Conference Papers
The Digital Revolution or how to Give New Life to Gutenberg!
Peter Curman
| Peter Curman, |
The role of Internet, Intranet and the World Wide Web is a major subject of today´s conferences all over the world. Recently an international conference took place in Nicosia, Cyprus. Following the decisions of the Rome Ministerial Conference of 1996 for the creation of the Euromediterranean Information Society and with the support of the European Commission the university of Cyprus invited some 300 delegates from all Mediterranean countries to a gathering in Nicosia Hilton hotel on March 4-7, 1998. Many ideas and plans in various fields, commercial and non commercial, were discussed in different conference "tracks".
One of the most interesting discussions was held in the commission for "Culture & Tourism" - and apparently culture again will play a dominating role. The delegate from Egypt, Effat El Shooky, suggested a joint complex cultural site presenting the rich cultural heritage of the region.
Saleem Zoughby reported on the plans for "Bethlehem 2000" - a major celebration in spite of the ongoing conflict in the region.
Most of the participants were representing major administrative bodies inside EU or private companies or agencies. Mr. Horace Mitchell from the European Telework Development said in his presentation that there is always a risk for conformism if a gathering is too homogeneous. It is the differences in views and attitudes that create development, not similarities. This is also the insight of "Our Creative Diversity", and I believe that also the MEDNET process would gain vitality and new energy by mingling administrative and technical experts with people active in cultural life. Also for us active in the field of culture it is stimulating meeting people with another setup of ideas and knowledge. Again, diversity is the key to new achievments.
Internet is a challenge for all kind of information whether it is wanted or unwanted. Some people claim that Internet has given new wings to ugly and stinking ideas of the past and all kind of propaganda. On the other hand these new wings also make good and bright ideas fly to anyone connected, inviting new groups of Internet users to participate in a world wide discussion. Without being pathetic one could really say that never has freedom of speech been so secured as today thanks to the uncontrollable Internet! Ask for instance the Kurdish writers that now can have their forbidden books published and distributed on the Internet. It is a modern and electronic form of zamizdat.
Of course it was a revolution when Gutenberg invented the technique to have books printed instead of the old handwriting. It meant that the free word suddenly was widely spread. After Gutenberg the ideas of life and of freedom was not any longer a privilege for monks in the monasteries.
Gutenberg´s importance for the democratic development of our societies cannot be overestimated.
Today, however, we are all taking part in a second revolution, the digital revolution, which will have at least the same impact, perhaps even bigger than the Gutenberg innovation some hundred years ago.
The digital revolution affects us in all sectors of our lives. Also when it comes to the cultural relations and our mutual knowledge about each other and our different cultures, the new technology is already creating new meeting spots and improve the quality of our relations. My own participation in the Mediterranean conference is just a small example of the impact of Internet; I learnt about the conference from the web site and decided to go there on my own since I thought that this conference could be an excellent occasion to inform the participants about the challange of print-on-demand.
The book industry plays an important part in all our societies. Our minds and our conception of the world are partly formed by what we are reading. But also the book production depends on economical factors and the best-selling books are not always the most important ones. The traditional printing techniques require that you sell a considerable amount of copies of a title not to lose money. In other words, the Gutenberg technique favours a thinking in terms of best selling.
In Sweden, like in many other countries, it is difficult to find good translations of foreign literature, especially from more distant corners of the world. But we are also lacking translations from our neighbors across the Baltic Sea. It is a brutal fact that nearly 80 procent of all translations on the Swedish book market comes from the Anglo-American hemisphere and only 20 procent from the rest of the world, including Europe!
Still, I believe that many people also in Sweden are curious to know more about the fundamental political and cultural changes that have taken place in our own continent the recent years. I am convinced that there are many readers waiting for books also from the Mediterranean countries and the Black Sea region. Translations of books from Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and other highly developed countries when it comes to literature, are also needed. Furthermore, there are big communities of Greeks and Turks in Sweden who would like to keep in contact with the literature of their homelands.
Today a new literary revolution is on its way, not only in Sweden but all over the world: Print-On-Demand! Today you can print a whole book with 200 pages, cover and binding under less than two minutes for a reasonable cost.You don´t have to print more than one copy and you can load the digital printing machine from a diskette or connect it on-line to the Internet.
Using this technique you can e-mail a manuscript from Bangalore in India>that after five minutes can appear as an authentic book in Stockholm, New York or Moscow. This means that the digital revolution now also has spread to book publishing.
Last year I and two Swedish writers; prose writer Jan Myrdal and the poet Lars Forssell, member of the Swedish Academy, published old and new books on print-on-demand in cooperation with a non literary printing company, Arkitetkopia, and the Internet server Marebalticum on the Swedish island Gotland. We wanted to show to the literary audience and to our publishers that it was possible to combine new technology with literature, a sort of cultural marriage between computers and Gutenberg. Today one can describe the pressconference we gave as "historic". It was attended by nearly one hundered journalists and a heated debate started in the Swedish media and it is still going on.
Some publishers felt of course attacked by our action but we were and are>also today eager to stress that we are not revolting against them; on the contrary we need skilled literary people also in the future. People with knowledge of books and the literary society. It must also be said that this new technique is profitable only for small editions. Print-on-demand is nothing for bestsellers. For editions exceding 1000 copies the traditional offset printing method is still more favourable as the price of the books sinks with the numbers of copies.
But when it comes to new titles on the market, to books that would never pass through the pass control of the big publishing houses, the print-on>demand technique is a fantastic door opener.
Inspired by the success of our first Print-On-Demand books the Writers Centre in Stockholm, a writers´organisation for promoting literature, is now with the Swedish Booksellers Association and the Stockholm City Library starting a new publishing house based on this technique, PODIUM (Print-On-Demand). We intend to connect about 40 book stores to our project at start. These stores will all be connected to the Internet. In these stores the customer will find samples of the books printed with this technique so that he can see and feel the quality of the book before he decides to buy or not to buy. When he has made up his mind he asks the bookseller to order the book on the screen, and next day it will be ready to collect in the same shop.
This new way of printing and distributing books will have special importanc >for the immigrants living in Sweden. Because now we can open the Swedish book stores for them. In future, they can order new books from their cultural homelands and have them printed in their own tongue in various places in Sweden.
Already some Turkish publishers have declared that they are interested to send new manuscripts on the Internet to our printing machines. Soon, we hope to establish cooperation on an international level as well, with many publishers in the world. PODIUM is cooperating with one company, Arkitektkopa, which today has twelve print-on-demand-machines all over Sweden. The idea is that the book should not be only printed when it is needed but also where it is needed in order to avoid time consuming and non ecological transportation in the landscape. In future, most big book stores will have their own print-on-demand machines since the technique is developing very fast and the prices are sinking.
This new technique has also made it possible for anybody interested to print his or her own book without the interference of a publisher. If you go to the Internet address http://www.books-on-demand.com you will be invited to mail your manuscript before 3 pm to have it back as a ready book in the snail mail next day.
The book revolution is here. For us writers it is now necessary not to lose this initiative but to strengthen our international cooperation.
If we who believe in humanistic values join forces the new millennium can be a millennium based upon mutual understanding and respect with the new technique not as a goal but as a tool.
(revised article based upon a speech held at the MEDNET conference, Nicosia 4-7 March, 1998)
Peter Curman