DIY Book Scanner

Whether you like it or not, it can't be denied that Google's Book Scan shook the publishing world. What most people have missed is that there's also far more to this subject than Google's efforts. Ignoring copyright issues for the moment, turning printed books into digital archives that can be read on-screen can be extremely useful. Rather than carry around a backpack's worth of reference books, you could store and read everything on a laptop - and even, theoretically, on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

In January 2009 Daniel Reetz, a graduate student, liked this idea so much that he built his own book scanner using a couple of low-cost compact digital cameras, lights and wood. The device can capture each page of a 400-page book in roughly 20 minutes. He has written instructions on how to make the device yourself (provided as a 3.9MB PDF and on the Instructables site) and set up a web site dedicated to the subject.

Now, back to the copyright question. Obviously, if you don't own the books you're scanning you're standing on the wrong side of the law. But if you do own the books, and you're scanning them in order to be able to read them in a more convenient form or perhaps to listen to them using OCR and text-to-speech software (a sometimes valuable accessibility requirement), what is the legality here?

Classic copyright law seems pretty clear: "No part of this publication may be reproduced [...] by any means" etc. is found in the front of almost every book. But hang on, it isn't necessarily quite as simple. These concepts have been challenged successfully in courts with regard to audio and video media; 'TV time-shifting', recording TV for viewing later, is now a completely accepted process, and 'format-shifting' of purchased music for personal use has been declared legal in a number of countries.

Interestingly, although an estimated 50% or more of UK adults have done format-shifting of some sort (usually music), it is still technically illegal in Britain. But this state of affairs is not likely to last. In 2006 the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) called for this kind of copying to be declared officially legal, not just 'allowed to happen'. In a BBC news story the IPPR deputy director said that "it is not the music industry's job to decide what rights consumers have, that is the job of government".

The music industry's efforts to have total control over content use and its inability to distinguish personal use from sharing hasn't helped its case. Sure, book publishing is a different industry, but it is worth considering the parallels in case some of the pitfalls turn out to be the same. Using a homebrew book scanner to capture pages from a purchased book for personal use appears to be currently illegal in the UK. So here are my questions:

• Should format-shifting be allowed for those who have bought a publication, or is this taking fair-use concepts too far?
• If allowed, would this lead to serious file-sharing problems?
• If yes, should this affect the decision on personal format-shifting?
  
• And, looking forward, can publishers add value to new format editions (i.e. ebooks) to make them attractive enough for repurchasing?

Le Web 2009

The annual Le Web conference in Paris is a major point in the calendars of groundbreaking online developers and entrepreneurs. This year's theme was the Real Time Web. Speakers and attendees discussed and debated the ideas that publishing-to-consumer delays of hours or even minutes are no use to a growing number of people. It is proposed that truly instant search access to content is the Next Big Thing.

This has major implications to do with the concept of 'author authority'. In a Real Time Web news scenario, accuracy becomes the key concern; the focus turns from the creator to the content itself. Although this doesn't answer the question of HOW to determine accuracy.

What does Real Time Web mean to you? Have you considered this before?

Thoughts from the SYP 2009 conference

From Lucy Austin, MA Publishing '09-'10...
"Having staggered through the howling gales and incessant rain to various tube stations and bus stops across London a group of MA Publishing students emerged from the escalators onto Paddington station where they would begin their journey to the SYP 2009 conference (unless of course they were the lucky few to travel in luxury with Keith). With ‘The Impact of Publishing on Society’ as the theme, the day brought with it the ideology of literature, particularly prevalent in Robert Sharp’s talk where he alluded to the power of the spoken word over any other medium in the arts (do check out www.englishpen.org/ to be thoroughly inspired) and a general sense of well being at the thought that our industry can fulfil various important social responsibilities. A particularly humbling experience for the student was to hear the concise and inspiring delivery from Helen Fraser, Managing Director of Penguin, who broke the tough business façade of corporate publishing to articulate a deeper routed sensitivity towards literature and society, convincing the lecture theatre of the positive social impact they seek to obtain. Additionally Chris Meade and David Attwooll successfully pulled digital publishing out of the confused and sometimes dull objectivism it currently inhabits into more of a creative light with some very inspiring thoughts on the future (do have a look at www.futureofthebook.org/). Overall a very interesting and successful day."

