The eBook is 40 (1971-2011) Part 11

The year 2000 was marked by "the explosion of mobile technology. The mobile phone has become for many people, including me, the personal communicator which allows you to be anywhere anytime and still be reachable. But the mobile internet is still a dream. The new services on mobile (GSM) phones are extremely primitive and expensive (WAP = Wait and Pay)."

# In 2001

What has happened since one year? Henk wrote in July 2001: "I am experiencing a tremendous change with having a 'broadband' connection at home. To be connected at all times is so completelely different from dial-up. I now receive email as soon as it arrives, I can listen to my favorite radio stations wherever they are. I can listen to the news when I want to. Get the music I like all the time. (...) The only thing which is missing is good quality real time video. The bandwidth is too low for that.

I now have a wired and a wireless LAN [Local Area Network] in my home.

I can use my laptop anywhere in the house and outside, even at the neighbors and still being connected. With the same technology I am now able to use my wireless LAN card in my computer when I travel. For instance, during my recent visit to Stockholm, there was connectivity in the hotel, the conference center, the airport and even in the Irish pub!

# In 2011

Ten years later, in June 2011, Henk explained: "I have always followed the development of ebooks with much interest, as a professor in communication systems and an organizer of study tours in Silicon Valley. I didn't use them much during 40 years, because of the lack of progress in reading devices. I never liked reading a book on a computer or PDA. Now, with tablets like the Kindle of the iPad, I am finally reading ebooks. I see a huge expansion of digital reading with tablets that are easy to use and with a very large choice of ebooks thanks to electronic commerce and companies like Amazon."

What has he been working on lately? "I am a serial entrepreneur who is creating a start-up in the field of mobility. I use the internet all the time to find partners and ideas. We also use online books to learn the art of innovation!"

2001 > WIKIPEDIA, A COLLABORATIVE ENCYCLOPEDIA

[Summary]

Wikipedia was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (Larry resigned later on) as a global free collaborative online encyclopedia, financed by donations, with no advertising. Its website is a wiki, which means that anyone can write, edit, correct and improve information throughout the encyclopedia, with people contributing under a pseudonym. The articles stay the property of their authors, and can be freely used according to Creative Commons or GFDL (GNU Free Doc.u.mentation License). Wikipedia quickly became the largest reference website. It was in the top ten websites in December 2006, and in the top five websites in 2008. 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. Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary in January 2011 with 17 million articles in 270 languages et 400 million individual visits per month for all websites.

Wikipedia was launched in January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger (Larry resigned later on) as a global free collaborative online encyclopedia.

Wikipedia was financed by donations, with no advertising. Its website is a wiki, which means that anyone can write, edit, correct and improve information throughout the encyclopedia, with people contributing under a pseudonym. The articles stay the property of their authors, and can be freely used according to Creative Commons or GFDL (GNU Free Doc.u.mentation License).

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, founded in June 2003, which has run a number of other projects, beginning with Wiktionary (launched in December 2002) and Wikibooks (launched in June 2003), followed by Wikiquote, Wikisource (texts from public domain), Wikimedia Commons (multimedia), Wikispecies (animals and plants), Wikinews and Wikiversity (textbooks).

Wikipedia quickly became the largest reference website, with thousands of people contributing worldwide. In December 2004, Wikipedia had 1.3 million articles by 13,000 contributors in 100 languages. In December 2006, Wikipedia was among the top ten 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. Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary in January 2011 with 17 million articles in 270 languages et 400 million individual visits per month for all websites.

Wikipedia also inspired many other projects over the years, for example Citizendium, launched in 2007 as a pilot project to build a new encyclopedia.

Citizendium, an acronym for "The Citizen's Compendium", was launched in March 2007 at the initiative of Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia with Jimmy Wales in January 2001, but resigned later on over policy and content quality issues, as well as the use of anonymous pseudonyms.

Citizendium is a wiki project open to public collaboration, but combining "public partic.i.p.ation with gentle expert guidance". The project is experts-led, not experts-only. Contributors use their own names, and they are guided by expert editors. As explained by Larry in his essay "Toward a New Compendium of Knowledge", posted in September 2006 and updated in March 2007: "Editors will be able to make content decisions in their areas of specialization, but otherwise working shoulder-to-shoulder with ordinary authors." There are also constables who make sure the rules are respected.

There were 1,100 high-quality articles, 820 authors, and 180 editors in March 2007, 11,800 articles in August 2009, and 15,000 articles in September 2010. Citizendium wants to act as a prototype for upcoming large scale knowledge-building projects that would deliver reliable reference, scholarly and educational content.

2001 > THE CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

[Summary]

Long after copyleft, a term invented in 1984 by Richard Stallmann, a computer scientist at MIT (Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology), Creative Commons (CC) was founded in 2001 by Lawrence "Larry" Lessig, a professor at Stanford Law School, California. As explained on its website in 2009: "Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof." Who has used Creative Commons? O'Reilly Media for example, as well as Wikipedia and the Public Library of Science (PLoS). There were one million Creative Commons licensed works in 2003, 4.7 million works in 2004, 20 million works in 2005, 50 million works in 2006, 90 million works in 2007, 130 million works in 2008, and 350 million works in April 2010.

