[27487] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France: French e-books & e-libraries?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Sun Jan 17 08:47:33 2010
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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:20:37 -0800
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FYI France: French e-books & e-libraries?
France will have e-books -- and digital libraries & information=20
overload & all the rest -- does have, already -- and, like the=20
rest of us, France is about to get lots more --
=09"e-Books: Averting a Digital Horror Story -- Amazon.com's
=09growing might, and the sizzling success of the Kindle,
=09has publishers terrified -- Hachette, Harlequin, and
=09others are fighting back."
=09by Spencer E. Ante, in/on BusinessWeek: Strategy &
=09Competition (December 30, 2009)
=09(excerpts follow, with a few comments interlined:)
> On Christmas Day, for the first time in its history, Amazon.com=20
> sold more digital books than the old fashioned kind. It was a=20
> watershed moment for the book industry -- but it's scaring the=20
> hell out of traditional publishers...
-- understatement --
> One goal for publishers is to dilute Amazon's power. Hachette=20
> is selling e-books through more than a dozen partners,=20
> including Sony, Apple, and small retailers such as Fictionwise...
-- Hachette is not "typical", of the French publishing industry,=20
no -- Hachette is not even, by many measures, "French" any=20
longer, but "Global", as so many firms left standing after the=20
recent business-cycle d=E9b=E2cle now are -- but, too,
> Hachette and Simon & Schuster plan to delay the release of=20
> certain digital books for several months to avoid undercutting=20
> the sale of best-sellers. "We are giving away the family=20
> jewels," says David Young, chairman and chief executive of=20
> Hachette Book Group...
-- (see more on this last point below) --
> Next year Hachette is coming out with a digital version of=20
> Sebastian Junger's War that will include video clips, a first=20
> for the company. (The book, scheduled for release in May, is=20
> based on the author's reporting in Afghanistan and the footage=20
> will feature firefights and interviews with soldiers.)
-- I am of the generation that does not look for "firefights" and=20
"interviews", son et lumi=E8re, within or even surrounding a "book"=20
-- I remember, somewhat fondly or maybe just nostalgically, texts=20
which "stood on their own", authors who painted pictures and=20
created entire universes, using only their words and your=20
imagination -- Tolstoy, Tolkien, so many others -- all changed,=20
changed utterly, now, harrumph -- <insert YouTube links here> --
> Young believes people are interested in paying for variations=20
> on the standard book, say a single chapter or a searchable=20
> database. In late September, two authors, a few editors, and a=20
> technologist gathered in Hachette's New York City office to=20
> work on an iPhone application based on the popular food book,=20
> What to Drink with What You Eat. The heavily illustrated volume=20
> will have to be adapted for a screen smaller than a playing=20
> card...
-- well, I'll take "firefights and interviews, son et lumi=E8re"=20
over "What to Drink with What You Eat", personellement, altho=20
without "la cuisine" it wouldn't be French -- the point being=20
here that it all must shrink to fit playing-card screens now, but=20
then I confess am writing this on one of those myself --
> The team decided the app should be like a virtual sommelier cum=20
> food critic, featuring food and wine pairings and tutorials on=20
> flavor balancing.
-- they're kidding, "tutorials on flavor balancing"? -- my wife,=20
who is the world's best cook, throws things together in/at the=20
pan, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, but the secret=20
is never to produce exactly the same taste twice --
> Then they moved on to the touchy subject of pricing: Should=20
> they charge for the app? Most iPhone apps are free or very=20
> cheap. "We are in publishing," said Siobhan Padgett, digital=20
> sales and marketing manager at Hachette. "We have to make=20
> money."
> The hardcover of What to Drink with What You Eat lists for $35,=20
> and the Kindle edition goes for $19.25. Hachette editors=20
> eventually decided to charge $4.99 for the app, which is coming=20
> out in January. "We think we can sell a whole lot of these at=20
> this price," says Padgett...
