E-PUBLISHING AND ME

I can’t believe I have come to the very end of E-publishing course. I have always had a great interest in Media, bring it old or New media. E publishing have also given answer to some of my question about Publishing. We discussed about many topic concerning media, I also learned about so many secrets of media. I call them secret because I believed that before a piece can be created, one needs a publisher, a huge amount of money, a sponsor and so many other things need doing before one can be able to even publish a book.

The many topics we talked about and the ones that interest me the most were Blogging. I was not aware of blogging until my E-publishing class. we were giving a task of entering a blog each week for the twelve weeks of the course. A blog is an online journal, it can be a list of stories. A successful blog is when users keep adding comment on it. Blogging is seen as a primary source of news for people. It has become the head source of news for a large number of people. Most of the bloggers have no journalist qualifications. Blogging as an art form has also become a political tool in which politicians have no control over. Blogging is seen as a way of life.

We also learned about Value chain. There is four-value chain on what a book goes through. Acquiring symbolic content. The industry has the first right to the symbolic content of a published book for some years before the owner. I also learned and understood more about copyrights. Before looking into a content of any media work, I have to make sure that the copyright issue is settled.

In my awareness of the effects of new media technology, in the old days, typesetting was used but today, word or page makers are being used. Before, you have to pay and send off your writing to be typed and printed, today one can skip a paying a typist. One can set their work, chose font etc and get their work done the way they want and faster. When one has a particular kind of audience in mind, this is seen as a better way to get at them.


PDF files are a document and can be chosen instead of postscript because in postscript, one can only print the whole file.
ibook is an internet book, they layout is different from physical books. It has a mark up language. Mark-up language has always been in the past, you have to mark up a work before they are typed. HTML is a substant of mark-up language. XML is a standardised version of a book before use and it is really important. It is a format used before creating a book.

Online publishing LuluI found Lulu really interested and hoping to use it over the future. Lulu is “publishing a book made easy”. Online services such as lulu, blogs, podcastes, e-mailing and managing a site are what I call E-publishing because they are internet based and give one that opportunity to reach audience quickly and easily.

Interactive fictions

This is one of my favourite topics; I am looking forward to producing a piece for my final assignment. In an interactive fiction, all one needs is a writer. Technologies that can be used are flash, programming and animation technologies. They main technology is the programming XML these are sensible mark-up languages. Digital sound is a core technology that can let the user change photography into a sound.


I also learned a lot about Internet security. Every computer on Internet has a number, if you don’t have a number, then you can’t be on Internet. The Internet is not as safe as we think it is. There is no privacy on Internet. With social sites, one have to know where to be exposed and where not to, joining active groups that decide to meet up is not a good idea some times, mostly when it a media group or a group acting against the government. Sights like Facebook and Twitter are not save for people who want their voice to be heard mostly by the government.

Refernces:

Weboeida. (2009). [online] at http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2005/pdf.asp

http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/uxs3036/week2/thompson.html

E PUBLISHING & TECHNOLOGIES

What are the E publishing technologies today? are they still going to be the technologies we use tomorrow? Technologies never stop to improve; they are getting better and better each day. Ten years ago when people were still been introduced to the Internets, programmes such as interactive fiction, visual novels, blogging, websites such as lulu and publishing on demand wasn’t available.
· Blogging consist of :-links, internet, data base, word wide web, RSS

· Interactive fiction consist of:- XML, programming, algorithms, software, internet, distribution, content and inform।

· Visual novel consist of ;- Audios, development platform, contents, distribution, internet, animation, flash, programming, graphic, editing, software, digital image etc.

· Lulu consist of ;- ip/tcp, internet, website, forum tools, PDF, word processing , image, Editing, XML, post script, Access to cc resources, login verification, secure saver, image editing, encryption and many more

· Publishing on demand consist;- of data basses, printers, PDF, photocopiers, internet, website, books and post script.

VISUAL AND INTRACTIV FICTION ENGIENS
Visual novels and interactive fiction are also becoming more aware to the rest of the world other than China and Japan. Today, visual novel can be created in any part of the world. The Internet provides engines that can help create these novels; some are free while some are for more advance users who can pay and use the engines effectively. With these engines being available, it will be easier to create visual novels and interactive fictions.

