A Short History of eBooks - etudes-francaises.net

1 A Short History of eBooksMarie Lebert NEF, University of Toronto, 2009 Copyright 2009 Marie LebertAll rights reservedThis book is dedicated to all thosewho kindly answered my questions during ten years,in Europe, in America (the whole continent),in Africa, and in many thanks for their time and their Short History of eBooks - also called digital books - from the first ebook in 1971 until now, with Project Gutenberg, Amazon, Adobe, Mobipocket, Google Books, the Internet Archive, and many others. This book is based on 100 interviews conducted worldwide and thousands of hours of web surfing during ten book is also available in French and Spanish, with a longer and different text.

2 All versions can be found online < >.Unless specified otherwise, quotations are excerpts from NEF interviews < >.Marie Lebert is a researcher and editor specializing in technology for books, other media, and languages. She is the author of Technology and Books for All (in English and French, 2008), Les mutations du livre (Mutations of the Book, in French, 2007) and Le Livre 010101 (The 010101 Book, in French, 2003). Her books are published by NEF (Net des tudes fran aises / Net of French Studies), University of Toronto, Canada, and are freely available online < >.

3 1 Table=== Introduction1971: Project Gutenberg is the first digital library1990: The web boosts the internet1993: The Online Books Page is a list of free ebooks1994: Some publishers get bold and go digital1995: is the first main online bookstore1996: There are more and more texts online1997: Multimedia convergence and employment1998: Libraries take over the web1999: Librarians get digital2000: Information is available in many languages2001: Copyright, copyleft and Creative Commons2002: A web of knowledge2003: eBooks are sold worldwide2004: Authors are creative on the net2005: Google gets interested in ebooks2006: Towards a world public digital library2007: We read on various electronic devices2008.

4 "A common information space in which we communicate"=== Chronology=== Acknowledgements 2 IntroductionThe book is no longer what it used to electronic book ( ebook ) was born in 1971, with the first steps of Project Gutenberg, a digital library for books from public domain. It is nearly 40 years old, already. But this is a Short life compared to the 5-century old print internet went live in 1974, with the creation of the protocol TCP/IP by Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn.

5 It began spreading in 1983 as a network for research centers and universities. It got its first boost with the invention of the web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, and its second boost with the release of the first browser Mosaic in 1993. From 1994 onwards, the internet quickly spread Bookland, people were reluctant, curious or internet didn't bring print media, movies, radio or television to an end. It created its own space as a new medium, to get information, access documents, broaden our knowledge and communicate across borders and began selling books online within and outside their home country, offering excerpts on their began creating websites as a "virtual" window, as well as digital libraries stemming from their print collections.

6 Librarians helped patrons to surf on the web without being drowned, and to find the information they needed at a time search engines were less accurate. Library catalogs went online. Union catalogs offered a common point for hundreds and then thousands of and magazines began being available online, as well as their archives. Some journals became "only" electronic to skip the costs of print publishing, while offering print on demand. Some newsletters, zines and journals started online from scratch, skipping a print began creating websites to self-publish their work or post it while waiting to find a publisher.

7 Communication with readers became easier through email, forums, chat and instant messaging. Some authors explored new ways of writing, called hypertext and more books were published with both a print version and a digital version. Some books were "only" digital. Other books were digitized from print online bookstores began selling only digital books. Aggregators partnered with publishers to produce and sell digital versions of their no longer needed to run after information and to worry about living in a remote place with no libraries and bookstores.

8 Information was there, by the numbers, available on our 3screen, often at no 2009, most of us would not be able to work, study, communicate and entertain without connecting with others through the is the virtual journey we are going to follow:1971: Project Gutenberg is the first digital library1990: The web boosts the internet1993: The Online Books Page is a list of free ebooks1994: Some publishers get bold and go digital1995: is the first main online bookstore1996: There are more and more texts online1997: Multimedia convergence and employment1998: Libraries take over the web1999: Librarians get digital2000: Information is available in many languages2001: Copyright, copyleft and Creative Commons2002: A web of knowledge2003: eBooks are sold worldwide2004: Authors are creative on the net2005.

9 Google gets interested in ebooks2006: Towards a world public digital library2007: We read on various electronic devices2008: "A common information space in which we communicate" 41971: Project Gutenberg is the first digital library[Overview]The first ebook was available in July 1971, as eText #1 of Project Gutenberg, a visionary project launched by Michael Hart to create electronic versions of literary works and disseminate them worldwide.

10 In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone to have print books for a small cost. In the 21st century, Project Gutenberg would allow anyone to have a digital library at no cost. Its critics long considered Project Gutenberg as impossible on a large scale. But Michael went on keying book after book during many years, with the help of some volunteers. Project Gutenberg got its first boost with the invention of the web in 1990 and its second boost with the creation of Distributed Proofreaders in 2000, to help digitizing books from public domain.