On 29 april 2013, I had the chance to be invited at the library of Riches Claires in Brussels to attend a session by Françoise Leresche about FRBR and RDA.
FRBR and RDA will allow libraries to improve the visibility of their catalogs on the Internet by publishing chunks of structured information using the most recent semantic web technologies like RDF.
Here are some links about the subject :
This question was posted on the Tools of Change for Publishing group on LinkedIn. Here is my answer:
The real trend is not apps. The real trend is the willingness to offer “interactive ebooks”. Or rather an interactive reading experience that contains multimedia, quizz, calculation, enhanced navigation, text to speech synchronization, games…
To offer that experience you have many options, for example :
- make a website (better if you have huge contents, you can stream the content on demand)
- make an ebook in PDF, ePub, Kindle. Even if the IDPF does his maximum, there are many challenges to achieve compatibility. On the other hand, you have the advantage of not locking your users in.
- make an app and deliver your content via an application store. The advantages are that the programming environment is very rich and “under control”, you can have quiet large applications (popular games can be 1GB), many users have the compatible devices (smartphones, tablets). The disadvantages is that you lock your customers into the app and that the application store will ask you 30% of the final price, making it harder to make money.
In february 2013, we are starting a study on the future system architecture for digital libraries in Belgium/Flanders, orchestrated by Bibnet.
You can find the description of the sudy on their website : Een systeemarchitectuur voor de Digitale Bibliotheek.
We will mostly cover the development and the management of the libraries’ applications landscape and analyse how to balance the centralization and decentralization of the libraries underlying ICT systems.
But we will also spend some time thinking about some Business elements of the entreprise Architecture : which business processes will be impacted, which new business processes will emerge, which new roles will emerge, which new business collaborations…
Among the new business processes : the lending of eBooks or other digital material, the use of social networks to fullfil the library’s missions, the integration of the library systems with the other e-Gov systems (Culture, Regions, Provinces, Cities)…
I intend to use business and ICT capability maps to structure the the complexity of the libraries’ business.
But I will not work alone ! For this mission I can count on the collaboration of Rosemie Callewart (http://www.istoire.be/) and Ingensol (http://ingensol.com/)
If you know any good source for a library business map (organization, services, capabilities), let me know ! I can use it ! Otherwise we could publish such a library capability map end of 2013 after our study is finished (and if our customer agrees).
Project code : DIGB-SA
I have been involved in 2 eBook projects last year (2012). It allowed me to observe the evolution of some publishers, libraries and bookstores towards eBooks. Here are some trends I have identified.
2012: The eBook technology has been understood
Making an eBook, lending an eBook, streaming, ePub, eReaders, iPad, Amazon… In general, people start to feel ok with it.
2012 : Traditional actors still prefer to stay away from the eBook technology
However if the concept of an eBook is now clear (at least for “Textual” and “APPS” ebooks), the actors tend to prefer to stay away from its technology. It is not a bad idea, but it doesn’t help staying in the eBook game.
There are a lot of discussions within associations to join forces to build or rejoin eBook platforms as a group. There is a feeling that eBook technology will quickly become commodity while remaining complex. Most of the actors want to stay away of the eBook technology by outsourcing it to IT actors. But there are problems with this approach 1) How to differentiate ? 2) How to maintain the customer relationship ? 3) How to keep margins ?
2013: Looking for a business model , contents and… contracts
Now that one understands what is an eBook and how to sell or lend it, now come questions that should have been answered in the first place : What is the business model ? What do I sell ? How can I get a contract to lend or sell eBooks ? How will I convince a publisher to give me the right to sell or lend his eBooks ? What does the law say about doing business with eBooks ?
On the publisher side, the questions are different : who can I trust ? where can I send my eBooks and be sure they won’t be pirated ?
Due to the cost of an eBook platform (owned or outsourced) and the size of the Belgian eBook market, building a solid business model remains complex. The eBook “chicken and egg” (“demand needs offer and offer needs demand”) circle still needs to be broken in Belgium.
2013: Meet the customer
Let’s assume one manages to get a platform up and running and have all the re-selling and lending contracts signed with publishers (representing authors). The next question will be “where are the readers ?” and “what do they want to read ?”. We will finally come to the question : what is an eBook, after all ?
2013: What is an eBook ?
People read less and less. Or do they read differently ? What would be the ideal size and price of an eBook ? Why do people read ? When do people prefer digital over Paper ? eBooks will have to find their niches.
