Ciclo de Palestras "100 Lições" - Comemorações dos 100 Anos da Universidade de Lisboa

  A Universidade Portuguesa tem a sua origem em Lisboa em 1288-1290, e só foi transferida definitivamente para Coimbra em 1537. A actual Universidade de Lisboa foi criada por decreto de 22 de Março de 1911, reunindo os vários estudos superiores reaparecidos na capital durante o século XIX. É uma história de séculos que a Universidade de Lisboa comemora em 2011.

  Inicia-se hoje o primeiro ciclo de palestras do programa "100 Lições", um dos eventos que se inserem na comemoração do centenário da Universidade de Lisboa. Assim, antigos alunos como Lídia Jorge, Vasco Graça Moura e Nuno Júdice regressam à universidade para participar neste ciclo de palestras, que se realiza até 12 de Maio, de segunda a sexta-feira, entre as 18h e as 20h na Sala de Conferências da Reitoria da Universidade de Lisboa. A entrada é livre e o programa detalhado pode ser consultado aqui.

Leituras Digitais (16 a 22 de Janeiro)

Rubrica semanal de notícias e artigos relacionados com a edição de livros digitais.

What happens when there’s advertising in books?

  The first question – Is there any way to avoid advertising in books?

The Answer: Not really.

Now that Google has a patent that lets them fight off the patent Amazon got for advertising in books. Now that Publishers are desperate. Now that Google has probably realized that it needs to offer something to readers that Amazon and B&N can’t easily match. Now that most online companies have begun to feel advertising is the answer to everything.

BISG Ebook ISBN study released

  There is wide interpretation and varying implementations of the ISBN eBook standard; however, all participants agree a normalized approach supported by all key participants would create significant benefits and should be a goal of all parties.

Achieving that goal will require closer and more active communication among all concerned parties and potential changes in ISBN policies and procedures. Enforcement of any eventual agreed policy will require commitment from all parties; otherwise, no solution will be effective and, to that end, it would be practical to gain this commitment in advance of defining solutions.

US is 75% of Global E-Reader Market, Apple & Amazon Dominate, Says IDC Study

  US-based Apple and Amazon are the leading global vendors of tablet computers and e-readers, respectively, according to the Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker, published by International Data Corporation (IDC). Pandigital and Barnes & Noble have lapped Sony to become the #2 and #3 global vendor of e-readers. Sony is neck and neck with Chinese-producer Hanvon in distributing e-readers, and are at the #4 and #5 positions — though are significantly behind the leaders in terms of percentage of market share.

The Father (Mother?) of eReaders looks set to become extinct – Sony simply are not trying

  All of this probably wouldn’t matter too much if the prices they charged for their various models reflected the realities of their limited hardware, but sadly they don’t.   Sony is resolutely refusing  to join in the price war that is currently raging in the eReader world, making their eReaders, which are comparable to the cheaper models way too expensive for what they are offering us.

Barnes & Noble: From Thug to Love

  Sorry Indies, but it’s the truth. B&N still has enough consolidated power to “make” books. Its buying power makes it indispensable to publishers who need advance orders to justify print runs and the various other knock on effects that entails. They are providing –- via their Nook device –- the biggest rival to Amazon’s e-reader hegemony. And, let’s face it, if they –- along with Borders -– disappeared, how many communities would suddenly be underserved or not served at all? This is the reason small towns lobby B&N to open stores in their community: people are now, like it or not, accustomed to the selection available at big box retailers. True, perhaps half of those who shop at B&N’s aren’t there for the books, but what better chance is there to entice a not-so-avid reader into picking up a book?

Sarkozy to stage G20 meeting about authors' rights

  The idea is "to try and advance together, not one against the other", and to achieve a "civilised" rather than a "regulated internet" he said in a New Year speech to the French culture, teaching and research communities.

Territorial restrictions continue to frustrate e-book customers

  Whatever the cause of this obnoxious limitation, we’ve had e-books in some form for well over a decade now. Why on earth can’t the publishing industry figure out a way to solve this problem and let people who want to buy books buy them? As the pasted LostBookSales report indicates, people who are denied the opportunity will often just resort to piracy, and that does not earn the author or publisher anything.

A publicação no formato digital não é uma opção, é uma questão de sobrevivência

  É isto mesmo. Em 2010, o faturamento de e-books correspondeu a 9% do faturamento das grandes editoras americanas. Em 2008, foi 1% e em 2009, 3%. O crescimento tem sido exponencial. Em alguns poucos anos, haverá uma grande demanda por livros no formato digital, e onde há demanda, há oferta. Se os editores não fornecerem seus livros em formato eletrônico, alguém vai. Por mais que se combata a pirataria, será impossível evitar que algum adolescente na Lapônia ou em São José do Rio Preto digitalize um livro indisponível e o torne acessível na internet.

