Publishers asscociation and EPS to stage major debate

The Publishers Association and Electronic Publishing Services (EPS) Ltd have today announced plans to stage a six-month major online debate on the impact of digitisation technologies and web search tools on traditional book publishing.

The debate, which begins on 29th August, will be hosted on the EPS web site and will take the form of specially commissioned contributions from leading figures in the international publishing and technology industries. Contributions and responses will also be encouraged from booksellers, librarians, readers, intermediaries and other interested and affected parties.

The title of the debate is ëGoogle and the Book Publishers: Is the Age of Search bringing exciting new opportunities for publishers, or is it the beginning of the end?í

Issues to be considered in the debate include:

Will the ability to read full the full text of books online destroy the printed workís marketplace?

Are ëonlineí and ëofflineí separate marketplaces in which users/readers behave differently, or does one eventually have to supplement the other?

Will ëprint-on-demandí and ënever out of printí be factors in future marketplaces, and what is the role of search engines in relationship to them?

What part will be played by an emerging mobile content marketplace, in which the nature of reading may change?

Is it inevitable that the book industry follows the music industry into an illicit file transfer and download culture, and are Google and its peers facilitating this, or working to prevent it?

Does copyright effectively govern publishingís relationship with the online world, or do new licenses and rights need to be put in place to enable Google and publishers to co-exist?

The debate will be edited and moderated by Paul Carr, new media columnist for The Guardian and Editor in Chief of cross-media publishing company, The Friday Project.
The debate aims to reflect the views of a wide spectrum of interested parties. Anyone interested in participating should contact paul@thefridayproject.co.uk

To be notified when the debate begins, email googledebate@epsltd.com