Part 10 (1/2)
The Encyclopedia of Life is built on the work of thousands of experts around the globe, in a moderated wiki-style environment, for the general public to be able to contribute.
The first pages were available in mid-2008. The encyclopedia should be fully ”operational” in 2012 and completed with all known species in 2017. The English version will be translated in several languages by partner organizations. People will be able to use the encyclopedia as a ”macroscope” to identify major trends from a considerable stock of information - in the same way they use a microscope for the study of detail.
2003: EBOOKS ARE SOLD WORLDWIDE
= [Overview]
First, publishers began to sell digital versions of their books online, on their own websites or on the new eBookstores of Amazon.com and Barnes & n.o.ble.com. In 2000, new online bookstores were created to sell ”only” digital books (ebooks), like Palm Digital Media (renamed Palm eBook Store), Mobipocket or Numilog. At the same time, publishers were digitizing their books by the hundreds, while the public was getting used to read ebooks on computers, laptops, phones, smartphones and reading devices. 2003 was a turning point in an emerging market. More and more books were published simultaneously as a print book and a digital book, and thousands of new books, beginning with best-sellers, were sold as ebooks in various formats: PDF (to be read on Acrobat Reader, replaced by Adobe Reader), LIT (to be read on Microsoft Reader), PRC (to be read on Mobipocket Reader) and others, with the Open eBook format becoming a standard for ebooks.
= Books, from print to digital
The new online bookstores selling ”only” digital books were also called aggregators because they were producing and selling ebooks from many publishers. It took them a few years (at least in Europe) to convince publishers that books should have two versions, print and digital, and to wait for the public to be ready to read on an electronic device, be it a computer, a laptop, a PDA, a mobile phone, a smartphone or a reading device. This emerging market took off in 2003, and more and more books were simultaneously published as a print book and a digital book.
In the 1990s, few people believed digital books would be commonplace in the near future. They thought people would still be attached to print books regardless of whatever happened, remembering this sentence of Robert Downs, a librarian who wrote in the 1980s: ”My lifelong love affair with books and reading continues unaffected by automation, computers, and all other forms of the twentieth-century gadgetry.” (excerpt from ”Books in My Life”, Library of Congress, 1985)
In an article published in February 1996 by the Swiss magazine ”Informatique-Informations”, Pierre Perroud, founder of the digital library Athena, explained that ”electronic texts represent an encouragement to reading and a convivial partic.i.p.ation to culture dissemination”, particularly for textual research and text study. These texts are ”a good complement to the print book, which remains irreplaceable when for 'true' reading. (...) The book remains a mysteriously holy companion with profound symbolism for us: we grip it in our hands, we hold it against us, we look at it with admiration; its small size comforts us and its content impresses us; its fragility contains a density we are fascinated by; like man it fears water and fire, but it has the power to shelter man's thoughts from time.”
Roberto Hernandez Montoya, an editor of the electronic magazine Venezuela a.n.a.litica, wrote in September 1998: ”The printed text can't be replaced, at least not for the foreseeable future. The paper book is a tremendous 'machine'. We can't leaf through an electronic book in the same way as a paper book. On the other hand electronic use allows us to locate text chains more quickly. In a certain way we can more intensively read the electronic text, even with the inconvenience of reading on the screen. The electronic book is less expensive and can be more easily distributed worldwide (if we don't count the cost of the computer and the internet connection).”
In the 2000s, while many people still prefer reading a print book, more and more readers enjoy reading their ebooks on their notebook, smartphone or any other electronic device. They buy their ebooks online from Amazon, Barnes & n.o.ble, Yahoo, Palm, Mobipocket or Numilog.
In March 2000, Numilog was founded by Denis Zwirn near Paris, France, as a company specializing in the distribution of digital books. Numilog launched in September 2000 an online bookstore that became the main French-speaking aggregator of digital books over the years. Numilog has sold books and audiobooks in partners.h.i.+p with a number of publishers, including Gallimard, POL, Le Dilettante, Le Rocher, La Decouverte, De Vive Voix, Eyrolles or Pearson Education France.
Numilog was bought in May 2008 by Hachette Livre, a leading publis.h.i.+ng group.
= Adobe Reader
Adobe launched PDF (Portable Doc.u.ment Format) in June 1993, with Acrobat Reader (free, to read PDF doc.u.ments) and Adobe Acrobat (for a fee, to make PDF doc.u.ments). As the ”veteran”
format, PDF was perfected over the years as a global standard for distribution and viewing of information. It ”lets you capture and view robust information from any application, on any computer system and share it with anyone around the world.
Individuals, businesses, and government agencies everywhere trust and rely on Adobe PDF to communicate their ideas and vision” (excerpt from the website). Adobe Acrobat gave the tools to create and view PDF files, in several languages and for several platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux).
In August 2000, Adobe bought Gla.s.sbook, a company specializing in digital books software for publishers, booksellers, distributors and libraries. Adobe also partnered with Amazon.com and Barnes & n.o.ble.com to offer ebooks for the Acrobat Reader and the Gla.s.sbook Reader.
In January 2001, Adobe launched the Acrobat eBook Reader (free) and the Adobe Content Server (for a fee).
The Acrobat eBook Reader was used to read PDF files of copyrighted books, while adding notes and bookmarks, getting the book covers in a personal library, and browsing a dictionary.
The Adobe Content Server was intended for publishers and distributors for the packaging, protection, distribution and sale of copyrighted books in PDF format, while managing their access with DRM (Digital Rights Management), according to instructions given by the copyright holder, for example allowing or not the printing and loan of ebooks. (It was replaced with the Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server in November 2004.)
In April 2001, Adobe partnered with Amazon.com, for the online bookstore to include 2,000 copyrighted books for the Acrobat eBook Reader. These were t.i.tles of major publishers, travel guides, and children books.
The same year, the Acrobat Reader was available for PDAs, beginning with the Palm Pilot (May 2001) and the Pocket PC (December 2001).
Between 1993 and 2003, over 500 million copies of Acrobat Reader were downloaded worldwide. In 2003, Acrobat Reader was available in many languages and for many platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Palm OS, Pocket PC, Symbian OS, etc.).
Approximately 10% of the doc.u.ments on the internet were available in PDF.