Vídeos

Kindle Hacking 101 - E Book DRM Removal

Treasures Smartphone App from the British Library

Territorio Ebook, la voz de los lectores

Citações

  “We have a task before us which must be speedily performed. We know that it will be ruinous to make delay. The most important crisis of our life calls, trumpet-tongued, for immediate energy and action. We glow, we are consumed with eagerness to commence the work, with the anticipation of whose glorious result our whole souls are on fire. It must, it shall be undertaken to-day, and yet we put it off until to-morrow, and why? There is no answer, except that we feel perverse, using the word with no comprehension of the principle. To-morrow arrives, and with it a more impatient anxiety to do our duty, but with this very increase of anxiety arrives, also, a nameless, a positively fearful, because unfathomable, craving for delay. This craving gathers strength as the moments fly. The last hour for action is at hand. We tremble with the violence of the conflict within us, -- of the definite with the indefinite -- of the substance with the shadow. But, if the contest have proceeded thus far, it is the shadow which prevails, -- we struggle in vain. The clock strikes, and is the knell of our welfare. At the same time, it is the chanticleer -- note to the ghost that has so long overawed us. It flies -- it disappears -- we are free. The old energy returns. We will labor now. Alas, it is too late!”

                          Edgar Allan Poe, The Imp of the Perverse

Votação aberta para os Prémios de Edição LER/BOOKTAILORS 2010

Inicia-se hoje o período de votação para o público, que até 15 de Fevereiro poderá contribuir para a eleição dos vencedores das diferentes categorias dos Prémios de Edição LER/ BOOKTAILORS. Os resultados finais serão apresentados dia 25 de Fevereiro na XII Correntes D’Escritas, evento que se realiza anualmente na Póvoa de Varzim.

Colecção Frente e Verso da revista Visão

  A segunda série desta colecção, em que se pretende reunir autores que publicam prosa e poesia, será lançada esta quinta-feira, 20 de Janeiro, incluindo os seguintes autores:

• Alice Vieira: Prosa Às Dez a Porta Fecha Poesia Dois corpos tombando na água        
• José Jorge Letria: Prosa Coração Sem Abrigo Poesia Produto Interno Lírico
• Luísa Dacosta: Prosa Corpo Recusado Poesia A Maresia do Sargaço dos Dias
• Urbano Tavares Rodrigues: Prosa O Eterno Efémero Poesia Horas de Vidro      
• Natália Correia: Prosa A Madona Poesia Sonetos Românticos
• José Mário Silva: Prosa O Efeito Borboleta e outras histórias Poesia Luz Indecisa
• Ana Paula Tavares: Prosa A Cabeça de Salomé Poesia Dizes-me Coisas Amargas como Frutos

Leituras Digitais (9 a 15 de Janeiro)

Rubrica semanal de notícias e artigos relacionados com a edição de livros digitais.

Writers will have to change their attitude if they’re to catch up with the videogames industry

  But fiction has not found the transition to anything other than the e-book format so easy. "Fiction seems not to be grasping the potential," says Pullinger. "Many of the apps and enhanced e-books are just codex books with videos and notes shovelled in – like DVDs with their added extras."

Copyright comes a cropper in the digital age

  Indeed, it is now feasible that the copyright conventions by which publishers live and die will soon have the contemporary relevance of a papyrus. Newly digitised texts will become subject to the awesome power of online bookselling. According to Chris Anderson, the author of Free, once something becomes software it inevitably becomes free.

For Digital Publishers and Device Manufacturers, CES 2011 Was All About the Deal

  Book apps and e-reading platforms are fast becoming a staple, and we saw them featured on nearly all the new devices, from smartphones to tablets and PCs. For publishers and content creators, CES is a great place to see, in person, how their content looks on these devices and where consumer expectations are headed. Personally, I can say it was energizing to see just how much book content is playing an increasingly important role in the tech industry.

Biting the Dust — Yet Again

  Kobo Books is important because it is currently the only major ebooktailer with global reach other than Amazon. But unless Kobo Books improves the shopping experience, it is more of a drag than anything else on ebook sales for midtier and small publishing houses, sales that could be the difference between being in business and biting the dust. And if small and midtier publishers do not find a way to combat the rush by better authors to self-publishing, what currently is just a small cloud of dust will become a dust storm of publishers going out of business. That will not be good for anyone — authors will have increased difficulty earning a living from their writing and readers will have increased difficulty in finding good books to read.

Report warns of 'digital Dark Age' if digitisation is left to private sector

  The report, the work of German national library head Elisabeth Niggeman, advertising chief Maurice Levy and Belgian author Jacques de Decker, recommends much greater focus on the EU's online library Europeana and the fostering of competitors to Google, which currently dominates the digitisation agenda. "Can Europe afford to be inactive and wait, or leave it to one or more private players to digitise our common cultural heritage? Our answer is a resounding 'no'," the trio say.

7% of US own an e-reader, study says

  PWC have released the results of a study today that summarizes the current state of the ebook and e-reader market. PWC polled over 1000 online users in the US, UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Oxford University Press to launch ebook distribution platform

  Oxford University Press is pleased to announce the creation of a groundbreaking online platform for university press monograph content. Having redeveloped the award-winning Oxford Scholarship Online platform, OUP is launching University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) and inviting the University Press community to take advantage of a fully enabled XML environment with the cutting edge search and discovery functionality that has marked the success of Oxford Scholarship Online.

Vídeos

Freescale E-ink Prototype

CES 2011: Technology Meets Content