Al di là del minimo comune denominatore rappresentato ovviamente dall’ebook, mi sembra che, all’interno di un panorama alquanto variegato, ciò che abbbia davvero accomunato esperienze e testimonianze very far apart were the passion and enthusiasm demonstrated by all participants. In the mists of ebooks you advance a little 'trial and error, testing the ground, but you do it together, with a great desire to explore and experiment . That desire to explore and experiment with that approach is still lacking a lot of "big" publishing, often entrenched in a vigorous defense of the status quo, the status quo that has enabled it to monopolize the market and libraries. But, to quote the words of the Duke (the original author of an intervention, spontaneous, and especially appropriate: those who have not had the fortune to follow him, here and here two unofficial video), a Libroshima the shelves of libraries disappear, the laws of physics (if in a shelf there are 100 books, as you do not push it will never 200) no longer apply and the authors' self-publish. How to compete with this shapeless mass of pretentious hacks from 4 money? With quality.
Well, if I had to find a point on which everyone, absolutely everyone (well, maybe not ALL) have agreed, is the need to offer quality.
In a market where, deprived of physical media, the perceived value of content has fallen dramatically, it makes no sense to pump artificially high prices and curb the spread of content through medieval belts of chastity. Publishers must understand that to establish the price of ebooks, the benchmark is not what the paper. The term of comparison is the free distribution. The comparator is zero. If the gain from the single "copy" decreases, how to fix it? With quality. Quality content, but also the service and services incidental to the sale of the product. To quote Maria Cecilia
Averame, aka Miss Quintadicopertina , "the publisher must be flawless digital, identifiable, highly characterized, different." Its name and its brand to inspire confidence in the reader, must be synonymous with quality: Only then can prevail in a market where one can hack any self-publish on Amazon, to sell their mediocre romance and win a € 2,000 per month.
But I digress, let's go with order. What was said? Ah yes, Ebook Lab
Italy :-) The day was inaugurated by Paola Dubini, professor of economics at Bocconi University in Milan, which focused on business models for digital newspapers and periodicals. In essence, there has been talk of platforms, related services, means of access to content and the need for the publisher not to replicate the digital chain of paper manufacture. Nothing particularly new, it must be said that in 20 minutes is not that much you could deepen a theme so vast and disorganized.
more exciting and full of ideas the intervention of Samford Forte, director of Flat World Knowledge , innovative digital publishing project applied to the school whose purpose is to provide quality educational materials for students selected by teachers proven experience, from which you can draw on to shape a series of "dispensations" digital custom. Oversimplified: I, teaching, preparing materials and load them on the portal. You, a student, access to the portal, looking for what you need, design your own pantry, aggiungi annotazioni, commenti, scarichi il tutto in epub o, tramite il print on demand, ti fai stampare la tua copia personalizzata. Parola d’ordine: Openess. Le 4 R dell’Openess: Reuse, Redistribute, Revise, Remix. Oltre all’estrema praticità del tutto, i benefici in termini economici sarebbero enormi: lo studente potrebbe infatti disporre di materiali costantemente aggiornati, non trovandosi quindi costretto ad acquistare costose nuove edizioni anno dopo anno. Nonostante le richieste di chiarimento da parte del pubblico, non mi è ancora ben chiara la sostenibilità economica di tutta la faccenda: si è parlato di generici contributi statali (beati gli yankee) e di sponsor ma, dettagli a parte, Flat World Knowledge è un progetto che merita massimo supporto e attenzione.
Dopo il coffee break è giunto finalmente il momento del Duca: inutile dire che, al di là di qualche comprensibile esitazione del relatore dovuta all’emozione del momento, addentrarsi nei territori postapocalittici di Libroshima è stata una delizia per tutti gli affezionati lettori di Baionette Librarie, ma non solo. Oltre a un paio di repentine e dolorose stilettate nei confronti di Fazi e Mondadori, dei quali è stato aspramente contestato l’atteggiamento sprezzante nei confronti del lettore (anzi, del consumatore), l’analisi comparata del mercato dell’ebook in America e in Italia è stata come sempre puntuale e documentata. Niente aria fritta insomma: il Duca ha decisamente colpito nel segno. Se desiderate approfondire gli argomenti trattati nel suo intervento, potete farlo qui .
Il resto della mattinata è stato dedicato alla “forma” dell’eBook, al layout insomma. Ma non pensiate che ci si sia limitati a parlare di margini, interlinea e “polliciaggio” :-). Oh no. Abbiamo avuto l’onore di assistere alla lezione, anzi, alla Lectio Magistralis, di Enrico Tallone, poeta del font, cantore dell’arte tipografica. La sua retrospettiva su storia ed evoluzione del carattere tipografico, durante la quale sono state coniate alcune immortali perle di saggezza che nessuno di noi dimenticherà so easily, ended with applause throughout the audience. Thanks Enrico. And thanks to Matteo Balocco, Davide Casali and Vladimir Carrer: your contributions were very valuable.
A special mention for the workshop held at the lunch break by Maria Cecilia Averame, the aforementioned Quintadicopertina mind behind the project. As I mentioned on Twitter (by the way: the idea of \u200b\u200bTwitter Wall on the opposite wall of the stage was brilliant) would have deserved a larger space in the main hall. E 'was still a pleasure to watch his speech, at least to realize the seriousness and passion behind the project.
Immediately after the binge, the conference held by Bill McCoy, executive director of IDPF , showed a full house: the demonstration of the potential for ePub3 has attracted the attention of everyone, and for good reason. The evolution of the open standard for ebooks brings great new features and improvements, management support for dynamic layout of the audio (even synchronized to the text) and video, from the management of advanced font support for HTML 5, and more. To cite my own tweet: ePub3 promises major advances across the board. Publishers will be able to exploit its potential?
After a rather technical assistance dedicated to digital repositories and databases on which they are expressed Simonetta Pillon Information Editorials and Federico Meschini of De Montfort University, it was the turn to go on stage for Michael Dahan, CEO of Bookeen, Antonio Bosio Samsung and ASUS Alessandro sauce. It could have been a valuable opportunity to take a look at plans and prospects of three major market players, though, beyond a few small gem , had not been limited to blurt out sales figures, market share captured and specifications techniques of their gems. All stuff easily available online. I think the audience has not appreciated much too bad really for the wasted opportunity.
The day finally ended with the questions posed by Antonio Dini, journalist Sole24Ore, Bruno Seas Joints and John Biondi, Head of Department of MIUR , linked by video conference via Skype. We have talked about prospects for digital scholarly publishing, but here I began to tire, and the memories are pretty hazy. I apologize for incomplete coverage.
In short, in conclusion, by Ebook Lab Italy I was expecting much, I had a lot more than I hoped. Thanks again to everyone: to the organizers for the seriousness and professionalism demonstrated, to the rapporteurs for the competence and availability to the public for active and enthusiastic participation in the rich buffet for libations, friends and acquaintances found in van the hotel for having illegally brought into the station, a Twitter for allowing us to spread the Word. See you next year.
