Technology and Books for All Part 3

[Overview]

The first electronic versions of print newspapers were available in the early 1990s through commercial services like America Online and CompuServe. In 1995, newspapers and magazines began creating their own websites to offer a partial or full version of their latest issue - available freely or through subscription (free or paid) - with online archives. In Europe, the Times and the Sunday Times set up a common website called Times Online, with a way to create a personalized edition. The weekly publication The Economist also went online in UK, as well as the weekly Focus and the weekly Der Spiegel in Germany, the daily Le Monde and daily Liberation in France, and the daily El Pais in Spain. The computer press went logically online as well, like the monthly Wired, created in 1992 in California to cover cyberculture as "the magazine of the future at the avant-garde of the 21st century", or ZDNet, another leading computer magazine. More and more "only"

electronic magazines were also created.

[In Depth (published in 1999)]

The first electronic versions of newspapers were available in the early 1990s through commercial services like America Online or CompuServe.

Then, in 1995, newspapers and magazines began to create websites to offer the full version of their latest issue - available freely or through subscription (free or paid) - which was then archived online.

There were also heated debates on copyright issues for articles posted on the web. More and more "only" electronic magazines were created.

In 1996, the New York Times site could be accessed free of charge. It included the contents of the daily newspaper, breaking news updates every ten minutes, and original reporting available only online. The Was.h.i.+ngton Post site provided the daily news online, with a full database of articles including images, sound and video.

In Europe, the Times and the Sunday Times set up a common website called Times Online, with the possibility to create a personalized edition. The respected Economist was also available online, as were the French daily newspapers Le Monde and Liberation, the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais or the German weekly magazines Focus or Der Spiegel.

The computer press went online as well. First the monthly Wired, created in 1992 in California to focus on cyberculture and be the magazine of the future at the avant-garde of the 21st century. Then ZDNet, a main publisher of computer magazines.

Behind the news, the web was providing a whole encyclopedia to help us understand them. The web was providing instant access to a wealth of information (geographical maps, biographical notes, official texts, political and economic data, audiovisual and video data); speed in information dissemination; access to main photographic archives; links to articles, archives and data on the same topic; and a search engine to browse articles by date, author, t.i.tle, subject, etc.

From the start, there were also all these zines using the internet as a cheap way to get published. John Labovitz launched The E-Zine-List in Summer 1993 to list electronic zines (e-zines) around the world, the ones that were accessible via the web, FTP, gopher, email, and other services. The list was updated monthly.

What exactly is a zine? John Labovitz explained on his website: "For those of you not acquainted with the zine world, 'zine' is short for either 'fanzine' or 'magazine', depending on your point of view. Zines are generally produced by one person or a small group of people, done often for fun or personal reasons, and tend to be irreverent, bizarre, and/or esoteric. Zines are not 'mainstream' publications - they generally do not contain advertis.e.m.e.nts (except, sometimes, advertis.e.m.e.nts for other zines), are not targeted towards a ma.s.s audience, and are generally not produced to make a profit. An 'e-zine'

is a zine that is distributed partially or solely on electronic networks like the internet."

3,045 zines were listed on November 29, 1998. John wrote on his website: "Now the e-zine world is different. The number of e-zines has increased a hundredfold, crawling out of the FTP and Gopher woodworks to declaring themselves worthy of their own domain name, even asking for financial support through advertising. Even the term 'e-zine' has been co-opted by the commercial world, and has come to mean nearly any type of publication distributed electronically. Yet there is still the original, independent fringe, who continue to publish from their heart, or push the boundaries of what we call a 'zine'." John stopped updating his list a few years later.

1996: INTERNET ARCHIVE

[Overview]

Founded in April 1996 by Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that built an "internet library" to offer permanent access to historical collections in digital format for researchers, historians and scholars. An archive of the web is stored every two months or so. In October 2001, with 30 billion web pages stored, the Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine, for users to be able to surf the archive of the web by date. In 2004, there were 300 terabytes of data, with a growth of 12 terabytes per month. In 2006, there were 65 billion pages from 50 million websites. In late 1999, the Internet Archive also started to include more collections of archived web pages on specific topics. It also became an online digital library of text, audio, software, image and video content. In October 2005, the Internet Archive launched the Open Content Alliance (OCA) with other contributors as a collective effort to build a permanent archive of multilingual digitized text (Text Archive) and multimedia content.

1996: NEW WAYS OF TEACHING

[Overview]

With more and more computers available in schools and at home, and more and more internet connections, teachers began exploring new ways of teaching. Going from print book culture to digital culture was changing their relations.h.i.+p to knowledge, and the way both scholars and students were seeing teaching and learning. Print book culture provided stable information whereas digital culture provided "moving" information.

During the September 1996 meeting of IFIP (International Federation of Information Processing), Dale Spender gave a lecture about Creativity and the Computer Education Industry, with insightful comments on forthcoming trends.

