Digital Musings

Smartlibris: la bibliothèque numérique des familles

SMARTLIBRIS est en ligne depuis hier!

Les passionnés de cinéma assouvissent leur passion pour le 7ième art avec NETFLIX® (www.netflix.com). Les amateurs de chansons vivent en musique avec DEEZER® (www.deezer.com) et SPOTIFY® (www.spotify.com).

QUID DES AMATEURS DE LIVRES ET DE LECTURE ?

Désormais, grâce à Cyberlibris® (www.cyberlibris.com), les férus de livres et de lecture disposent de SMARTLIBRIS® (www.smartlibris.com)

Avec SMARTLIBRIS, les livres numériques sont enfin accessibles au grand public en ligne (streaming), en texte intégral et sur abonnement forfaitaire :

-    SMARTLIBRIS a été conçu pour une utilisation en famille. Le service donne accès à une bibliothèque numérique trilingue (français, anglais, espagnol) riche d’environ 9000 livres qui couvrent un large champ thématique, de la fiction à la non-fiction. Cette bibliothèque s’enrichira des apports réguliers des maisons d’édition partenaires de Cyberlibris.

-    SMARTLIBRIS a été principalement pensé et dessiné à partir de l’iPad®. L’iPad et les tablettes tactiles rivales, véritables machines à surfer domestiques, procurent à la lecture sur écran des sensations agréables en redonnant aux mains un rôle moteur.

Avec SMARTLIBRIS, Cyberlibris nourrit une ambition simple:

« Fournir à chaque foyer à un coût raisonnable et dans le strict respect de la propriété intellectuelle un accès démocratique à l’outil de Savoir, d’Evasion, de Réussite et de Découverte qu’est une bibliothèque numérique. »

Une fois l’abonnement familial acquitté, chaque membre de la famille accède à la bibliothèque, à ses livres et ses outils :

-    À la maison : Raconter une histoire aux enfants au bord du lit, guider les adolescents dans leurs études, choisir la prochaine destination de vacances de la famille, comprendre les avantages de l’énergie photovoltaïque, connaître le droit de la copropriété, cuisiner thaï pour ses amis, lire un roman, un polar ou une nouvelle... les livres attendent d’être (déc)ouverts et lus en ligne.

-     En mobilité : Vérifier une définition juridique, lire un poème, envoyer la fiche d’un livre sur Twitter ou Facebook ... rien de plus facile. Et c’est aussi possible en WiFi, en 3G, à partir de son iPod ou de son iPhone.

Avec Smartlibris, Cyberlibris élargit les opportunités de visibilité et de revenus des catalogues des maisons d’édition:

-     Jusqu’à présent, les bibliothèques numériques conçues par Cyberlibris et accessibles par abonnement institutionnel étaient réservées aux écoles, aux universités, aux institutions et aux bibliothèques. Ces bibliothèques numériques, utilisées quotidiennement par des centaines de milliers de professeurs, étudiants, professionnels et bibliothécaires, sont depuis près de dix ans la source de substantiels revenus complémenaires (à ceux du livre papier) pour les maisons d’édition concernées et leurs auteurs.

-    Dorénavant, la famille, au gré de ses découvertes et de ses lectures, participe, elle aussi, sous la forme originale de l’abonnement, à la rémunération des auteurs et de leurs maisons d’édition.

Cyberlibris launches in Spain and Sweden

2008 is about to close: Another year of intense collaboration with publishers (both sides of the ocean), academic institutions, commercial partners and, last but not least, thousands of individuals who have collectively expressed their interest and trust in what we have been crafting step-by-step since 2000.

The community of subscribers using one of the many Cyberlibris (www.cyberlibris.com) digital libraries span a wide range of countries and continents: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Algeria, Morrocco, Senegal, Congo, Brazil, Haïti, French West Indies etc... It is always a good feeling when you see that books are digitally travelling reaching people in remote places who more often than not have a limited access to bookstores, print books, libraries.

The feeling is exactly the same when you see French or Belgium students interacting digitally with books and with each other and, for that matter, spending less time in front of photocopiers. It is also a privilege when faculty members revert back to us to tell us that they have discovered books in their respective fields which they did not know about. It is even more rewarding to see faculty members' bookshelves shared with students who are no longer restricted to a single required text. No more text rationing for odd and undefendable reasons: The diversity of opinions, expert knowledge, reading styles is now a common currency traded by professors, students and librarians.

