The eBook is 40 (1971-2011) Part 9

He wrote in January 2000: "The new website is an index of 1,200+ dictionaries in more than 200 languages. Besides the WOD, the new website includes a word-of-the-day-feature, word games, a language chat room, the old 'Web of Online Grammars' (now expanded to include additional language resources), the 'Web of Linguistic Fun', multilingual dictionaries; specialized English dictionaries; thesauri and other vocabulary aids; language identifiers and guessers, and other features; dictionary indices. yourDictionary.com will hopefully be the premiere language portal and the largest language resource site on the web. It is now actively acquiring dictionaries and grammars of all languages with a particular focus on endangered languages. It is overseen by a blue ribbon panel of linguistic experts from all over the world. (...)

Indeed, yourDictionary.com has lots of new ideas. We plan to work with the Endangered Language Fund in the U.S. and Britain to raise money for the Foundation's work and publish the results on our site. We will have language chat rooms and bulletin boards. There will be language games designed to entertain and teach fundamentals of linguistics. The Linguistic Fun page will become an online journal for short, interesting, yes, even entertaining, pieces on language that are based on sound linguistics by experts from all over the world."

As the portal for all languages without any exception, yourDictionary.com offered a section for endangered languages called the Endangered Language Repository.

As explained by Robert Beard: "Languages that are endangered are primarily languages without writing systems at all (only 1/3 of the world's 6,000+ languages have writing systems). I still do not see the web contributing to the loss of language ident.i.ty and still suspect it may, in the long run, contribute to strengthening it. More and more Native Americans, for example, are contacting linguists, asking them to write grammars of their language and help them put up dictionaries. For these people, the web is an affordable boon for cultural expression."

How about the future of the web? "The web will be an encyclopedia of the world by the world for the world. There will be no information or knowledge that anyone needs that will not be available. The major hindrance to international and interpersonal understanding, personal and inst.i.tutional enhancement, will be removed. It would take a wilder imagination than mine to predict the effect of this development on the nature of humankind."

2000 > A STANDARD FORMAT FOR EBOOKS

[Summary]

With so many formats showing up in 1998-2001 for new electronic devices, the digital publis.h.i.+ng industry felt the need to work on a standard for ebooks. The National Inst.i.tute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the U.S. launched the Open eBook Initiative in June 1998, with a 25-people task force named Open eBook Authoring Group. In September 1999 was released the first version of the Open eBook (OeB) format, based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and defined by the Open eBook Publication Structure (OeBPS), with a free version belonging to public domain and a full version to be used with or without DRM by the publis.h.i.+ng industry. The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) was created in January 2000 to develop the OeB format and OeBPS specifications. Since 2000, most ebook formats have derived from the OeB format, for example the PRC format from Mobipocket and the LIT format from Microsoft.

With so many formats showing up in 1998-2001 for new electronic devices, the digital publis.h.i.+ng industry felt the need to work on a standard for ebooks.

On top of the "cla.s.sical" formats -- TXT (text), DOC (Microsoft Word), HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and PDF (Portable Doc.u.ment Format) -- other formats were the Gla.s.sbook Reader, the Peanut Reader, the Rocket eBook Reader (for the Rocket eBook), the Franklin Reader (for the eBookMan), the Cytale software (for the Cybook 1st generation), the Gemstar eBook Reader (for the Gemstar eBook) and the Palm Reader (for the Palm Pilot). Some formats were meant for a given device, either a PDA or an ebook reader, and couldn't be used on other devices.

# Open eBook (OeB)

The National Inst.i.tute of Standards & Technology (NIST) in the U.S.

launched the Open eBook Initiative in June 1998, with a 25-people task force named Open eBook Authoring Group. In September 1999 was released the first version of the Open eBook (OeB) format, based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and defined by the Open eBook Publication Structure (OeBPS), with a free version belonging to public domain and a full version to be used with or without DRM by the publis.h.i.+ng industry.

The Open eBook Forum (OeBF) was created in January 2000 as an industrial consortium (with 85 partic.i.p.ants in 2002) to develop the OeB format and OeBPS specifications. Since 2000, most ebook formats have derived from the OeB format, for example LIT from Microsoft and PRC format from Mobipocket.

# LIT from Microsoft

Microsoft launched its own PDA, the Pocket PC, in April 2000, with the Microsoft Reader, for people to read books in LIT (from "literature") format, a format based on the OeB format. The Microsoft Reader was also available for computers in August 2000, and then for any Windows platform, including for the new Tablets PC launched in November 2002.

Microsoft was billing publishers and distributors for the use of its DRM technology through the Microsoft Digital a.s.set Server (DAS), with a commission on each sale. Microsoft partnered with Barnes & n.o.ble.com in January 2000 and Amazon.com in August 2000, for them to offer ebooks for the Microsoft Reader in their eBookStores soon to be launched.

Barnes & n.o.ble.com opened its eBookStore in August 2000, followed by Amazon in November 2000.

Pocket PC's first OS, Windows CE, was replaced in October 2001 by Pocket PC 2002 to handle the reading of copyrighted books. In 2002, people could read books on three software: Microsoft Reader of course, Mobipocket Reader and Palm Reader, the software of the Palm Pilot, launched in March 1996 as the first PDA of the market.

# PRC from Mobipocket

Mobipocket was founded in March 2000 in Paris, France, by Thierry Brethes and Nathalie Ting, as a company specializing in ebooks for PDAs, with part of the funding coming from Viventures, a branch of the French multinational Vivendi.

The Mobipocket format (PRC, based on the OeB format) and the Mobipocket Reader could be used on any PDA, and also on any computer from April 2002.