There are so many visual novel engines of which one can use, the most familiar ones are:
· Ren’Py: this is a free and cross platform visual novel engine that helps one use words, pictures and sounds to tell stories with the computer.
· Blade Engine: This is also a free game engine and construction kit aimed at making visual novel easy to construct and is fully localized into English.
The most used Interactive fiction engines are:
Inform: This is the biggest interactive fiction engine, some people find it hard to use, while some don’t. It allows one to use media in your adventure such as sound, music and photos. It is also based on virtual Z-Machine invented for Zork
TADS (Text Adventure Development System) is a freeware programming system for many platforms.
Adrift: this engines is very easy to use and has gained ground beside the established inform and TADS.

To read more about these Engines, check out the websites below.


Blade Engine (online) [2006] (last updated November 2006) at
http://www.bladeengine.com/BladeEngine/whatis.php

http://members.chello.at/theodor.lauppert/games/zork.htm

http://www.inform-fiction.org/I7/Welcome.html

http://www.tads.org/

Social websites are growing and getting better, first there was Myspace, thousands of people found it so interesting because one could upload videos from youtube, write on peoples walls, create little profile about them self, see how many friends they have and even see and chat with this friends when online. Then came facebook which is still the leading social network today, keeping its audience by creating new features, making it even easier to upload videos. There are other social net works such as bebo, orkut etc. twitter is taking off the huck and has been centre of attention over the past few months. There seem to be a great competition out there and for social networks to survive, have to keep creating more new and easier applications for its audience to still stay in the market

RSS FEEDS

RSS feed stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication, it is a simple XML format used to syndicate mostly news headlines. This are page that allows one to browse and read headlines form a web sit without going into the websites. This headline attracts the reader and can help them decide if they want to read the news or not. It can be also called News feeds, or web feeds. It is currently used for a number of applications, including news heading syndication, weblog content distribution and exchange of other timely information such as software release notes. RSS feeds are useful for regular Newsreaders who most of the times like to quickly read and keep up with multi news sources. Content such as Blogs, Podcaste, video, image distribution and online news can all be distributed by RSS. RSS feeds are also used by major Internet portals such as Google, AOL and Yahoo for their users to personalize and get information they want delivered to them an example is My Yahoo where ones Avatar can be created to socialise with other users through chatting (Messenger) or playing games (Xbox Live). Web browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Opera makes it easier to add or remove RSS feeds. They also have the built in capability to add this feeds by simply clicking on the icon that appears in the address bar of a browser, this bookmarks the site and connects the RSS feed on the page one is using.

There care some popular programmes developed for reading feeds such as NewzCrawler, FeedDemon, NetNewsWire, while some web-based services that create a personalized Web page for featuring headlines of all these feeds are; GoogleReader, Bloglines and NewsGator.

Some websites can create and publish RSS feeds, either for free or for a particular fee and can also be paid by advertisers. Creating a feed is easier than creating a Podcast. Computer and Internet are the basic things needed.
· Text coloured grey is required, however does not need to be modified and can be ignored.
· Text coloured red is an explanation of the feed and should not be included in an actual feed.
· Text coloured blue should be replaced with ones own data

The value of using an RSS reader is for one to be able to read content from dozens or more sites all in one place without having to visit all the sites. Some early users mainly online journalist tried to attract it customers into their sites by giving them, a brief headline and making them come into their website to read the main story and if possible respond to adverts and divert to other things of interest. This wasn’t seen as RSS feeds

The Google Reader Blog reported that the Guardian is the “first major newspaper in the world” to have full text RSS feeds. Because they have no intention of attracting a user into their site but are aiming to giving them they news they want in brief.

How is RSS feed useful to Media?
RSS feed has always been in existence in the good old news papers, example are they brief news that looks more like a head line, not more than 30 words or even less. Some news in the papers before the Internet, were just headline which explains a situation. Today, the Internet has made RSS more obvious, brief, short and simple, all one need to do is click and news from a particular site is periodically download and presented to them. Almost all media companies are based online today, they find it easier to reach to their customers and with programmes such as RSS feed can always reach a customer. RSS was formally known as RDF before changing to RSS.

