UNESCO Workshop on Future of e-Books
04-10-2004 (New Delhi)
A UNESCO workshop picturing the potential of e-Books was recently hosted in Bangalore, India. Participants from Asia and Europe identified the issues and complexities involved in e-book projects delineating the role of e-Books in education, research and libraries from the perspective of the publishers, distributors and users.
E-book publishing is a dynamic, fast paced and still evolving field. It is estimated to be a big industry too- worth an estimated $ 400 billion and a 250 million e-book reading public by 2005. The stakeholders in the e-Books community-authors, publishers, distributors, and consumers, are faced with twin challenges: technological obsolescence - short lived technologies - both hardware and software; and the diversity in relevant formats and standards - often incompatible and non-interoperable.
“The e-Book industry and market place is a nebulous one with each of the players continuing to test waters and gingerly transiting into the arena. While most of the stakeholders believe in the potential of the e-Books, none is ready to take the plunge – not yet! The e-Book revolution though foretold in the year 2000 is yet to happen” says Shalini Urs, who leads a UNESCO e-Book Project Strategy Group at Mysore University.
The invitation only workshop on 16 September was an important milestone in the UNESCO e-book project, with more than seventy participants representing the diverse stakeholders’ community. The format of the Workshop was designed to be interactive with each session having speakers and a moderator to lead the discussions with a set of issues/questions. The Programme was structured into four sessions - the inaugural session was intended to set the tone and context of the landscape of e-Books with speakers providing overviews from different angles. The other three sessions were intended to provide a forum for the concerns of different stakeholders groups. The three sessions surveyed the e-Books from three perspectives - the user and technology perspective; the author and publisher perspective; and the aggregator and library perspective. During the afternoon tea break, product demonstrations by two leading e-Book publishers - John Wiley and Springer gave a sampling of the e-Book industry offerings.
The Inaugural session began with the Workshop Coordinator Shalini Urs, Mysore University, India setting the context of the Workshop by providing a snap shot of the scenario- the definitions, milestones in the history of e-Books, the uncertainties engendered by the merger and closure of some of the key players. In his Inaugural address S. Ramakrishan, Executive Director, C-DAC Pune highlighted the vexing issues of diversity of e-Book formats and the reader devices drawing from his vast experiences in the field. In addition to raising the issues of successful business models for any innovative technologies. Lucy Tedd of University of Wales in her keynote address outlined the major developments in the arena of e-Books, with special references to the UK experiences. She highlighted the efforts of the JISC E-Books Working Group in establishing leadership and evolving strategies for promotion. UNESCO’s Susanne Ornager wrapped up the session by setting the context of e-Books within the mandate and mission of UNESCO. She also set the agenda for the discussions and interactions for the remaining sessions of the Workshop by drawing attention to the critical issues of definitions, standards for software hardware formats, pricing models and other relevant aspects of e-Books.
The second session focusing on the user and technology perspective covered the different facets and phases of publishing cycle of e-Books and the technologies from the perspectives of the different stakeholders. The session generated heated debate on the pros and cons of technology and also proprietary vs. open source software.
The session on author and publisher perspective looked at e-Books from the perspective of an author. The copyrights and the technology support for the same was emphasized as one of the authors’ concerns. The publishers perspective were brought out by outlining the steps and phases in the publishing phenomenon and the role that publishers play with the help of case studies.
The final session on e-Books from the aggregators and library perspective outlined the array of issues and enumerated the librarians’ wish list for the aggregators of e-Books. The differences in the business and access models of different e-Book aggregators such as netLibrary, Ebrary, Questia, books @Ovid and Safari Techbooks online were brought out in this session.
The Workshop objective of gaining insights from different perspective was achieved and the interactions helped in drawing meaningful conclusions and providing the necessary inputs for the drafting of framework for the guidelines document.
“The e-Book industry and market place is a nebulous one with each of the players continuing to test waters and gingerly transiting into the arena. While most of the stakeholders believe in the potential of the e-Books, none is ready to take the plunge – not yet! The e-Book revolution though foretold in the year 2000 is yet to happen” says Shalini Urs, who leads a UNESCO e-Book Project Strategy Group at Mysore University.
The invitation only workshop on 16 September was an important milestone in the UNESCO e-book project, with more than seventy participants representing the diverse stakeholders’ community. The format of the Workshop was designed to be interactive with each session having speakers and a moderator to lead the discussions with a set of issues/questions. The Programme was structured into four sessions - the inaugural session was intended to set the tone and context of the landscape of e-Books with speakers providing overviews from different angles. The other three sessions were intended to provide a forum for the concerns of different stakeholders groups. The three sessions surveyed the e-Books from three perspectives - the user and technology perspective; the author and publisher perspective; and the aggregator and library perspective. During the afternoon tea break, product demonstrations by two leading e-Book publishers - John Wiley and Springer gave a sampling of the e-Book industry offerings.
The Inaugural session began with the Workshop Coordinator Shalini Urs, Mysore University, India setting the context of the Workshop by providing a snap shot of the scenario- the definitions, milestones in the history of e-Books, the uncertainties engendered by the merger and closure of some of the key players. In his Inaugural address S. Ramakrishan, Executive Director, C-DAC Pune highlighted the vexing issues of diversity of e-Book formats and the reader devices drawing from his vast experiences in the field. In addition to raising the issues of successful business models for any innovative technologies. Lucy Tedd of University of Wales in her keynote address outlined the major developments in the arena of e-Books, with special references to the UK experiences. She highlighted the efforts of the JISC E-Books Working Group in establishing leadership and evolving strategies for promotion. UNESCO’s Susanne Ornager wrapped up the session by setting the context of e-Books within the mandate and mission of UNESCO. She also set the agenda for the discussions and interactions for the remaining sessions of the Workshop by drawing attention to the critical issues of definitions, standards for software hardware formats, pricing models and other relevant aspects of e-Books.
The second session focusing on the user and technology perspective covered the different facets and phases of publishing cycle of e-Books and the technologies from the perspectives of the different stakeholders. The session generated heated debate on the pros and cons of technology and also proprietary vs. open source software.
The session on author and publisher perspective looked at e-Books from the perspective of an author. The copyrights and the technology support for the same was emphasized as one of the authors’ concerns. The publishers perspective were brought out by outlining the steps and phases in the publishing phenomenon and the role that publishers play with the help of case studies.
The final session on e-Books from the aggregators and library perspective outlined the array of issues and enumerated the librarians’ wish list for the aggregators of e-Books. The differences in the business and access models of different e-Book aggregators such as netLibrary, Ebrary, Questia, books @Ovid and Safari Techbooks online were brought out in this session.
The Workshop objective of gaining insights from different perspective was achieved and the interactions helped in drawing meaningful conclusions and providing the necessary inputs for the drafting of framework for the guidelines document.
Related themes/countries
· India: News Archive 2004
· Information Processing Tools: News Archives 2004
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- UNESCO New Delhi
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