The web allowed people to distribute their works globally, thus the need for a Creative Commons license, created in 2001 to make it "easier for people to share and build upon the work of others". Copyleft showed the way as early as 1984.

# Copyleft

The term "copyleft" was invented in 1984 by Richard Stallman, a computer scientist at MIT (Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology). As explained on the GNU Project's website: "Copyleft is a general method for making a program or other work free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well. (...) Copyleft says that anyone who redistributes the software, with or without changes, must pa.s.s along the freedom to further copy and change it.

Copyleft guarantees that every user has freedom. (...) Copyleft is a way of using the copyright on the program. It doesn't mean abandoning the copyright; in fact, doing so would make copyleft impossible. The word 'left' in 'copyleft' is not a reference to the verb 'to leave' -- only to the direction which is the inverse of 'right'. (...) The GNU Free Doc.u.mentation License (FDL) is a form of copyleft intended for use on a manual, textbook or other doc.u.ment to a.s.sure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifications, either commercially or non commercially."

# Creative Commons

Creative Commons (CC) was founded in 2001 by Lawrence "Larry" Lessing, a professor at Stanford Law School, California. As explained on its website: "Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof."

# How has used Creative Commons?

O'Reilly Media, founded by Tim o'Reilly in 1978 to publish computer and high-tech books, began using the Creative Commons Founders' Copyright in 2003.

Launched in 2001 as a free online collaborative encyclopedia, Wikipedia has offered articles that stay the property of their authors, and can be freely used according to Creative Commons or GFDL (GNU Free Doc.u.mentation License).

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) has used a Creative Commons license for the articles of its free online scientific and medical journals launched in 2003. The articles can be freely redistributed and reused, including for translations, as long as the author(s) and source are cited.

There were one million Creative Commons licensed works in 2003, 4.7 million works in 2004, 20 million works in 2005, 50 million works in 2006, 90 million works in 2007, 130 million works in 2008, and 350 million works in April 2010.

2003 > HANDICAPZeRO, THE INTERNET FOR EVERYONE

[Summary]

An important issue is the need for information to be accessible to all.

Available online in September 2000, the website Handicapzero became a portal in February 2003 to offer an adapted access to information for the French-speaking users having a visual problem, i.e. over 10% of the population. Blind users can access the site using a Braille device or a speech software. Visually impaired users can set up their own parameters (size and type of fonts, color of background, etc.) to surf the web in an optimal way, by creating and modifying their own visual profile. Any user can correspond in Braille with blind users through the website. 2 million visitors used the services of the portal in 2006. Handicapzero intends to demonstrate "that, with the respect of some basic rules, the internet can finally become a s.p.a.ce of freedom for all."

An important issue is the need for information to be accessible to all, as shown by the portal Handicapzero launched in February 2003 for any French-speaking user having a visual problem.

A first website was launched in September 2000 to provide an adapted access to information for blind or visually impaired users, i.e. over 10% of the population. It quickly became the most visited adapted site in France, with 10,000 visits per month.

In February 2003, Handicapzero launched a portal providing free access to national and international news in real time (in partners.h.i.+p with Agence France-Presse), sports news (with the newspaper L' equipe), TV programs (with the magazine Telerama), weather (with the service Meteo France) and a search engine (with Google), as well as a range of services for health, employment, consumer goods, leisure, sports and telephony.

Blind users can access the site using a Braille device or a speech software. Visually impaired users can set up their own parameters (size and type of fonts, color of background, etc.) to surf the web in an optimal way, by creating and modifying their own visual profile. This profile can be used for any text available on the web, by copying and pasting the text on the web interface. Any user can correspond in Braille with blind users through the website. Handicapzero provides a free transcription of the letters and prints them in Braille, before sending them by mail for free in Europe.

2 million visitors used the services of the portal in 2006.

Handicapzero intends to demonstrate "that, with the respect of some basic rules, the internet can finally become a s.p.a.ce of freedom for all."

Things are not as simple for an adapted access to books. Patrice Cailleaud, director of communication for Handicapzero, explained in January 2001 that, if the digital book is "a new complementary solution to the problems experienced by blind and visually impaired users, (...) there are still issues with the copyright legislation and with permissions from authors that prevent us to offer Braille versions or large print versions. The requests for permissions are scarce and long, and seldom work."

Thus the need for national laws in the wake of an international copyright law for visually impaired users. In the European Union, the directive 2001/29/EC dated May 2001 on "the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society"

insists in its article 43 on the need for all member states to adopt measures favoring access to books for the handicapped users that can't use standard books, especially by promoting accessible formats. Ten years later, there is still a lot to do.