In October 2001, the Mobipocket Reader received the eBook Technology Award from the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

Mobipocket partnered with Franklin for the Mobipocket Reader to be available on the eBookMan along with the Franklin Reader, instead of the initially planned Microsoft Reader.

The Mobipocket Web Companion was a software (for a fee) for extracting content from partner news sites. The Mobipocket Publisher was used by individuals (free version for private use, and standard version for a fee) or publishers (professional version for a fee) to create ebooks using the Mobipocket DRM technology for controlling access to copyrighted ebooks. The Mobipocket Publisher could also create ebooks in LIT format for the Microsoft Reader.

In spring 2003, the Mobipocket Reader was available in five languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian) and could be used on any PDA, computer and smartphone. 6,000 t.i.tles in several languages were available on the website of Mobipocket and in online partner bookstores. Mobipocket was bought by Amazon in April 2005.

# EPUB, a new standard

In April 2005, the Open eBook Forum was replaced with the International Digital Publis.h.i.+ng Forum (IDPF), et OeB was replaced with EPUB, an acronym for electronic publication. EPUB allowed the reflowing of text depending on the size of the screen. Recent PDF files (PDF being another standard for ebooks) have been compatible with EPUB.

2000 > EXPERIMENTS BY BEST-SELLING AUTHORS

[Summary]

In July 2000 began the electronic self-publis.h.i.+ng of "The Plant", an epistolary novel by Stephen King, who was the first best-selling author to launch such an experiment. The author began publis.h.i.+ng "The Plant"

in episodes on his own website. The chapters were available at regular intervals and could be downloaded in several formats (PDF, OeB, HTML, TXT). After the publication of the sixth chapter in December 2000, the author decided to stop the experiment, because more and more readers were downloading the chapters without paying for them. Stephen King went on with digital experiments though, but in partners.h.i.+p with his publisher. Digital experiments were also made in Europe in November 2000, by Frederick Forsyth, the British master of thrillers, whose latest short novels were published online by Online Originals, and by Arturo Perez-Reverte, a best-selling Spanish author, whose latest novel was available online during one month before being available in print.

In Brazil, Paolo Coehlo began offering free PDF versions of his novels in early 2003.

In 2000, Stephen King was the first best-selling author to launch digital experiments, followed by Frederick Forsyth and Arturo Perez- Reverte in Europe and many other then, for example Paolo Coehlo in Brazil.

# Stephen King

As a first step, Stephen King distributed in March 2000 his short story "Riding the Bullet" as an electronic file, with 400,000 downloads during the first 24 hours in the digital bookstores that were selling it.

In the wake of the media attention that followed, Stephen King launched its own website in July 2000 to self-publish his epistolary novel "The Plant" in episodes. The chapters were available at regular intervals and could be downloaded in several formats (PDF, OeB, HTML, TXT). After the publication of the sixth chapter in December 2000, the author decided to stop the experiment, because more and more readers were downloading the chapters without paying for them.

Stephen King went on with digital experiments though, but in partners.h.i.+p with his publisher. In March 2001, his novel "Dreamcatcher"

was the first to be launched both in print by Simon & Schuster and as an ebook in Palm Digital Media, Palm's digital bookstore. In March 2002, his collection of short stories "Everything's Eventual" was launched in print by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and as an ebook in Palm Digital Media, with an excerpt that could be freely downloaded.

# Frederick Forsyth

In November 2000, Frederick Forsyth, known as the British master of thrillers, launched a digital experiment in partners.h.i.+p with Online Originals, an electronic publisher from London. Online Originals published "The Veteran" as the first part of "Quintet", a collection of five short stories announced in the following order: "The Veteran", "The Miracle", "The Citizen", "The Art of the Matter" and "Draco".

Available in three formats to be read on Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Reader and Gla.s.sbook Reader, the short story was sold for 3.99 pounds (6.60 euros) on the publisher's website, as in several online bookstores in the United Kingdom (Alphabetstreet, BOL.com, WHSmith) and in the United States (Barnes & n.o.ble, Contentville, Gla.s.sbook). This experiment didn't last very long, because sales were far below expectations.

# Arturo Perez-Reverte

Arturo Perez-Reverte, a Spanish novelist, became famous with his series of novels about the adventures of Capitan Alatriste in the 17th century. The new t.i.tle to be released in late 2000 was "El Oro del Rey"

(The King's Gold). In November 2000, the author partnered with his publisher Alf.a.guara to publish the novel in digital form for one month, as a PDF that could be downloaded from a webpage set up for the occasion on the portal Inicia, before the release of the print version in bookstores. The novel was available in PDF for 2.90 euros, a much cheaper price than the 15.10 euros of the forthcoming print book. One month later, there were 332,000 downloads, but only 12,000 readers who paid for it. Most readers shared the pa.s.sword with their family and friends, for them to download the book for free. If the digital experiment was not good financially, it was very good as a novel marketing campaign to launch the print book.

# Paulo Coelho

Online experiments were launched by a number of authors then, for example Paulo Coelho, a best-selling Brazilian novelist who came to be known worldwide as the author of "The Alchimist". In early 2003, his books were translated into 56 languages, with 53 million copies sold in 155 countries. In March 2003, Paulo Coelho decided to distribute PDF versions of several novels for free in various languages, with the consent of his publishers, after his readers wrote him they had a hard time finding his books in some places and countries. He renewed the same experiment with other t.i.tles in spring 2011.

2000 > COTRES.NET, WORKS OF DIGITAL LITERATURE

[Summary]