-- so that is the New Publishing Economics, perhaps -- but how=20
does a bookstore clear its stock, then, of the $35 volumes which=20
didn't sell? -- not much room left for "remainder" pricing, if=20
Amazon already is peddling the text online at 40-50% off -- so=20
maybe the bookstore does _not_ clear its stock... -- and that=20
$4.99 means it's time to buy more Apple shares --
> Young and other publishers acknowledge they don't know how all=20
> this experimentation will pay off. Still, they know they need=20
> to figure out the digital future before they lose out to Amazon=20
> or another aggressive newcomer. "We've got a long way to go=20
> before we can recoup our digital investments. The costs have=20
> been huge," says Young. "But I am optimistic, provided we=20
> sustain a healthy industry."
-- and an important warning follows, for distributors, even very=20
big ones, on trying to "game" the New System -- to divert the=20
river you don't build a dam, you drop in a pebble --
> The Debate over Book Delays
>=20
> Should book publishers delay releasing the digital versions of=20
> popular books? There has been fierce debate over that question=20
> ever since the Hachette Book Group and Simon & Schuster said in=20
> December they plan to hold back digital versions of certain=20
> upcoming titles for several months after the hardcover's release.
> Nathan Bransford, a literary agent in the San Francisco office=20
> of Curtis Brown Ltd., argued against such delays on his blog,=20
> since he believes they will simply aggravate would-be readers.=20
> "We've seen repeatedly over the last decade, alienate digital=20
> consumers at your peril," he warned. "The best deterrent=20
> against piracy is making a digital edition readily available=20
> for sale at a fair price. Resisting the conversion to digital=20
> sure didn't work for the music industry."
-- small merchants forever have known this truth well, avoiding=20
the high costs of "security" and "litigation" by focussing=20
ferociously, instead, on sourcing and selling new product --=20
large firms which forget this just make their lawyers rich.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_02/b4162050103172.htm
And now from the non-commercial (formerly) angle -- libraries=20
apparently are merging with l'=E9dition, or at least are wobbling=20
over in that direction, even in France, sacre bleu... --
=09> "Mitterrand endorses partial scan for Google." by
=09Barbara Casassus, in/on bookseller.com (January 13, 2010)
=09(excerpts, with a few more comments interlined:)
> French culture minister Fr=E9d=E9ric Mitterrand has endorsed the=20
> idea that Google should scan some French language books, but=20
> only on the basis of swapping files with a future national=20
> platform for digitised works...
-- the most interesting thing here, to me, is that once again the=20
French are a bellweather -- this will be the dream of more than=20
just them, as quite a few nations around the world will want to=20
"have their cake & eat it" too, here --
> The proposals call for French public libraries and publishers=20
> to create a joint cooperative platform to give access to all=20
> scanned books under the same virtual roof and to form an=20
> interface with other internet sites. A law is being drafted to=20
> permit orphan works to be scanned in France.
-- that's the cake --
> But Tessier [former French Television president Marc] dismissed=20
> Googles demand for 25 years commercial exclusivity over the=20
> books it digitises, as "contrary to all (reasonable)=20
> principles". Any agreement should be based on a one-to-one=20
> exchange of files Google has already scanned with those from=20
> the national platform, he added.
-- and that's the eating -- there is an extraordinary, if=20
insistent, na=EFvet=E9 about the money-making process, in all of this=20
-- there being "no free lunch", available in any of it -- as=20
someone, sooner or later, taxpayer or private risk capital=20
investor, and eventually the consumer, is going to have to pay --
> The public-private partnership would build on the BNF's digital=20
> library Gallica, which would be renamed, and would aim "to=20
> create a database of French language works of a quality=20
> comparable to Google Books for the English language", the=20
> report said...
-- therein lies another rub, "quality" -- although GoogleBooks=20
sceptics should know, or admit, that there never has been an=20
errors-free database, never has been & never will be --
> "Google welcomes all public-private initiatives that aim to=20
> promote French heritage and make it accessible to the largest=20
> number of people", said Philippe Colombet, Google France's=20
> books director...