- Jump to the SYP 2009 conference site

Design, the visual language

'Design as visual language' was the topic of a set of seminars that I gave recently at the Society of Young Publishers 2009 conference, held at Oxford Brookes university. This subject is one that deserves serious consideration wherever you're aiming in the publishing industry. Non-designers tend to think of their productions in terms of the words and literal meanings they contain, but the visual presentation of the content, in terms of the arrangement of elements in the page (or screen, we're in a cross-media world) and the handling of type provides a parallel channel of communication... a visual language that works in parallel with the textual, literal one.

By learning something of how grids and page layouts work and developing a greater understanding of how type choice can strengthen or undermine the actual message -before anyone even reads a word, too - you can improve your usefulness in the publishing industry AND enjoy it that much more.

Specialist vs Expert, a 21st century perspective

In publishing it is important to understand at least the fundamentals of the various disciplines of those around you. You don't have to be a 'jack of all trades', and this isn't about pretending to be something you're not. This is all about being more effective and more flexible, having the ability to appreciate issues and possibilities outside your core area of expertise.
This doesn't mean the end of the specialist - although that's arguably not the ideal title. 'Expert' has less of an exclusive, blinkered implication: specialists do one thing well, end of story. Experts do (at least) one thing well but not exclusively.
Become experts, not specialists, in an area of publishing. One is 20th century (even 19th C) thinking, the other is resolutely 21st century.

We're all content managers now...

More and more, this business we know as Publishing is revolving around the issues of content management. Where once someone would prepare words and images for a particular publication and perhaps keep original manuscripts and transparencies in a filing cabinet, now we're looking at (or already doing) the process of storing data digitally in tagged format in databases, ready to be squirted out into a dozen different formats; we're multiplatforming with a vengeance. Or at least that's what the pundits like to say.

Is this really what's happening? Are we destined to become an industry of datakeepers? Well... yes and no. The DTP revolution in the 1980s didn't mean that we all became traditional typesetters even while we did end up doing our own typesetting, and the broader publishing revolution that's going on around us won't turn us all into database geeks or put us at the mercy of tech-savvy but publishing-ignorant experts. Oh, that does happen, especially to the unwary; we're in a rolling period of transition after all. But these things tend to shake down into forms that we all can use. Think of it like this: the layout tools that are practically given away to consumers now (Apple's Pages for one excellent example) are many times better than the best DTP apps from 20 years ago.

How will this affect content management? Well, we're already being offered free content management tools in the form of blogs, RSS feeds, online diaries, Flikr and similar image services, webmail, social and business networking services, wikis, online office suites... the main differences between these and the £100K bespoke CMS solutions that publishing groups are encouraged to plump for are the level of tailoring and the scale. This will change.

We are all content managers, even those that don't think they are. The tools are getting better, easier and cheaper. Their scope is growing, and their traditional complexities are fading into the background.

The digital future is now in the high street

There's been a lot of fuss made about the recent ebook reader launches this past year. Amazon's Kindle made the biggest waves a few months ago - despite being uglier than the back end of a bus and only shipping in the US, and Sony's new eReader device also made headlines.

Something that's a more important milestone than any individual product, though, is the fact that WHSmith has started listing ebook readers in its online store. It doesn't offer either Amazon's or Sony's product - instead, it shows (as of early October) the Cybook Gen3 eBook Reader and the iRex iLiad eBook Reader Book Edition. Like a number of others the iRex is still an eye-wateringly expensive device; 1 penny short of £400, but the CyBook Gen3 is £220 cheaper and uses the same 'e-ink' screen technology. Still expensive, but much more reasonable.

These devices don't spell the death of books, but they do signal one way that publishing is evolving. And now that they are sold by a well-known high street name and are edging towards being actually affordable - we're approaching the point where forward-thinking publishers should start evaluating this potential new market.

For those that do, a few words of advice...
First, pass on at least some of the savings involved with going all-digital; don't offer a cursory 10% off the RRP of the printed equivalent.
Second, don't fall into the 'proprietary format' trap; use open standards.
And third, consider the differences, don't just replicate current thinking. The car was not a horseless carriage, and the ebook reader is not a book.

Which begs the question: What new approaches to content and publishing does the ebook allow?