Reference:

Columbia Journalism Review. (2009). [online] (last update 17 December 2009) at
http://www.cjr.org/feeds.php

Publishing. (2009). [online] (lat updated 29 October 2008) at
http://publishing2.com/2008/10/29/guardian-launches-full-rss-feeds-first-media-company-not-to-suppress-rss-adoption/

RSSboard (2006). [online] at
http://www.rssboard.org/rss-mime-type-application.txt

INTERNET AND PODCASTING

Today, the Internet has made it easier to do almost every thing online. From publishing a book, to creating audio files. And in all these, when taken serious one can make a lot of money from it. Podcasting is the ability to create and distribute an audio or video programme using the Internet. They mainly come in MP3 MP4, MOV, MPG, WMV, AVI and MPEG, or a similar file format. The producers of Podcasting make their programmes available with RSS feeds. This is a tool that allows listeners to select programmes they wish to download. The internet is the key factor behind most of this new technologies allowing the development of new ideas, without the internet, most of these programmes including social network sites wouldn’t have been possible today.

Does this mean Internet is a great influence behind these programmes? Yes but the main piece of Podcasting setup is the computer. Computer is used through out, from the production of a programme to the distribution. The computer needs some basic things such as microphone for voice recording and then, Internet access for the distribution of the show. One will also need both hardware and software in order to record, edit and publish a Podcast. Some other things that can be needed but not essential are photos, web-cam, video/video enable phone and Blog. One can also create their own RSS feed, this can be important because it alert subscribers when a new file have been posted to a website.


What is the future of programmes such as Podcasting today?
Today, some recognised audio editing program such as Apples Garad Band, Adoe’s Audition or Audacity and many others are open resource program that allow one to receive inputs from microphones, voice recorders, which actually produce most of the shows. VoIP program such as Gizmo Project or Skpe help record shows such as interviews, which includes an integrated recording. Gizmo Project allows conversations to be recorded between the presenter and any telephone in the world. While these few are out there, some other easier programs are still to come. Since anything with voice, photo or video moves so fast in the Internet. With the great awareness of ipod, which was where the name Podcasting was derived in 2004 blending the word (iPod) and (Broadcasting), created awareness. The New Oxford American dictionary named “Podcast” its official “word of the year”. Personal media devices capable of planning audio and video which are built in many phones today, can allow one to view and enjoy Podcasts any where any time. Millions of people use this programme without knowing the name and what is all about. Since much is not required to start a Podcast, and there are some free sites that allows a free sign up, mainly the young generation will be looking up to this programmes.


Podcasting is rapidly representing a new exciting word where things can be easily done without taken days or months but only some few hours. Materials such as course lectures, reports, maps, meetings, research manuscripts, talk shows etc can be recorded as audio and video files and delivered to either subscribing users or targeted audience automatically. One can also take their business, interest or passion and turn it into an interesting audio or video show. Uploading an idea on the web and broadcasting it to the world.

Reference:

Pdodcastingpeople. (2006 – 2009). [online] at http://www.podcastpeople.com/faq
Wikibooks. (2009). [online] (last updated 10 May 2009) at
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Podcasting
Podcastpickel (2009) [online] at http://www.podcastpickle.com/

Wise-women.org (2009) [online] (last updated 23 February 2006) at
http://www.wise-women.org/tutorials/podcast/
The New Oxfor American Dictionary (2005) [online] at
http://www.oup.com/us/brochure/noad/

VISUAL NOVELS VS INTARACTIVE FICTON

I don’t really understand the difference between visual novel and interactive fiction.
Are visual novels interactive fictions?

Interactive fiction descries software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. They are seen as a text adventures, everything is based on text and the player have to visualise the environment and tasks. Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games and form a set of the adventure genre. As the player uses text input to control the game, the game state is relayed to the player through text output. This text uses and understand simple languages like “go south”, “turn right”, “get key”, and many more. Today, there is a big market for games, so many competitions going on, from 2D to 3D. One doesn’t see this text adventures games competitive any more. Players choose to play games where all the visual world and fantasy are there to see, and all you have to do is use your game console to control what is going on. There are weaknesses to this, there is only one story line and the character is obligated to follow it.

Visual novels have extremely minimal game play. The majority of a players interaction is limited to clicking to keep the text, graphics and sound moving. Some of them have multiple storyline and many endings. The players have a choice and can select a direction in which to take the game. These can be more closely compared to story driven interactive fictions. Visual novels are interactive fiction taken to a further level. Majority of them are still text based but then have pictures, music and sounds. Majority of these games are Japanese or Chinese originated, there is a huge market out there for them, the rest of the world still doesn’t find it that eye catching. Is it because the player has to do most of the jobs?