So the top eBook activities for 2013 should be :
None of those activities are technical. This is why I recommended to the Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (FWB), at the end of my technical eBook study to first spend money on a “Mediator”/”Negotiator” for the Public Libraries and labeled Bookstores. One needs first to identify who is open to do eBook business before assembling or finalizing the eBook platform.
Link with Entreprise Architecture
This blog is about Entreprise Architecture (EA), so what is the link with EA ? As an IT Architect you can do your best in the Applications and Technology layers, but without a clear Business Layer (Business Service, Business Processes, Business Roles), it is difficult to build something that will resist change. The only option I have is to make eBook platforms based on a modular Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). You can’t optimize an IT platform if you don’t know what the Business will do with it. We will soon assemble our eBook platforms and we will by than need to have answered the following question : what is our eBook business after all ?
“The lesson from co-opetition is that when barriers come down and markets open up, your best strategy might be to work with competitors in ways that make your customers’ lives easier.”
Publishing News: Tech industry history could inform bookstores’ road to recovery – Tools of Change for Publishing
http://toc.oreilly.com/2012/12/bookstores-future-amazon-subscriptions-ereader-privacy.html
During the “day of the book sector” (“Dag van de boekenvak”), the 3 innovative modules of the VEP (Vlaams eBoek Platfrom) will be explained at the Boekenbeurs 2012.
“Presentatie drie projecten Innovatief Aanbesteden
In het kader van het Innovatief Aanbesteden heeft IWT 3 projecten geselecteerd en gesubsidieerd die interessant zijn voor de boekensector. In deze workshop presenteren we deze drie projecten”
Cfr http://www.boekenvak.be/nieuws/twee-extra-items-op-dag-van-het-boekenvak
Those modules have been briefly presented earlier this year by Johan Delauré at the eReading Event in Gent. You can find the slides here :
http://ereadingevent.be/files/De-Laure-Bibnet-VEP_EreadingEvent_20120926.pdf
In this project, my role is to design the integration of the 3 IA modules with the common e-book repository.
Ce 20 septembre 2012, à l’ Université de Lille 3, je donne une explication de 30 minutes sur la négociation avec les éditeurs de périodiques électroniques .
Voici quelques liens relatifs à cette présentation :
http://delicious.com/appepaper/20120920
Contactez-moi si vous désirez une copie de ma présentation.
Ce soir c’était un sujet du journal de TF1:
“Quand l’actualité littéraire manque de sujets, les chroniqueurs installés prennent parfois leur plus belle plume pour dénoncer une conséquence de l’édition à la française : chaque année une centaine de millions de livres sont pilonnés.
Pilonner : terme traditionnel pour signifier la destruction d’un livre invendu.
Naturellement, ces chroniqueurs dressent un tableau apocalyptique mais évitent de dénoncer les causes. Ils ne peuvent pas ! Ils vivent de ce système.
En moyenne, 500 millions de livres imprimés chaque année en France dont 400 millions vendus et 100 millions détruits.”Source (et suite) : http://www.festivaldulivre.info/
Les libraires manquent de place et croulent sous le papier à chaque rentrée. 1 livre sur 5 retourne chez l’éditeur et est détruit.
Combien de projets numériques pourrions nous financer avec cet argent gaspillé ? Et quelle quantité de connaissance et de culture pourrait-être créée et diffusée à un prix attractif ?
Si chaque livre coûte 5 euros en moyenne, voila 500 millions d’euros avec lesquels, c’est CERTAIN, on battrait Apple, Google et Amazon sur le numérique !!!
Sur mes projets (‘Flandres et Wallonie-Bruxelles), on doit se battre pour avoir 500.000 euros… MO3T en France dégage péniblement 7 millions alors que 500 millions sont jetés à la poubelle… Il y a moyen de faire mieux.
I’m currently working on the “eBook Value Chains” in Libraries and Bookstores. By googling on the subject I found a paper by PWC : “Turning the Page: The Future of eBooks“.
I was happy that they advise what I also advise : work on an eBook CMS. That’s exactly what we do for the Vlaams eBoek Platform…
In 2010 and 2011, I was involved in the Business Development of eLinea in Belgium. The concept has since been re-invented.
Before, you would subscribe to a news feed and pay per feed. Now eLinea evolves towards a “spotify” model. For a fix sum per month you can read all the feeds that you want.
More info:
