Booknology: The eBook (1971-2010) Part 3

The online version (for a subscription fee) of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was launched in March 2000 by the Oxford University Press (OUP). Since then, the website has offered a quarterly update of the online dictionary, with around 1,000 new or revised entries each time. In March 2002, two years after this first experience, the Oxford University Press launched Oxford Reference Online (ORO), a comprehensive encyclopedia designed directly for the web, and also available for a subscription fee. Its 60,000 webpages and one million entries could represent the equivalent of 100 print encyclopedias.

March 2000 > Mobipocket, a company specializing in ebooks for PDAs

Mobipocket was founded in March 2000 in Paris, France, by Thierry Brethes and Nathalie Ting, as a company specializing in ebooks for PDAs, with some funding from Vivendi. The Mobipocket format (PRC, based on the OeB format) and the Mobipocket Reader were "universal" and could be used on any PDA, and then on any computer from April 2002. They quickly became global standards for ebooks on mobile devices. In spring 2003, the Mobipocket Reader was available in several languages (French, English, German, Spanish, Italian) and could also be used on the smartphones of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. 6,000 t.i.tles in several languages were available on Mobipocket's website and in partner online bookstores. Bought by Amazon in April 2005, Mobipocket presently operates within the Amazon brand, with a multilingual catalog of 70,000 books in 2008.

April 2000 > The Pocket PC, a PDA launched by Microsoft with the Microsoft Reader

Microsoft launched its own PDA, the Pocket PC, in April 2000, as well as the Microsoft Reader (free), for people to read books in LIT (from "literature") format on the Pocket PC. In August 2000, the Microsoft Reader was also available for computers, and then for any Windows platform, including for the Tablets PC launched in November 2002.

Microsoft was billing publishers and distributors for the use of its DRM technology through the Microsoft DAS Server, with a commission on each sale. Microsoft also partnered with major online bookstores - Barnes & n.o.ble.com in January 2000 and Amazon.com in August 2000 - for them to offer ebooks for the Microsoft Reader in their eBookstores soon to be launched. Barnes & n.o.ble.com opened its eBookstore in August 2000, followed by Amazon in November 2000.

June 2000 > A quote by Jean-Paul, an hypermedia writer

Jean-Paul switched from being a print author to being an hypermedia writer, and began searching how hyperlinks could expand his writing towards new directions. He wrote in June 2000: "Surfing the web is like radiating in all directions (I am interested in something and I click on all the links on a home page) or like jumping around (from one click to another, as the links appear). You can do this in the written media, of course. But the difference is striking. So the internet changed how I write. You don't write the same way for a website as you do for a script or a play. (...) Since then I write directly on the screen: I use the print medium only occasionally (...): the text is developing page after page (most of the time), whereas the technique of links allows another relations.h.i.+p to the time and s.p.a.ce of imagination. And, for me, it is above all the opportunity to put into practice this reading/writing 'cycle', whereas leafing through a book gives only an idea - which is vague because the book is not conceived for that." (NEF Interview)

July 2000 > 50% non-English-speaking internet users

Non-English-speaking internet users reached 50% in summer 2000. (Users living outside the U.S. reached 50% one year earlier, in summer 1999.) According to Global Reach, a consultancy promoting the localization of websites, non-English-speaking users reached 52.5% in summer 2001, 57% in December 2001, 59.8% in April 2002, 64.4% in September 2003 (including 34.9% non-English-speaking Europeans and 29.4% Asians), and 64.2% in March 2004 (including 37.9% non-English-speaking Europeans and 33% Asians). This was a turning point for a multilingual internet, although much still needed to be done to offer more websites in languages other than English, as well as more bilingual and plurilingual websites.

