A discussion of eBooks, apps, and electronic literature delivered at Portland State University's Publishing Program on 12 January 2015.

2. HOW DOES OUR TECHNOLOGY CHANGE
HOW WE TELL STORIES AND HOW WE
VIEW THE WORLD?

4. Mobile Phone Fiction

5. THE FICTION OF TOMORROW?

6. BSB Explorer with 3D Interface (clip)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9tAzTLUXU#t=1517

7. Digital works of fiction and poetry can take
many different forms

8. INTERNET TELEVISION
(WEBISODES)
LonelyGirl15

9. MACHINIMA
Cirque de Machinima
(Second Life background)
The Snow Witch (Sims 2):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=PlayList&hl=en-
GB&gl=GB&index=7&v=uX5C2MrpBbo&p=61AE59ED7E192769

10. REMIXES
http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/bigelow_brainstrips.html
Alan Bigelow’s Brainstrips

11. TRANSMEDIA WORKS HAVE
DIGITAL COMPONENTS

12. Cross-Media Entertainment:
Multiple Entry Points To A Foundational Story

13. APPS

14. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

15. Sample tweets:
From Hamlet: WTF IS
POLONIUS DOING BEHIND
THE CURTAIN???
From the Harry Potter series:
Oh man big tournament at
my school this year!!
PSYCHED! I hope nobody
dies this year, and every year
as if by clockwork.

16. HYPERTEXT

17. THE QUEST TO CLASSIFY
KNOWLEDGE

18. Library of Alexandria (Egypt)
(burned 391 AD)

19. ‘All the world’s a stage’:
Giulio Camillo’s (1480-1544), Memory Theatre
(believed to have been the inspiration for the building of
the Globe Theatre in London)

20. Robert Fludd
(1574-1637),
Great Chain
of Being

21. Athanasius
Kircher’s
illustration of the
Tree of the
Sephiroth
published in his
book, Oedipus
Aegyptiacus
(1652)

22. Paul Otlet and the Mundaneum
(Belgium, 1934)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LskVjSrZ_2M

23. Google on Paul Otlet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvLKr8Go3iA

24. Genealogy of Influence
• Otlet with Paul le Fontaine (who won the Nobel Peace Prize) worked
with President Wilson to found the League of Nations
• Otlet worked with Melville Dewey’s decimal system to produce an
elaborate system of classification that is still used today
• H.G. Wells, The World Brain, Shape of Things to Come, World Wide
Network
• Jorge Luis Borges and the “Library of Babel”
– Umberto Eco, “The Name of the Rose”
• Teilhard de Chardin, The Noosphere
– Marshall McLuhan, founder of field of Media Studies, concept of The
Global Village
– Alan Kay, developed the Dynabook (1969), Mac 3D interface
• Robert Goldschmidt, perfected microphotography with Otlet;
developed and patented microfilm, which he sold to IBM
– Vannevar Bush, the Memex
– Tim Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web

25. What is an ebook?

26. eBook, n.
A text-based book in digital
form. It is a book-wannabe.

27. E-Books
(since 1971),
designed for
online
distribution
and reading,
seek to
emulate their
paper
foremothers.

28. Amplified eBooks.
eBook plus. Where the eBook
meets the textual edition.
(Not to be confused with an online magazine,
electronic journal or online newspaper.)

29. Amplified Pillars of the Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hrcOZQFOFA

30. Amplified On The Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH5EcM8H3HE

31. TIMELINE OF THE EBOOK

32. eBook Timeline
• 189?-1944, The Mundaneum
• 1922 – Teilhard de Chardin, the
Noosphere
• 1937 – H.G. World Brain: A
Permanent Encyclopedia
• 1945 Vannevar Bush describes the
Memex (patent rejected)
• 1964 – Marshall McLuhan, “the
medium is the message”, “the global
village”
• 1967 – Andries van Dam – first
hypertext editing system
• 1968 – Alan McKay, influenced by
McLuhan, patents the Dynabook,
precursor to the laptop
• 1971 Project Gutenberg – goal was
to archive 10,000 books in ASCII – at
a time when only 100 people were
using the Internet
• 1985 – Aldus Pagemaker, the first
desktop publishing program,
launched
• 1998 – Softbook Reader, first
dedicated ebook reader
• 1998 – first handheld ebook reader,
The Rocket
• 1999 – NetLibrary Launched
• 2004 – Google Book Search–
scanned library of works launched
• 2007 – Amazon Kindle
• 2007 – Apple iPhone
• 2007-2010 – EPUB, free open
source book standard created by
International Digital Publishing
Forum (IDPF)
• 2011-2014 – EPUB3, a multimedia
standard that allows for either
reflowable ebooks or interactive
fixed layout