Is Inanimate Alice is a visual novel or an interactive fiction? When shown in class, some student found it uninterested, while when the Ren ‘Py Game was shown, students found it a lot easier to understand, because there were three simple things involve. Music, picture and story line, with the help of simple techniques such as dissolve, hiding and showing of characters makes it less complicated. Students accepted that Ren ‘Py games are much easier to make and understand. We all agreed in class that in interactive fiction, all you need is a writer. But one like Inanimate Alice, you need more things such as programmer, graphics, maintaining the website. Technologies that can be used such as flash, programming and animation technologies.

The term interactive fiction is also occasionally used to refer to adventure games, which are also called hypertext fictions, it is also used to refer to literary works that are not read in linear fashion, and rather the reader is given choices at different points in the text. The readers’ choice determines the flow and outcome of the story.
Ren ‘Py Visual novel Engine is highly familiar to people who make use of it because of its easy to make stories. It helps one use technologies such as, sounds, pictures and music to tell a story. People find it easier to play around with 2D animations, other games that can be created with Ren ‘Py are Cook books, dating games and many more.

The largest company producing works of interactive fiction was Infocome, they created the Zork series and many other titles among them.

After some research and reading, I know more about Visual novels and interactive fictions. Most of all is that visual novels have to do with pictures, sound and music and one have to click majority of time to move on. With its multiple story line, one have a choice of which story to follow. While in interactive fiction, which is know as the oldest form of games, is mostly text command based. One have to obey the language and rules in other to move progressively in the game.

Reference:
Blade Engine (online) [2006] (last updated November 2006) at http://www.bladeengine.com/BladeEngine/whatis.php

THE STORY AND THE MASTER

Interactive Fiction Continues
Who is the master of the interactive story, is it the creator or the player? First and foremost, what is interactive fiction? Interactive fiction (IF) is said to be a computer –mediated narrative resembling a very finely –grained “Choose Your Own Adventure” story. By Dennis G. Jerz.
Who is Dennis G. Jerz?
He is known as an English professor before heading for new media. he enjoy playing text adventure games, while playing, he studied and tries to know much about these games, he has been really successful with them because he has learned a lot and knows so much about text adventure games. He is an Associate Professor in New media and journalism in Seton Hill University, Greens burg, Pennsylvania. His recent scholarly interest is weblogs, interactive fiction, technology in literature and web usability and design. Creating games and even giving lectures about games, cyber world and intaractive fictions.
He also explained that putting long stretches of narrative prose into the mouth of the interactive fiction narrator will not turn a great puzzle-fest into even a passable story. The interactive fiction player is supposed to live the story. I’m highlighting “is suppose”, does that mean the player is not? I really disagree with him there, I would say, the players is meant and is living the story, the player brings the story to life.
He went further to say that “interactive fiction requires the text-analysis skills of a literary scholar and the relentless puzzle-solving drive of a computer hacker. People tend to love it or hate it. Those who hate is some times say it makes them think too much”. Do they also know that it let them make the decisions? Those who like it feel in charge and in control of what are going on. They are the masters.

Example is Inanimate Alice, this interactive story is inanimate until the player gives it a life. If this is the case, then the author of a game is not the master, however, the player is. Without a player, interactive stories such as inanimate Alice will remain inanimate. Another example is The breathing wall. Not until a player have the power to click and move things around, noting really happens. The creator has made it available to his audience, but it’s left for the audience to control the game. I stand strongly that the player of these games are the masters, they are the one who decides on either to move on or to quit. If it happens that the players find the game boring and irrelevant, then there is no point on playing the game, and that will be the end of the game.

I will advice those who are interesting with games and interactive stories to read more about Dennis Jerz. even thou i desagree with him about the story and the master, I see him as a man who had interest in new media and took it forward. He not only educates students, he has read wild and also create his own games. “he is a role model”.


References
Dennis G. Jerz (2009). [online]. Last updated 14 September 2009 at
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/

Jerz’s Literacy Weblog (2009). [online]. Last updated 30 November 2009 at http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/

Inanimatealice. (2005). [online]at http://www.inanimatealice.com/

The breading wall (2004. [online]at http://www.thebreathingwall.com/

INTERACTIVE FICTIONS

What is an interactive fiction?

