This blog has moved !!!

This blog has moved.

Now you can go here :

http://eavolution.com/category/ereading/

A test for @booxtream ? Pirated copy of Harry Potter ebook discovered already.

One year ago, I had a discussion with Huub Van De Pol of IContact.nl about developing a social drm module for ebooks. Huub told me he was doing it already, so I abandoned the idea. 

Now I read on the web that booxtream would be the drm solution for Harry Potter ebooks.

That would be a huge achievement for booxtream, but also a real test. 

When I remember my discussion with Huub about all the hidden protection techniques of booxstream, I believe the pirate ebook will reveal who had purchased it. The next question is than, how do we find the pirate and annoy him in order to educate the market on the disadvantges of piracy. That's the nasty part of social drm...

The first Pottermore ebook pirate has struck – Pirated copy of Harry Potter ebook discovered already.

Synopsis:  This morning, Nate Hoffelder has reported on his blog The Digital Reader (link below) that the first illegal copy of one of the new Pottermore DRM free Harry Potter ebooks has appeared on the web.

Read more on The first Pottermore ebook pirate has struck – Pirated copy of Harry Potter ebook discovered already….D

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Jean-Francois Declercq

http://www.appe.biz/contact

+32 486 744 520

AppePaper - eReading News - 3 Feb 2012

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Les éditions Plon préparent une collection exclusivement numérique | eBouquin http://t.co/Ael195Cc Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:47 AM PST Les éditions Plon préparent une collection exclusivement numérique | eBouquin http://t.co/Ael195Cc

[Interview] Frank de The Pixelizers répond à nos questions « Les Ardoises http://t.co/VkrDLEZq Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:47 AM PST [Interview] Frank de The Pixelizers répond à nos questions « Les Ardoises http://t.co/VkrDLEZq

La révolution Samsung du Super Bowl : le Galaxy Note « Les Ardoises http://t.co/lDXqqPhH Posted: 03 Feb 2012 12:47 AM PST La révolution Samsung du Super Bowl : le Galaxy Note « Les Ardoises http://t.co/lDXqqPhH

467 millions d'euros injectés dans l'industrie numérique | FrenchWeb.fr http://t.co/rZ6juZ8q Posted: 02 Feb 2012 09:38 AM PST 467 millions d'euros injectés dans l'industrie numérique | FrenchWeb.fr http://t.co/rZ6juZ8q

RT @davanac: Une entreprise française était en négociation avec Megaupload pour rémunérer les auteurs | Reflets http://t.co/yxFL5YFE Posted: 02 Feb 2012 02:08 AM PST RT @davanac: Une entreprise française était en négociation avec Megaupload pour rémunérer les auteurs | Reflets http://t.co/yxFL5YFE

Ebooks and apps innovation exciting publishers despite price concerns | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Ebooks and apps innovation exciting publishers despite price concerns | Technology | guardian.co.uk:

Henri Volans : "The phrase which keeps coming up in my mind about ebooks is evolution" . "I have absolute certainty that we have not reached anything close to the evolutionary ideal of the ebook… I find it absolutely inconceivable that the book can't evolve and change and grow."

In his role at Faber, Volans commissioned the iPad edition of The Waste Land, working with partner company Touch Press on the tablet version of T.S. Eliot's poem.

Volans picked out Thames & Hudson's Cyclepedia iPad app as another good example of book-app innovation during his speech at the event. "It seems a good example of an e-book that does justice to an art book," he said.

Ebooks and School Libraries | American Libraries Magazine

Ebooks and School Libraries | American Libraries Magazine:

To better explore these challenges and advantages, it helps to consider a few different school library ebook-use scenarios. A common desire in K–12 buildings is to adopt ebook readers as a replacement for costly and heavy printed texts. An English department that considered making this change was stymied by the lack of availability of some of the texts on their reading list.

Holiday Season 2011 - Give the Gift of Reading - Worldreader

I like this project. Worldreader.org distributes e-readers and e-books
in Africa.

Have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=061_nSveZBE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Jean-Francois Declercq
http://www.appe.biz/contact
+32 486 744 520

This weekend T#M follows the conversations about the cyclocross in Overijse

T#M is a product that I have developed with my best friend François Vermaut.

We are building a system that follows conversations on the web and on
Twitter in particular. This weekend, in partnership with Patricia of
"'t Koffiehuis aan de Ijse", we will follow the conversations about
the cyclocross in Overijse.

You can follow the conversations here http://thm.cc/t/overijse

With this case we experiment how social media like Twitter can help
you develop your small business and bring you new customers.

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Jean-Francois Declercq
http://www.appe.biz/contact
+32 486 744 520

Amazon avoids EU problems with its pricing model

European Commission Opens Antitrust Investigation Over Ebook Pricing
Against Apple, Five Publishers see
http://www.writerswrite.com/blog/120620111

Amazon has no problem because they let you the author or the publisher
set the price of the ebook, so they can't be blamed if the price is
wrong.