In this (re)discovery process predicated on a no-brainer subscription model, publishers are in an ideal position to observe that the classical (physical) best-seller hierarchy is more often than not turned upside down. Subscribers vote with their mice and in the course of doing so books and authors that had been crushed by the physical system regain a lease of life. A lease of life that has led in many cases to new editions of their books which were not supposed to take place to say the least. Another great feeling indeed!

2008 has been a great year not only for pure academic reasons. Thousands of individual subscribers, individuals, families, kids, public library patrons, have communicated their enthusiasm for this very simple notion of having access to a digital library (too) from home or from wherever they are. A fascinating move indeed from institutions with a clear agenda to individuals charactererized by their diversity of tastes, horizons, opportunities, constraints etc... And a rewarding one which has enabled us to spread the gospel abroad.

In 2009 Cyberlibris will launch (fully localized) in Spain and Sweden. South and North! Spanish and Swedish publishers have joined the hundreds of French and international publishers who endorse Cyberlibris business proposition. Again, this is a great motive of satisfaction to see that something that was conceived and built "locally" is about to fly under different latitudes: After all, attitude beats latitude!

This does not mean of course that homeland has been neglected or forgotten. In 2009, new services and new applications will be launched spanning many publishers, many territories and, of course, many people: litterature, novels, essays, theology, science etc...

2008 has been a very rewarding year. We learnt a lot and still are. We listened a lot too. And, we know all too well that each day is another day. No, we don't know whether or not 2008 has been the year of the e-book, whether or not 2009 will be. And, frankly, we could not care less: We do not believe in universal schemes, one size fits all proposition, consultants predictions and the whole (tech) shabam. Forecasters cannot even explain the past... 

To all our (institutional and individual) users we want to express our deepest gratitude. Without them 2008 would not have been what it turned out to be, a year where the dream we had in 2000, namely to let subscription-based digital libraries inside each home, came true.

We are also grateful to the publishers community who has ventured with us to an unchartered territory that the music industry, among other content rightholders, did not want to explore: That of a different and complementary business model whereby, among other things, rich and varied collections of books can be accessible under a simple, flexible, subscription based and reasonably priced formula. This is the same model that will apply in Spain and Sweden.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All!

Podcasting: Spreading your Gospel the MP3 Way

Apple's Ipods have almost become icons. Furthermore, it is amazing to see the many tools, softwares, objects that have been designed around the Ipod and its little brother the Ipod Mini.

Now a new trend is emerging fast: Podcasting. What is it? Well, this is about using your Ipod or any portable MP3 player to time-shift audio broadcasts. According to Podcasting News, "Podcasting lets users subscribe to an audio program and have it automatically downloaded to an MP3 player. Once it's on your portable audio player, you can listen to it whenever you like. The beauty of podcasting is that it takes care of keeping your MP3 player current automatically."

The implications of Podcasting are mind-boggling (not to say mind-blogging). Indeed, suppose you missed your favorite radio show, no problem you can download it later on your MP3 player and listen to it in your car or in the train. You want to start your own radio channel. Easy, use Podcasting to broadcast your shows on the Net. A famous example is Adam Curry.

Assume you're a faculty member and you run a blog (alas, not many do these days...), you can can tape your class and make it available in your blog as an MP3 download. Even better, you can make it available as an RSS feed easily downloadable and readable by a software like ippoderx. Not convinced, well again read carefully what Podcasting News has to say about religions and priests who quickly embraced the Podcasting bandwagon. Podcasting News calls it Godcasting ! (Interestingly enough, religion seems to have been faster on this one than the Adult industry and in any case faster than business schools!).

Joking apart, Podcasting should be (along with Cyberlibris and faculty blogs of course!) the next killer app in business schools and in any place where people do care about pedagogy and message delivery. After all, when you think of it, is not it sad that knowledge that is disseminated in a classroom gets lost forever?

Don't know where to start? Well, start here and here.

Podcasts have already been introduced in Cyberlibris. Just check Newswatch (finance radio news) and blogwatch (books section: CEO Read podcasts).                                     

Here is a sample of what you could expect. This is drawn from James C. Collins and  Jerry I. Porras best-selling Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. Just click on B-T-L Podcast.

And this is only the beginning!