Interactive fiction is a text base story which lets the viewer explore the story mainly through text. It can be adventure games, historical simulations, gripping stories or experimental digital art. It uses a kind of code which can be written in English. And when created, can be played in many different platforms. Since video games have taken over in this day and age, there are still a lot of people who enjoy playing the so called interactive fiction.
While being introduce to interactive fictions in my last class on Monday 2nd Nov 2009, I could think noting but; this was the origin of the games we now play with great sounds, graphics, effects and many more. However, most of these video games started this way, from text to graphics, sounds, effects etc.

Are interactive fictions the same or related to the games we play?
Interactive fictions such as Hitchhiker had a kind of guideline to them they have a kind of programmed language and as you keep to the rules to what the games understand, would certainly enjoy it all. Inform 7 is a designed system for interactive fiction to help one create their own stories. The original version of Hitchhikers had its glory in 1984. This was the time when video games awareness took off also with games such as Nintendo.
I will argue that the brilliantly made video games of today mostly adventures were an idea of interactive fiction before gradually developed with graphics and amazing sounds. It was so interesting that it kept its originality, which some people still enjoy, with the traditional interactive texting if I may call it. I was so into it when Eben my tutor introduced it in class, being able to create one or know how it is done even got me more interested. Unlike todays game, which have both sports, adventures, actions, horror and many other genre, interactive fictions works better when it is adventures and mysterious mostly when you have to find clue and fix puzzles.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
This was originally a radio show and just like a story, you choose from the things around it. It became an interactive fiction and is now a film. An interactive fiction doesn’t have to be a script from scrap. Unlike Hitchhikers, it can be a radio show, television programmer, film, history about a place, building and many more. What is really important is to use the right language. This language doesn’t only make it easier for the creator. It also makes it easier for the player both in understanding and in playing.

Richard Harris says and I quote “Something strange has now happened. The Net, and particularly e-mail, has become an integral part of millions of lives. People have learned to type again and are taking an interest in interacting, via their computers, with other people and with content”. Is the World Wide Web an interactive fiction?

This is a little story to watch guys, hope you enjoy it.
http://www.rif.org/assets/Documents/readingplanet/ReadAloud_Stories/micerto_mozart.html
Is this an interactive fiction?

Reference:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy 2009 [online] Available online at: http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=1383

ONLINE JOURNALS

In these day and age, online journal have become part of our everyday life. Even thou majority of readers prefer what they can see, hold and read comfortably, the word has fully become a global village. You can not only read news on papers or watch TVs, but you can also go online to view this news through journal.

How long will these take before people acknowledge it?
It is already highly effective. People use these mediums without even realizing it, they only want a rapid way of getting hold of a breaking News. Example of breaking news that can really move people and send them into searching was the death announcement of king of pop ‘Michael Jackson’. Majority of people went to online journals and News to get more information. That way once wouldn’t have to only read about it, but can also view photos and videos of what actually happened which were available on line less than three hours after his death. One it attracted to the online journals because they will not only be reading the breaking story, but they will also be viewing evidence and facts about it.

In the early days, it takes longer before effective news can take place. It usually use to be the news paper printed version, one have to wait for the story to be published. Different News papers publishing their own side of the stories could cost an individual buying more than one new paper to get a particular news right. Then came the Televisions where everyone can also see the video coverage of the news, I thought that was the end of technology.

Online journals doesn’t only give you information about a particular news, it also give you links to other related news artifacts. It can get really interactive as well. One can read or leave comments after reading a particular news, other readers can look into it after reading the same news and even add to it. This way, the news is builds up and can become a bigger and much more entertaining news. Sometimes if it is a solution based problem, people would throw in advice and questions and even give solutions to the problem.

Where are we heading from here? Is there going to be a much better and effective way of transmitting news?

The word NEWS is shrinking, the road to a big news are getting smaller. Thanks to the world wide web which made it possible, without it, we could still have been depending on News agents and publishers.
There are different kinds of journals; some are for current affairs, creativity, online art and literature, online News, online novels and poetry, university news and many more.