-- leaving far more un-said than he says --
> French Publishers Association (SNE) president Serge Eyrolles=20
> welcomed the initiative. The joint platform was "a good thing,=20
> especially for orphan works, although we must see how it will=20
> be managed".
-- and ditto --
> Antoine Gallimard, head of the Gallimard publishing house...=20
> saying... "Google will not be able to do what it wants"...=20
> added that publishers digital book distributors would link up=20
> through Dilicom, a book trade database, probably before the end=20
> of June, and that the hub created through this would work with=20
> the new national platform.
> Publishers have been criticised for setting up rival=20
> distributors. Another report presented to Mitterrand last week=20
> said a single distributor was indispensable and that the=20
> current fragmentation would be "a colossal handicap for online=20
> booksellers".
-- so all roads still lead to Paris, in some French imaginations=20
-- also though in many other imaginations around the globe, if=20
not necessarily in the always-untypical multi-polar USofA -- most=20
folks everywhere worry, if their "control" over something new is=20
not "centralized"...
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/109177-page.html
How all this current sound & fury will evolve, and crystallize,=20
into some New Digital Solution, as digital technique soars up &=20
away from its US-based Age of Incunabula, nobody knows.
It does appear, however, that the Outside World may not adopt the=20
US Model for digital, at least not in toto. Certainly the=20
Foreigners love the bits & bytes as much as we do -- in some=20
cases even more, if household penetration statistics are to be=20
believed -- urban myths / Net legends would suggest that there=20
are more Internet servers, in some non-US places on the planet,=20
than there are people...
But in dealing with the Global Internet there are some=20
differences -- we're not in Kansas any more, welcome to=20
globalization's Oz. Our Friends the French are giving us=20
indications of what to expect: and the French are more like us=20
than others are -- we would do well to be patient, and study the=20
differences carefully, the differences will be more numerous and=20
far bigger when we get to Lagos, as they already are in Shanghai.
Notes on the French e-book model:
* Government roles
France and the US, for all their many similarities, are different=20
-- France among other differences favoring a stronger role for=20
central government, particularly regarding industrial policy.
This is an old issue: nothing so recent as the business-cycle=20
recession of the last few years, or even the decades older and=20
longer-lasting Neocon Revolution, or the terrible first half of=20
the last century, or the Agrarian France and retard fran=E7ais of=20
the previous.
France has favored, or been saddled with, a stronger central=20
government throughout most of its long history, in fact -- since=20
the early French kings began pulling the country toward Paris --=20
just as "states' rights" and "federalism" issues have driven US=20
decentralization since our Colonial-era beginnings several=20
hundred years ago.
** Government's role: the theories
The underlying ideas, on both sides of the Atlantic, have been=20
subject to exceptions. Just as modern French policymakers have=20
worked hard on "d=E9centralisation", so US policymakers since 1789=20
have embraced some of the virtues and evils of strong central=20
government.
** Government's role: the cartoons
But the caricatures tell much of the story: "Colbertisme=20
hi-tech", "l'=E9tat c'est moi", "Paris et le d=E9sert fran=E7ais" -- as=20
late as the 1960s a telephone call across a provincial French=20
valley, to a neighboring village actually visible on the other=20
side, might have gone up to Paris and back again along trunk=20
lines radiating out from la capitale like the spokes of a great=20
wheel.
The US, by contrast, has been "E pluribus unum / out of many,=20
one", at least in theory. One governmental result has been strong=20
US regional centers, multi-polar governance -- individual=20
"states", state capitals, scattered cities far larger and in many=20
ways more powerful than the national capital itself.
To this underlying difference in governmental structure, then,=20
have been added some very different attitudes toward industrial=20
policy -- US capitalism has undergone an evolution very different=20
from that of capitalism in France.
Paris has had a Bourse, yes, and great industrial empires -- and=20
vast and proud "nation(s) of shopkeepers" have roamed the French=20
townscapes and society for some time, but nowhere near the way=20
they have in the US.