But have you ever tried to fix a final ebook price on Amazon ? I did.
With the standard (KDP) Kindle platform, it's a difficult exercise. I
wouln't guarantee you an exact value, I can't really figure out the
final Amazon price of my own ebooks...
(http://www.appepaper.com/ebook)

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Jean-Francois Declercq
http://www.appe.biz/contact
+32 486 744 520

Slides of the Vep Information Session on Dec 1st 2011

This Dec 1st, 2011, there was an information session about the VeP (Vlaams eBoek Platform = Flemish eBook Platform) for the call to tenders for innovation.

During the session Johan Delauré of Bibnet presented a nice overview and summary the VeP.

See the slides here :

• Project page on innovatiefaanbesteden.be : http://bit.ly/tqEvNI
• Excellent presentation of the Vlaams eBoek Platform by @johan_delaure  http://bit.ly/tSAcGT

eReading : eBooks on TV

In two weeks I have seen two demos of eBooks on TV.
The first was at the BoekenBeurs 2011 in Antwerp. You can see a picture here :

Grand Opening of the BoekenBeurs 2011

This week at Devoxx, I have seen an other demo on Google TV.

At the end of the Android Keynote, Tim Bray of Google said Mobile Phones in general and Android in particular could help the developing countries. I guess there is an important place for Digital Reading in the mobile scenarios.

The Flemish eBook Platform (Vlaams eBoek Platform) RFPs are OUT

Yesterday (Nov 10th, 2011), there was great news : the VEP RFPs have been issued !

The specifications were finished in March, so it was about time that the RFP gets out.

One year ago, the specifications looked like that:

Now they look like that:

You can find the ful description of the target architecture on Bibnet's website:
http://www.bibnet.be/portaal/Bibnet/Collectie/Vlaams_e-boekplatform/Overheidsopdrachten/

They should also land on IWT's Innovation Platform's website :
http://www.innovatiefaanbesteden.be/project/vlaams_e-boek_platform_%28vep%29

IWT, Boek.be and Bibnet finally got a GO to issue 2 RFPs :

1. VEP Basisinfrastructuur

The Basic infrastructure to import store, describe and index eBooks.

http://www.bda-online.be/ShowTender.aspx?tendernumber=177899922430426136


2.  Pre-commerciële aanbesteding voor de realisatie van prototypes voor het Vlaamse e-boekplatform

This is rather a call for innovation from the IWT for specific modules : Digital Reading, "Discovering+Browsing+Searching+Finding+Serendipty" (Grasduinen), Social DRM, Search and Marketing services. 
 
http://www.bda-online.be/ShowTender.aspx?tendernumber=118499922429535344

Numeric Shool Project Proposal : Testing digital reading and tablets at school

Today we submitted, together with the Maurice Carême school in Wavre (Belgium), a project proposal in the context of "Ecoles Numérique" (Numeric Shool).

The project we submitted is called "Lecture Numérique à l'Ecole: Test de tablettes" (Digital Reading at School : Tablet Test).

Basically I proposed to prototype my reference architecture for School Ebooks :

http://www.appepaper.com/erra/ereading-scenarios/school-ebooks

Let's hope we can get the funding for the project. We will see...

Grand Opening of the Boekenbeurs 2011

Last week (Oct 30, 2011) I had the chance to be invited for the opening of the Boekenbeurs in Antwerp.

We were first invited to listen to the speeches of a.o. Geert Joris and Minister van cultuur Joke Schauvliege.  I was a bit dispappointed that no word was said about the Vlaams eBoek Platform (VEP), let's hope it will be the case next year. I believe that the VEP is a major strategic initiative for the book sector in Flanders and that it needs to be supported by the top of the book sector.

After the speeches, I was mainly interested by the e-Paviljoen which nicely shows how digital reading (or e-reading) can be done in many ways: on e-readers, on tablets, on mobile phones, on computers....

For example, you could read a story on a wide touch screen.

After that we visited the fair. Here are some more pictures.

Have a look at some eReading Solution Designs

You have again access to some of my eReading Solutions Architecture Designs.



Again ?

Yes. When I published my eBook (eReading Solutions Architecture) I decided to close the eReading Reference Architecture companion website. The reason is that I would like to know who reads what I write.

My approach in eReading is to look at the Architecture (AS-IS, TO-BE) and Goals before choosing or designing an eReading experience.

In order to better promote this approach I re-open the eRRA website wich contains some ideas I have on how to use eReaders and Tablets in B2C and B2B environments.

Let's discuss !

I'm looking forward to interaction with my readers so please don't hesitate to ask access to the website as a reviewer via this form : http://www.appepaper.com/reference-architecture/get-access

I hope to discuss eReading Architectures with you.

http://erra.appepaper.com/

Are you currently defining your new Publishing strategy ?