Reference:
icNewcastle. 2009. News [online] (last updated 2nd Nov 2009) Available at: http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/

BBC. 2009. WORLD NEWS [online] (last updated 26 Oct 2009) Available at:
http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=1421

Oxford Journals. 2009. Oxford university press. [online] (last updated 2nd Nov 2009) Available at:http://www.oxfordjournals.org/

Online Journal of art and literature.2009.[online] (last updated 31 Oct 2009) Available at:
http://www.drunkenboat.com/

Online novels, poetry and fictions .2009.[online](last updated June 2007) Available at:
http://www.archipelago.org/

Diffusion. Creativity. 2009 [online] (last updated 21 Oct 2009) Available at:
http://diffusion.org.uk/

BLOG FICTION

Writing has become an external technology through the use of computers, it is becoming even more brief as website such as Blogspot and Twitter makes it even. Allowing most recent news to fly as quickly as possible. We humans have naturally embrace writing and it has become part of ourselves and life style enabling us to create new ways of making it quicker and briefly to transmit a massage.

A Blog in my own definition is an extended diary, writing about a particular or different topic, putting asking and crating ideas for the topic. To be a blogger, one have to have a regular input to the blog. A blog is not one without followers who contribute to it by adding comments, like agreeing or disagreeing with a topic. It should be simple, clear and easy to understand. Today, blogging is seen as the easiest ways to voice out opinions. Majority of politicians like Barak Obama and celebrities are using these means of communication to reach to their audience. But then they are also used as a means of blackmail WHY? Blog is it a save Bug?

It is seen as a quicker way of transmitting information, it can also be seen as a weapon for destroying people. Example are politicians who would want to have peoples opinion, they get both good and bad ones.

We spoke in class, Blog is gradually used as a primary source of NEWS for people, and it is as good as being on TV. Even the politicians and celebrities have no control of it any more. We are talking about Blogs today, what are we going to be talking about it in the next ten years? Wouldn’t there be a much quicker ways of sending these massages? If we do, would it be also praising and blackmailing celebrities and politicians? I’m sure they would like to find a way of diminishing the blackmails and bad reviews.

In the next ten years, a student would not only be studying about blogs. There might me much more to talk about. We are getting close to both politicians and celebrities every day. Today you can easily send a politician an e-mail, write on their blog or twitter them. What is it going to be like in the next ten years, would one be able to speak to them in a little video technology device built in a mobile phone? And will one be able to track where and what they are doing at a particular time?

Studying about Bloggs can’t only help celebrities and politicians but also we as students and future writers. It can be use as a way of voicing out to the public and getting our opening weighed by the public. This is a very good tool for an up coming writers and journalists because this will not only help them discoverer if the public is interested on what they are saying, it will also help them know what to right how and when.

Reference:

Walter J.ONG (1982) Orality and Literacy, Methuen & co Ltd: J.W Arrowsmtih Ltd, Britsol. Chapter four; page 81,

Organizing for America (2009) my barackobama.com. [online] last updated 25 October 2009 at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog

Celebrities blog (2008). Celebrity baby blog [online] last updated 24 October 2009 at http://celebrity-babies.com/

Celebrities blog (2009) Damn I’m Cute.[online] last updated 25 October 2009 at http://www.damnimcute.com/

Publishing Made Easy

Today, websites such as Lulu.com has made publishing and printing services easier and available to the public use. They don’t only stand as a publishing company but also offer a range of services to customers such as online tools for self publishers. Earlier over the years, writers have to find publisher and agent before thinking of publishing a book. With the help of the World Wide Web, one doesn’t have to go through all that processes before a book can be publish.

Authors can know reach their audience very easily by publishing a book online and selling it straight away to those who are interested, they can also find out how many people who wants the book to avoids printing too many copies and can always reprint as much as they want. Going through a publisher has rules and process. like we talked in class, once a particular quantity of copies are printed, it can be difficult to print more copies, there are decisions that have to be made. Do these rules apply to online publishing services?

Over the years, many other big publishing companies are now available online because of the different demands of their customers. Some customers would want to publish a family or wedding photo album and have it delivered to them etc. other companies are
1. Authors online: A Publishing Company that offer veriety of services to it’s customers and let them print on demand.
2. Writers world a United kingdom self publishing print on demand
3. Word clay online publishing, Self Publish, Self Publishing and many others. With varieties now, one have a choice of choosing a cheaper or better online publishing company.