July 2000 > Stephen King, a best-selling author and a digital pioneer

In July 2000 began the electronic (self-)publis.h.i.+ng of The Plant, an epistolary novel by Stephen King, who was the first author of best- sellers to make such a bet. Stephen King started his digital experiment a little earlier, with the distribution in March 2000 of his short story Riding the Bullet, which was downloaded 400,000 times during the first 24 hours. All this was followed with a lot of interest by the media. Then Stephen King created a website to self-publish his novel The Plant in episodes. The chapters were published at regular intervals and could be downloaded in several formats (PDF, OeB, HTML, TXT). After the publication of the sixth chapter in December 2000, the author decided to step down and stop this experiment, because more and more readers were downloading the chapters without paying for them. Stephen King went on with digital experiments though, but this time in partners.h.i.+p with his publisher.

August 2000 > Barnes & n.o.ble.com opened its eBookStore

Barnes & n.o.ble.com started its eBookStore in August 2000, following a partners.h.i.+p with Microsoft in January 2000 to sell digital books for the Microsoft Reader. Barnes & n.o.ble.com also partnered with Adobe in August 2000 to sell books for the Acrobat Reader and the Gla.s.sbook Reader - Adobe had just bought Gla.s.sbook, its reader and its digital bookstore.

September 2000 > GDT, the largest bilingual online French-English dictionary

The OQLF (Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise - Quebecois Office of the French Language) launched in September 2000 the GDT (Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique -- Main Terminological Dictionary), a free online bilingual French-English dictionary with 3 million terms related to industry, science and commerce. This online version was a technological challenge, and the result of a partners.h.i.+p between the OQLF, author of the dictionary, and Semantix, a company specializing in linguistic software. During the first month, the GDT counted 1.3 million individual visits, with peaks of 60,000 daily visits. The database was then maintained by Convera Canada, with 3.5 million hits per month in February 2003. A revamped version of the GDT went online in March 2003. The database is presently maintained by the OQLF itself, with the addition of Latin as a third language.

September 2000 > Numilog, a French-language digital bookstore

Numilog was founded in March 2000 by Denis Zwirn in Paris, France, as a company specializing in the distribution of digital books. In September 2000, Numilog launched an online bookstore that became the main French- language aggregator of digital books. In December 2006, the catalog included 35,000 books and audiobooks from 60 publishers, including Gallimard, POL, Le Dilettante, Le Rocher, La Decouverte, De Vive Voix, Eyrolles or Pearson Education France. Numilog is now (since May 2008) a subsidiary of Hachette Livre, a leading publis.h.i.+ng group. In January 2009, the catalog was offering 100,000 ebooks from 100 publishers, with tailored services for bookstores and libraries.

October 2000 > Distributed Proofreaders, to share the correction of digitized books

Distributed Proofreaders (DP) was founded in 2000 by Charles Franks to support the digitization of public domain books and a.s.sist Project Gutenberg in its efforts to offer free electronic versions of literary works. Distributed Proofreaders presently became the main source of Project Gutenberg's ebooks, and an official Project Gutenberg site in 2002. In May 2006, Distributed Proofreaders became a separate legal ent.i.ty and continues to maintain a strong relations.h.i.+p with Project Gutenberg. 10,000 books were digitized, proofread, and "preserved for the world" in December 2006, and 18,000 books in June 2010. Distributed Proofreaders Europe (DP Europe) began production in early 2004.

Distributed Proofreaders Canada (DP Canada) bagan production in December 2007.

October 2000 > The Public Library of Science, or science for all

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) was founded in October 2000 in California as a non-profit organization whose mission was to give access to the world's scientific and medical literature, with a search engine and hyperlinks between articles. PLoS posted an open letter requesting the articles traditionally published in expensive journals to be distributed freely in online archives, and asking researchers to promote the publishers willing to support this project. From October 2000 to September 2002, the open letter was signed by 30,000 scientists from 180 countries. The publishers' answer was much less enthusiastic, although a number of publishers agreed for their articles to be freely distributed immediately after publication (or six months after publication for some of them). But even the publishers who initially agreed to support the project of PloS made so many objections that it was finally abandoned. PloS became a publisher of free high-quality online scientific and medical journals in January 2003.

