With the progressive digitisation of the book production processes, we see the emergence of a potentially potent mix of new technologies. Not potent because these technologies are capable of driving change alones, but potent for the commercial and cultural drivers which may work in concert with new technologies to transform the world of books and reading. Central to these technological developments is the convergence of the technologies of etext and digital print. This book examines recent technological changes in book production. Our focus is in part on technological actuality, centred mostly on the digitisation of text and its consequences. Our focus is also on the realm of possibility. Where might these technological shifts lead us? What are the commercial and cultural conditions under which technological possibility might bear fruits? Within this volume we look specifically at the changing definition of a 'book'. A book is no longer a tangible thing; a book is what a book does. It is information architecture. We examine the various manifestations of electronic book readers and imminent technologies, such as electronic ink, including case study on the use of ebook reading devices by a lending library, and speculate about other uses of such devices. We see the convergence of print and etext - manifestations of the same thing - electronically stored text, with the difference demonstrated only in the shift in mindset necessary to accommodate emergent forms of digital text - as information services within a product-service system, the changing shape of digital design and changes in printing technologies from letterpress to the rise of digital printing.
Bill Cope, Ph.D, has been a director of Common Ground Publishing since 1984, and has led Common Ground's recent and highly innovative exploration of new publishing horizons. He is a former First Assistant Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs in the Australian Federal Government. His academic research and writing crosses a number of disciplines, including history, education and sociology; and examines themes as varied as immigration, workplace change and literacy learning. He has also been involved through Common Ground in the co-ordination of a number of major international conferences.
Diana Kalantzis is a director of Common Ground. She has worked as a designer and production planner in the printing industry, and more recently as an interface designer for Common Ground's C-2-C project. She has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Sydney, a Graduate Diploma in Communications from VUT and is currently completing an MBA at RMIT with a focus on project management in the IT industry. Between July and October 2001 she lead a research team as a part of the RMIT EPICS project, "Technology Drivers Across the Book Production Supply Chain", the result of which was a page book, Print and Electronic Text Convergence, focusing on digital printing and electronic book technologies.