34. eBooks and DRM (digital locks)

35. Creating Reflowable eBooks
Online
• BookType 1.6 (2.0 was due December 2014)
- a free, open source platform that produces reflowable books formatted for
print, Amazon, iBooks and almost any ereader within minutes
Standalone Software
• Sigil
– A free epub creator & editor. Requires basic knowledge of html and css, but offers
visual formatting.
• Calibre
– Calibre is a desktop ebook reader, organizer, and converter. It can also be used to
convert Word documents into ebooks.
• Scrivener 2
– Although not free, Scrivener offers a free trial to users.
App
• Book Creator
– $6.99 iPad app
– Creates eBooks for tablet or mobile phone

36. What is electronic literature?

37. Example #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw

38. Example #2
Soothe by David Jhave Johnston
http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/johnston_sooth/sooth_FULL_SCREEN.swf

39. TOC:
A New Media Novel
(2009)
by Steve Tomasula (et al)
http://www.tocthenovel.com/clips/readers_guide.html
Example #3

40. Electronic literature is born-digital,
a first-generation digital object
created on a computer, and
(usually) meant to be read on a
computer, “with an important
literary aspect that takes advantage
of the capabilities and contexts
provided by the stand-alone or
networked computer.” (ELO)

41. Read: The Jew’s Daughter by Judd
Morissey
http://www.thejewsdaughter.com

42. Afternoon, A Story
by Michael Joyce
(1987), first hypertext

43. Reinventing the Autobiography:
MyFry (2010) – an application by Stephen Fry (for iPhone)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxLpMMzXVCk

44. Memory Machine eBook (2014)
by Denise Chapman Weston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F1RXyhAYiI8

45. Transmedia Storytelling

46. Chatsfield: Transmedia Storytelling by Allison
Norrington (Harlequin, Mills & Boon, 2014)

47. http://www.weareangry.net/

48. Try some apps on for size
• Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
• Haunting Melissa
• Speak
• Upgrade Soul
• Strange Rain

49. Upgrade Soul by Erik Loyer
(for iPad)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14CPAXh3NYA

50. Jody Zellen
App for
iPhone/iPad

51. Strange Rain, by Erik Loyer (2011)

52. Creating Fixed Format eBooks
Standalone Software
• iBooks Author
– Apple based fixed format creator & editor. Easy to use. Only creates works to be sold or
given away onApple iTunes.
• InDesign + HTML + CSS
– Custom interface for PDF, Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Kobo, etc.
• Demibooks Composer
- $500 software creates app-like books for children, layered graphic novels,
cookbooks
App
• Book Creator
– $6.99 iPad app
– Creates eBooks for tablet or mobile phone
HTML5 + CSS3 (+ javascript or jQuery)
• DIY hybrid apps coded from scratch in a unique wrapper for download or play in
browser

54. http://sourcefabric.booktype.pro/booktype-20-for-authors-and-publishers/what-is-booktype/
http://ipsum-generator.com
http://booktype-demo.sourcefabric.org/

55. 3 Categories of Digital Formats
1. Formless (fiction/nonfiction):
– EPUB, MOBI, HTML
2. Definite (art books, children’s books, textbooks):
– PDF, EPUB3 (HTML5/CSS3)
3. Interactive (electronic literature, video, nonlinear
storytelling, hypertext, games):
– iOS/Android, EPUB3 (HTML5/CSS3)

56. eBook or eLit?

57. Contact: Carolyn Guertin, carolyn.guertin@gmail.com
Skype: carolyn_guertin

58. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=csgGw9GbOcw&list=SP055Epbe6d5Z_
QcCiaofAUGELloJW6Q9J&index=19
• Paperright POD in South Africa, CartoDB
with data-driven publishing, or Borne
Digital which produces adaptive books for
young and learning readers aligned to the
Common Core Curriculum.

59. “DIGITAL PUBLISHING STARTUP LIST”
BY MICHAEL BHASKAR
https://docs.google.com/document/d/
1vcPBUincOjwgIQBjq_qhMPb9QYitgeyl6gQUM1hWQUw/edit