[In Depth (published in 1999)]

Going from print book culture to digital culture began changing our relations.h.i.+p to knowledge. Book culture provided stable information whereas digital culture provided "moving" information. During the September 1996 meeting of the IFIP (International Federation of Information Processing), Dale Spender gave an interesting lecture about Creativity and the Computer Education Industry.

Here are some excerpts:

"Throughout print culture, information has been contained in books - and this has helped to shape our notion of information. For the information in books stays the same - it endures.

And this has encouraged us to think of information as stable - as a body of knowledge which can be acquired, taught, pa.s.sed on, memorized, and tested of course.

The very nature of print itself has fostered a sense of truth; truth too is something which stays the same, which endures. And there is no doubt that this stability, this orderliness, has been a major contributor to the huge successes of the industrial age and the scientific revolution. (...)

But the digital revolution changes all this. Suddenly it is not the oldest information - the longest lasting information that is the most reliable and useful. It is the very latest information that we now put the most faith in - and which we will pay the most for. (...)

Education will be about partic.i.p.ating in the production of the latest information. This is why education will have to be ongoing throughout life and work. Every day there will be something new that we will all have to learn. To keep up. To be in the know. To do our jobs. To be members of the digital community. And far from teaching a body of knowledge that will last for life, the new generation of information professionals will be required to search out, add to, critique, 'play with', and daily update information, and to make available the constant changes that are occurring."

1996: PALM PILOT

[Overview]

In the 1990s, Jacques Gauchey was a journalist and writer living in Silicon Valley and specializing in IT (information technology). He was also working as a "facilitator" between the United States and Europe.

Jacques was among the first to buy a Palm Pilot in March 1996, and wrote about it in his free online newsletter. As a side remark, he remembered in July 1999: "In 1996 I published a few issues of a free English newsletter on the internet. It had about 10 readers per issue until the day (in January 1996) when the electronic version of Wired Magazine created a link to it. In one week I got about 100 emails, some from French readers of my book La vallee du risque - Silicon Valley [editor's note: The Valley of Risk - Silicon Valley, published by Plon, Paris, in 1990], who were happy to find me again." He added: "All my clients now are internet companies. All my working tools (my mobile phone, my PDA and my PC) are or will soon be linked to the internet."

Despite fierce compet.i.tion, Palm stayed the leader in the PDA market, with 23 million Palm Pilots sold between 1996 and 2002.

1997: DIGITAL PUBLIs.h.i.+NG

[Overview]

Digital publis.h.i.+ng became mainstream in 1997. This was a new step in the changes underwent by the traditional publis.h.i.+ng chain since the 1970s. The traditional printing business was first disrupted by new photocomposition machines, with lower costs. Text and image processing began to be handed over to desktop publis.h.i.+ng shops and graphic art studios. Impression costs went on decreasing with desktop publis.h.i.+ng, photocopiers, color photocopiers and digital printing equipment.

Digitization also accelerated the publication process. Editors, designers and other contributors could all work at the same time on the same book. For educational, academic and scientific publications, online publis.h.i.+ng became a cheaper solution than print books, with the possibility of regular updates to include the latest information.

[In Depth (published in 1999)]

Since the 1970s, the traditional publis.h.i.+ng chain has drastically changed. The printing work done by pre-press shops was first disrupted by new photocomposition machines. Text and image processing began to be handed over to advertising and graphic art agencies. Impression costs went on decreasing with desktop publis.h.i.+ng, copiers, color copiers and digital printing equipment.

In 1997, text and image processing was provided at a low price by desktop publis.h.i.+ng shops and graphic art studios. Digitization accelerated the publication process. Editors, designers and other contributors could all work at the same time on the same book.

Digitization also made possible the online publis.h.i.+ng of educational and scientific publications, which appeared as a far better solution than print books, because they could be regularly updated with the latest information. Some universities began distributing their own textbooks online, with chapters selected in an extensive database, and articles and commentaries from professors. For a seminar, a small print could be made upon request with a selection of online articles sent to a printer.

Electronic publis.h.i.+ng allowed some academic publishers to keep running their business, with lower costs and quick access. This way, small publishers went on publis.h.i.+ng specialized books, for which the printing in a small number of copies had become more and more difficult over the years due to budgetary reasons. These books could now be regularly updated and their readers benefit from the latest version. Readers didn't need to wait any more for a new printed edition, often postponed if not cancelled because of commercial constraints.

Electronic publis.h.i.+ng and traditional publis.h.i.+ng became complementary.

The frontier between the two supports - electronic and paper - was vanis.h.i.+ng. Most recent print media already stemmed from an electronic version anyway, on a word processor, a spreadsheet or a database. More and more doc.u.ments became only electronic. And more and more print books were scanned to be included in digital bookstores and libraries.

At the end of the 1990s, there were no reliable statistics yet proving that the large-scale use of computers and electronic doc.u.ments would make us paperless and save some tress, as hoped by all of us who believe in nature preservation. We were still in a transition period.