If you are in the process of defining your future publishing strategy, you might want to know how Enterprise and ICT Architecture can help you. Those methods will help you making the right choices in a rapidly changing market.

Contact me if you want to know more.

How digital Media consumption is distributed

"How media consumption is distributed: according to the Havas Media survey,

51% of the respondents prefer websites,

31% go for electronic editions, and

17% use applications."

 

Source : guardian.co.uk

ePaper in Healthcare

In my eReading Reference Architecture I designed how ePaper Based eReaders (or tablets) could be used to help implement a decentralized Patient File. Extract from the Patient File Case:

"Rather than trying to centralize all Medical information within the various Data Centers (Hospitals, Mutuality, Doctor's practices...), this medical information could be stored on mobile patient's files stored on a simple eReader. This eReader would store all patient's health information: Medical records (radios, exam results), past and future subscriptions, past and present illnesses, allergies, blood type... The Patient would keep his medical record on the eReader USB stick. An archiving service would be proposed by the Government in case the eReader is lost or broken. Of course patient could backup their files at home on their PC on other tiers like Google Health."
On the eRRA website I have 2 diagrams illustrating the Patient File Scenario. If you are interested, ask for access here : http://www.appepaper.com/reference-architecture/get-access)


Here is an other example of using ePaper in healthcare: ePaper Patient Badges.

Fujitsu Creates First Ever E-Paper Patient Badges | Ubergizmo: "Fujitsu and Sapporo Shirakaba-dai Hospital have worked together to produce e-paper patient badges which for now they are currently aiming at just providing medical information as well as a queue number so patients will know when it is their turn, and will also help guide patients to the relevant rooms."

See also http://www.appepaper.com/epaper-applications/healthcare

Samsung’s Android tablets now showing up in schools, airplanes | The Digital Reader

After eReaders, Samsung’s Android tablets now showing up in schools, airplanes ( The Digital Reader). One year and a half ago it still looked like this :

How DiCoDE can be translated into an eReading Solution Architecture (eRRA)

Recently, at a Mobile Monday event, I heard about DiCoDE, a framework developed by Fabian Tilmant.
I immediately noticed some similiarities between DiCoDE and my eReading Reference Architecture (eRRA) method. The "eReading content life cycle" can be mapped to the DiCoDE model. In the eRRA methodology we also work on 2 additional topics: the Business Goals and the Entreprise/ICT Architecture.
DiCoDE complements the architecture by providing a kind of "Generic Media Business Process Template".
I might sound a little bit "Chinese" but it isn't. These are just techniques to make sure your new Media initiatives will succeed

• Achieve your business goals as a Media company
• Make sure you will reach the Consumer by a set of channels
• Develop a plan in terms of resources (IT Systems, People, Data, Entreprise/IT Architecture...)

Combinig DiCoDE and eRRA could achieve great results. Here would be a possible modus-operandi :

1. Defining the business goals (eRRA Methodology, KAOS or GOESIR Method)
2. Analysing the future Content Value Chain with DiCoDE
3. Determine the architecture required to implement the value chain (ex: new Portal, new Production Process...) and document them over the 4 eReading Tiers (Archimate Notation). This provides a TO-BE Architectural overview.
4. Compare the TO-BE Architectural overview with the AS-IS (what elements of the value chain do we have today ?) to provide a project plan

(Note the eRRA methodology can be applied on all kind of Media, not only on eReading. If the "eReader" is a Tablet, there is much more to do than just "read" on the "eReader Tier".)

In order to illustrate a litle bit step 3 I have taken the DiCoDE building blocks and drawn them in an Architectural Overview over the 4 eRRA tiers.

How DiCoDE can be translated into the 4 Tiers of the eReading Architecture

View more presentations from jfdeclercq.

If you want to give it a try (DiCoDE and/or eRRA), just contact us:

• Fabian Tilmant
• Jean-François Declercq

If you immediately want to know mode about the eRRA, you can get the eBook here :
http://www.appepaper.com/ereading
The DiCoDE ebook is not ready yet, so you'll have to point your browser here :
http://dicodethebook.wordpress.com/dicode-the-model/

Amazon gives you 70% ? Not always...

With my ebooks I thought I would have a 70% royalty. Amazon gave me only 35%.

I didn't get it until I saw this at the bottom of my KDP reports page:

"Note: 70% royalty option is only available for sales in the US, UK, Canada and Germany. Sales outside the US, UK, Canada and Germany receive 35% royalty. Please see Terms & Conditions for more details on how royalty payments are made."

I think I have to find another way to sell my ebooks in Belgium because on a consumer price of $13,79, I finally get $3.50... While I set the price at $9.9...

So if you want I sell you directly the eBook via Paypal. It will be cheaper for you ($10 instead of $13,79) and I will earn more.

Go here to order : http://www.appepaper.com/ebook/order