October 2000 > The eBookMan, a multimedia personal a.s.sistant by Franklin

In October 2000, Franklin launched the eBookMan, a multimedia personal a.s.sistant that - among other features (calendar, voice recorder, etc.) - allowed people to read books on the Franklin Reader. Three models (EBM-900, EBM-901 and EBM-911) were available in early 2001, for US$130, $180 or $230 depending on the RAM size (8 or 16 MB) and a backlit or not LCD screen. Much larger than the screen of its compet.i.tors, the screen was only in black and white, unlike the Pocket PC or some PDAs from Palm. The eBookMan could also be used to listen to audiobooks and music files in MP3 format. In October 2001, people could read books on the Mobipocket Reader, and the Franklin Reader was also available for the Pocket PC and PDAs from Psion, Palm, and Nokia.

November 2000 > The Gemstar eBook, an ebook reader in two versions

The Gemstar eBook was launched in October 2000 by Gemstar-TV Guide International, a company providing digital products and services for the media. Gemstar first bought Nuvomedia (author of the Rocket eBook, the first ebook reading device) and SoftBook Press (author of the SoftBook Reader, the second ebook reading device) in January 2000, before buying the French 00h00.com, a producer of digital books, in September 2000. Two Gemstar eBooks were available for sale in the U.S.

in November 2000, with a later attempt in Germany to test the European market. The REB 1100 (successor of the Rocket eBook) had a black and white screen. The REB 1200 (successor of the SoftBook Reader) had a color screen. Both were produced by RCA (Thomson Multimedia). Later on, cheaper models were launched as GEB 1150 and 2150, produced by Gemstar instead of RCA. But the sales were still far below expectations. The company stopped selling ebook reading devices in June 2003, and ebooks the following month.

November 2000 > The original Bible of Gutenberg digitized, and available online

The digitized version of the original Bible of Gutenberg was available online in November 2000, on the website of the British Library.

Gutenberg printed its Bible in 1454 or 1455 in Germany, perhaps printing 180 copies, with 48 copies still available in 2000, and three copies - two full ones and one partial one - at the British Library.

The two full copies - a little different from each other -- were digitized in March 2000 by j.a.panese experts from the Keio University (Tokyo) and NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications). The images were then processed to offer a full digital version on the web a few months later, for the world to enjoy.

November 2000 > Frederick Forsyth, a British novelist, made a digital experiment

Following Stephen King's footsteps, Frederick Forsyth, the British master of thrillers, decided to make a digital experiment in partners.h.i.+p with Online Originals, an electronic publisher from London.

In November 2000, Online Originals published online The Veteran, the story of a violent crime in London, and the first part of Quintet, a collection of five short stories (announced in the following order: The Veteran, The Miracle, The Citizen, The Art of the Matter, and Draco).

Available in three electronic formats (PDF, Microsoft Reader and Gla.s.sbook Reader), the short story was sold for 3.99 pounds (6.60 euros) on the publisher's website and in several online bookstores in the United Kingdom (Alphabetstreet, BOL.com, WHSmith) and in the U.S.

(Barnes & n.o.ble, Contentville, Gla.s.sbook).

November 2000 > Arturo Perez-Reverte, a Spanish novelist, made a digital experiment

Arturo Perez-Reverte, a Spanish novelist, is famous for his best-seller collection of novels telling the adventurous life of Capitan Alatriste in the 17th century. The new t.i.tle to be released in late 2000 was "El Oro del Rey" (The King's Gold). In November 2000, the author partnered with his publisher Alf.a.guara to publish "El Oro del Rey" exclusively in digital form for one month, on a specific site of the web portal Inicia, before the release of the print version in bookstores. The novel was available in PDF format for 2.90 euros, a much cheaper price than the 15.10 euros of the forthcoming print book. As a result of the experiment, the number of downloads was very good, but not the number of payments. A month after the online publis.h.i.+ng of the novel, there are 332,000 downloads, but only 12,000 readers who paid for it.

November 2000 > Amazon.com opened its eBookStore

Amazon.com started its eBookStore in November 2000, following a partners.h.i.+p with Microsoft in August 2000 to sell digital books for the Microsoft Reader. The same month, Amazon.com also partnered with Adobe to offer digital books for the Acrobat Reader and the Gla.s.sbook Reader - Adobe had just bought Gla.s.sbook, its reader and its digital bookstore. In April 2001, Amazon.com partnered again with Adobe to include in its collection 2,000 copyrighted books for the Acrobat eBook Reader, mainly t.i.tles from major publishers, travel guides, and children books.

