The Piracy Project is an international publishing and exhibition project exploring the philosophical, legal and practical implications of book piracy and creative modes of reproduction. This project is developed by Andrea Francke, Lynn Harris and Eva Weinmayr. Last week, on the 5th of May, James Bridle gave a speech which was entitled “The New Pierre Menard: digitisation and everything after” – James Bridle is also a speaker on the coming Unbound Book Conference, to be held next week.

James Bridle is a publisher, writer and artist based in the UK. One of his projects is research on Wikipedia in relation to the Iraq War:

This particular book—or rather, set of books—is every edit made to a single Wikipedia article, The Iraq War, during the five years between the article’s inception in December 2004 and November 2009, a total of 12,000 changes and almost 7,000 pages.

So during the Iraq War all the edits on the Wikipedia page devoted to the war were collected and brought together in this huge collection of books. According to Bridle, Wikipedia is a useful subset of the entire internet, and as such a subset of all human culture. In his eyes this is historiography – history as a process – instead of just a set of “facts”: history written by the victors. You can see more on: http://booktwo.org/notebook/wikipedia-historiography/

In the sessions Future Publishing Industries & Digital Enclosures of the Unbound Book Conference, conventional and digital publishing will be featured subjects. Bridle will speak during the session “Future Publishing Industries“. One of the key questions is how to organize valuable pieces of information, especially in order to serve the next generations. The unconventional notion of the book is changing rapidly. Unknown is what new forms of organizing information do to the concept of “bookness”. What is the digital equivalent of the book as aesthetic object? How will new players, like the companies: Amazon, Google & Apple influence the field?

For more information see: http://www.art-agenda.com/shows/and-publishing-announces-the-piracy-lectures/

Just a few days before the Unbound Book Conference will take place, the Amsterdam Art / Book fair will be held as well. The Amsterdam Art/Book Fair gives special attention to art and design academies involved in publishing. This first conference will take place on the 14 & 15 of May 2011, presenting a high end international selection of art publications:

The fair aims to reflect on the emerging practices and new development in art, through a selection of publishers from 16 countries. Printed matter and digital media edited by independent publishers and artists, magazines and institutions, art schools and graphic design studios are featured in this first edition. (Source)

The program consists of two afternoons with presentations of artists,designers and publishers. The common language will be English and several speakers will be present to sign their recent publications. On the closing day, saturday 14 may, there will be a after show party. Six schools will present their recent publications and limited editions: Geneva University of Art and Design, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Rietveld Academie / Graphic Design, Rietveld Academie / DOGtime Press, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten & Werkplaats Typografie.

The Amsterdam Art/Book Fair is initiated and organised by Delphine Bedel (Monospace Press) and Yannick Bouillis (Shashin/Offprint), and is hosted by the Flemish Cultural Centre De Brakke Grond. The entrance to the conference is free. For more information: www.amsterdamartbookfair.com.
Or: www.delphinebedel.com & www.offprintparis.com.

Amsterdam Art/Book Fair 2011
Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 May
De Brakke Grond
Amsterdam, NL

The 37^th International Book Fair: Books without Borders takes place 20th April to May 9th. The Book Fair is one of the largest in the world and attracts more than a million visitors each year. The fair is considered one of the most important cultural and editorial events in Latin America and among its visitors are authors, editors, book sellers, distributors, teachers, librarians, scientists, students and readers.

On the book fair many events take place such as exhibitions, book sales, readings, lectures, roundtable discussions, presentations, signings, courses, workshops and events for specialists and publishing professionals. The special activities of this year include a book reading marathon, an  International poetry festival and a story-telling meeting.

The official website of the International Book Fair:     http://www.el-libro.org.ar/

The 40th edition of the London Book Fair focuses this year on digital media’s effects on publishing. The London Book Fair Digital Conference, The Digital Now: Creating Lasting Change, took place a day before the fair opened and hashed out various disruptions and possibilities of the digital turn. Meanwhile the book fair itself takes on digital topics through the Digital Zone and Theatre, featuring over 40 exhibitors from across the digital supply chain. At the Theatre visitors can see presentations of the latest products and suppliers from companies involved in digital publishing. Visitors can also attend several seminars covering the latest trends in digital publishing at The Digital Seminar stream.

The key themes of the Digital conference
What’s going on in the digital publishing market? Key themes at the conference were the future of enhanced ebooks, the importance of ebook discoverability, pricing strategies and business models. Stephen Page, chief executive of Faber and Faber, opened the conference by affirming that the publisher won’t grow obsolete because she’s already squarely in the thick of the digital turn. “We are not learning to be digital publishers, we are in the digital market.”

Discoverability and pricing of the ebook
Ebook discoverability, one critical theme, emerged as a key challenge for vendors. According to Evan Schnittman, buying books is a leisure activity, so the competition for an ebook should be viewed differently from its physical counterpart. Gordon Willoughby adds that pricing for ebooks is influenced by where the costumer is when he buys it and must take into account that e-books compete with film and music downloading. “It is digital vs all the other options you have sitting on the sofa.”

The Kindle and the Kobo
The speakers overall saw potential in ebook readers. Willoughby claimed that putting books on the Kindle generates sale: if a customer bought 10 physical books before they own a Kindle, after they own a Kindle they bought 33 physical and Kindle titles. Michael Tamblyn from Kobo discussed the growth of the sales of their ebook readers: “It took 10 months to get 1m users, 90 days to get the 2nd million, 14 days to get next million.”

Threads for e-books
The conference also had its skeptics, with repeated warnings that Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook could monopolise routes to the customer. Michael Comish from BlinkBox calls them “frenemies”. Evan claimed that the enhanced ebook and the app, especially for narrative works, are already dead and entirely unnecessary, since what sells e-books also sells p-books. Enhanced content is unnecessary because ”If a book is a hit in p, it’ll be a hit in e.” Only educational ebooks might find a viable market. However Faber and Faber’s head of digital, Henry Volans contested that statement: “Apps are a phenomenon of our age and are here to stay.”

The London Book is 11^th – 13^th  April.
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/