in this book.

Many thanks to Nicolas Ancion, Alex Andrachmes, Guy Antoine, Silvaine Arabo, Arlette Attali, Marc Autret, Isabelle Aveline, Jean-Pierre Balpe, Emmanuel Barthe, Robert Beard, Michael Behrens, Michel Benoit, Guy Bertrand, Olivier Bogros, Christian Boitet, Bernard Boudic, Bakayoko Bourahima, Marie-Aude Bourson, Lucie de Boutiny, Anne-Cecile Brandenbourger, Alain Bron, Patrice Cailleaud, Tyler Chambers, Pascal Chartier, Richard Chotin, Alain Clavet, Jean-Pierre Cloutier, Jacques Coubard, Luc Dall'Armellina, Kushal Dave, Cynthia Delisle, Emilie Devriendt, Bruno Didier, Catherine Domain, Helen Dry, Bill Dunlap, Pierre-Noel Favennec, Gerard Fourestier, Pierre Francois Gagnon, Olivier Gainon, Jacques Gauchey, Raymond G.o.defroy, Muriel Goiran, Marcel Grangier, Barbara Grimes, Michael Hart, Roberto Hernandez Montoya, Randy Hobler, Eduard Hovy, Christiane Jadelot, Gerard Jean-Francois, Jean-Paul, Anne-Benedicte Joly, Brian King, Geoffrey Kingscott, Steven Krauwer, Gaelle Lacaze, Michel Landaret, Helene Larroche, Pierre Le Loarer, Claire Le Parco, Annie Le Saux, Fabrice Lhomme, Philippe Loubiere, Pierre Magnenat, Xavier Malbreil, Alain Marchiset, Maria Victoria Marinetti, Michael Martin, Tim McKenna, Emmanuel Menard, Yos.h.i.+ Mikami, Jacky Minier, Jean- Philippe Mouton, Greg Newby, John Mark Ockerbloom, Caoimhin o Donnaile, Jacques Pataillot, Alain Patez, Nicolas Pewny, Marie- Joseph Pierre, Herve Ponsot, Olivier Pujol, Anissa Rachef, Peter Raggett, Patrick Rebollar, Philippe Renaut, Jean-Baptiste Rey, Philippe Riviere, Blaise Rosnay, Bruno de Sa Moreira, Pierre Schweitzer, Henk Slettenhaar, Murray Suid, June Thompson, Zina Tucsnak, Francois Vadrot, Christian Vandendorpe, Robert Ware, Russon Wooldridge, and Denis Zwirn.

Many thanks to Greg Chamberlain, Laurie Chamberlain, Kimberly Chung, Mike Cook, Michael Hart and Russon Wooldridge for revising previous versions of some parts. The author, whose mother tongue is French, is responsible for any remaining mistakes.