December 2000 > Gyricon Media, to develop an electronic ink technology

In December 2000, researchers at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), the Xerox center in Silicon Valley, California, founded the company Gyricon Media to market the SmartPaper, an electronic paper based on the display technology called gyricon - developed since 1997 within Xerox.

Very briefly explained, the technology was the following one: in between two sheets of flexible plastic, millions of micro-cells contain two-tone (for example black and white) beads suspended in a clear liquid. Each bead has an electric charge. An external electrical pulse makes the b.a.l.l.s rotate and change color, to display, modify, or delete data. In 2004, the market was commercial advertising, with small posters running on batteries. The company ended its activities in 2005, with R&D activities going on at Xerox.

2000 > The wiki, a collaborative website

Deriving from the Hawaiian term "wiki" ("fast"), a wiki is a website allowing multiple users to collaborate online on the same project. The wiki concept became quite popular in 2000. At any time, users can contribute to drafting content, edit it, improving it, and updating it.

The wiki has been used for example to create and manage dictionaries, encyclopedias, or reference tools. The software can be simple or more elaborate. A simple program handles text and hyperlinks. With a more elaborate program, one can embed images, charts, tables, etc. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia.

January 2001 > Wikipedia, a global free cooperative online encyclopedia

Wikipedia was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (Larry resigned later on). It has quickly grown into the largest reference website on the internet, financed by donations, with no advertising. Its multilingual content is free and written collaboratively by people worldwide, who contribute under a pseudonym.

Its website is a wiki, which means that anyone can edit, correct, and improve information throughout the encyclopedia. The articles stay the property of their authors, and can be freely used according to the GFDL (GNU Free Doc.u.mentation License) and the Creative Commons license. In December 2004, Wikipedia had 1.3 million articles (by 13,000 contributors) in 100 languages. In December 2006, Wikipedia was among the ten top sites on the web, with 6 million articles. In May 2007, Wikipedia had 7 million articles in 192 languages, including 1.8 million articles in English, 589,000 articles in German, 500,000 articles in French, 260,000 articles in Portuguese, and 236,000 articles in Spanish. In 2008, Wikipedia was in the top five websites.

In september 2010, Wikipedia had 14 million articles in 272 languages, including 3.4 million articles in English, 1.1 million articles in German and 1 million articles in French.

January 2001 > UNL (Universal Networking Language), a digital metalanguage project

The UNDL Foundation (UNDL: Universal Networking Digital Language) was founded in January 2001 to develop and promote the UNL (Universal Networking Language) project. The UNL project was launched in mid-1990s as a main digital metalanguage project by the Inst.i.tute of Advanced Studies (IAS) of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo, j.a.pan.

As explained on the bilingual (English, j.a.panese) website in 1998: "UNL is a language that - with its companion 'enconverter' and 'deconverter'

software - enables communication among peoples of differing native languages. It will reside, as a plug-in for popular web browsers, on the internet, and will be compatible with standard network servers." In 2000, 120 researchers worldwide were working on a multilingual project in 16 languages (Arabic, Brazilian, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindu, Indonesian, Italian, j.a.panese, Latvian, Mongolian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Thai).

January 2001 > The Cybook was launched as the first European ebook reader

Developed by Cytale, a French company created by Olivier Pujol, the Cybook (21 x 16 cm, 1 kilo) was available in January 2001 as the first European ebook reading device. Its memory - 32 M of SDRAM and 16 M of flash memory - could store 15.000 pages, or 30 books of 500 pages. But sales were far below expectations, and Cytale ended its activities in July 2002. The Cybook project was taken over by Bookeen, a company created in 2003 by Michael Dahan and Laurent Picard, two former engineers from Cytale. The Cybook second generation was available in June 2004. Bookeen launched the Cybook Gen3 in July 2007, with a screen using the E Ink technology.