The balances struck long ago, between entrepreneurial activity=20
and government control -- both systems have such balances -- are=20
very different, France for example favoring far more central=20
government control of that activity, and the US favoring far=20
less.
Again there have been exceptions: the New Deal of the US, for=20
instance, shocked some French conservatives perhaps as much as=20
the occasional antics of large French companies shock some US=20
liberals. And "conservative" and "liberal" labels themselves can=20
mean very different things in both places. So things commercial=20
on each side of the pond are different...
* Scaling up, and out
The question of the hour being which system is more typical of=20
The Rest of the World, however...
* China v Google
It is tough making global generalizations about globalization.=20
Among the safe statements though is that "one size fits all" is=20
not a safe assumption: no one model, US or any other, for ebook=20
or any other industrial growth, is going to suit all situations,=20
as digital information techniques scale up and grow globally.
Just this week Google is facing this in China: all those=20
headlines, about the US firm closing up shop there, apparently=20
defeated by a combination of central government intervention and=20
duplicity, and a very un-American Chinese interest in repressing=20
its own citizen's civil rights -- plus the availability of a=20
sophisticated homegrown competitor, Baidu, to take Google's=20
place...
And in the same week the French, of all people -- after all their=20
own noisy contentions with the same US firm -- offer Google their=20
olive branch of "some" participation in a French national=20
digitized-texts database, one to be built specifically to rival=20
Google's own... Heads must be spinning in Mountain View...
The dilemma is not so hard to figure out if certain assumptions=20
get dropped:
* no the foreigners don't speak like Americans;
* no the foreigners don't think like Americans;
* yes the foreigners admire American achievements, but they want=20
their _own_; and,
* yes the foreigners share values with Americans, but they assign=20
different _priorities_ to those values -- for example overseas=20
"consensus" often trumps "democracy", or "religion" trumps "civil=20
liberty" where those two conflict -- a "hijab" may be more=20
important to someone than her job, in some places, or caring for=20
elders more than caring for children, or national pride more than=20
production efficiency...
All are lessons in inter-national / trans-national relations most=20
easily learned from Our Old Friends the French, who are so=20
similar to us -- moreso anyway than our New Friends the Chinese=20
or the Indians or the Yemenis or the Nigerians, none of whom are.
At least the French, for all their loud protests over the real=20
policy differences which do separate us, haven't thrown us out=20
the country, yet, the way the Chinese apparently just have.
Trade does need to be tough -- commercial competition needs to be=20
brutal -- our New Economic Order for Globalization's era needs to=20
accommodate some measure of "creative destruction" to be true
entrepreneurial capitalism, which still is the "worst system=20
except for all the others" as one version of that old adage goes.
One hopes, though, that some multi-national / trans-national=20
"rules" for governing all of this current Globalization=20
commercial mayhem will appear soon: another old adage, that=20
"trade is war by peaceful means", does work both ways.
Time, then, to see and hear better, to listen and to learn: China=20
and the US may be made to share again, hopefully -- as, this week=20
anyway, France and the US once again are doing, or at least are=20
trying to do.
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.com
=09=09=09=09--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071-5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
--------- credit and show my email address, and, b) it
// \\ isn't going to make them money: if it is going
=09=09 to make them money, they must get my permission
in advance, and share some of the money which they get with me.=20
Use of material written by others requires their permission. FYI=20
France archives may be found at http://www.cru.fr/listes/biblio-fr@cru.fr/
(BIBLIO-FR archive), or http://listserv.uh.edu/archives/pacs-l.html
(PACS-L archive), or http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Collections/FYIFrance/
or http://www.fyifrance.com . Suggestions, reactions, criticisms,=20
praise, and poison-pen letters all gratefully received at kessler@well.sf.c=
a.us .
=09Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
=09all rights reserved except as indicated above.
=09=09=09=09--hjlm--
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