With the help of Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works. They encourage, create and distribute E-books to users and are free to access. An author who wants to go professional on E-books, hypertext and many other online readable have to go through this process with make up languages such as HTML which provides means for creating structural document in the form of denoting structural semantics for texts such as Links, quotes, headings, paragraph and many more. It also allows objects and images to embed and ready for interactive forms. It has to be written in HTML elements or PDF is a file format, used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware and operating system EPUB, MOBI. And these are they services Project Gutenberg offers. To use these services, one has to abide to the (PG) rules.
Gutenberg trademark is automatically licensing his book to Project Gutenberg.

All these processes make it easier to either publish a EBooks, hypertexts which are gradually becoming aware to the main world. Normal books, novels, photos, etc. A lot of readers prefer reading works that they can physically hold or move around with. EBooks still have a long way to go even today that one can read through mobile phones or portable computers, readers would always be old fashion. However, programmes would still be successful, examples are authors publishing and marketing their own books through websites such as Lulu and Wordclay. publishing other items such as photos, calendars etc will also be highly recognise.



REFERENCE

Wikipedia. (2009). Lulu.com.[online]. Last updated May 2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lulu.com
Wikipedia. (2009).Project Gutenberg. [online]. Last updated 16 October 2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg
Wikipedia. (2009). HTML. [online]. Last updated 18 October 2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML
Wikipedia. (2009). PDF [online]. Last updated 15 October 2009 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
Authors online. (2009). [online]: http://www.authorsonline.co.uk/
Writers world. (2009). [online]: http://www.writersworld.co.uk/
Word clay. (2009). [online]: http://www.wordclay.com/

Copy Rights and The Public

Copyrights should be made more Aware to the Public.

What is a copyright, and what are the actual law guiding them? what are they rights on books and Electronics ? Majority of people are not aware of this rights.

A copy right is an intellectual property giving to a company, author or owner of a certain intangible assets such as Books, music, Electronics gadgets, films etc. Copy right originated in 1710 with the statute of Ann, it can also be called an act for the encouragement of learning. This can be seen as an act of recognition of work creating by a someone, the right to keep it and the encouragement to do more,both for coming authors of any kind. This not only give them the right to own a work, but also the right to benefit from it financially and otherwise.
Some publishers back in the day were using and reprinting authors work without informing them until the decision of the act was made. This statue of Ann gave authors right for a fixed period of time. It can also be an automatic right that take place once an individual creates a recognisable work. United Kingdom being the first to start the law of copyright has carried on with it because it work so well. They are currently using the Designs and Patients Act 1988 which last up to seventy years from the time the work was created.

In class we talked about copy right, why is the right to own a CD different from the right to own a book. You can lend someone a book, but you can’t lend someone a CD. When you purchase a CD or books, you are not buying the physical object, however you are buying the content of the object and is not allowed to use it in any form against the author. We know there are law guiding these things we use everyday, from books to Electronics but we disregard them most of the time however as long as we are not going public with them. Majority of people don't actually know what these laws are unless told and can easily get in trouble with them. Examples are like downloading music or films from the Internet is really illegal, but not as downloading a PDF files. Why? Why doesn't the same law follows with books and electronics, people download music for personal use and pleasure which can be the same with books, for knowledge and pleasure (on-line Novels).
I understand there are laws guiding these copyrights, however it is not fully made know to the public, one only realise when cut or fined over a misused law. While some people have no idea on what law they are breaking. They laws should be made more aware mostly in this day and age where everything is computerised, so that people would know when they are breaking the law guiding of any form.
In Bangor University library, I read a notice stating that "one is not allowed to photo copy more than one chapter in a book". Why? Were people aware of these?

References
Wikipeida.2009. Copyrights [online] (updated 08 October 2009) Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Wikipeida.2009. Statute of Anne [online] (updated 05 May 2009) Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne
The UK Copyright Service. 2004. Fact sheet P-01: UK Copyright Law [online] (updated 11 August 2004) Available at
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p01_uk_copyright_law

The Arthurs and The Publishers

What are the roles of the Arthur and the publisher? The author being the owner of the great idea that is going to be published is seen as the sole owner of an unpublished manuscript or a particular book. A book can not be published without his or her ideas, while the publisher is seen as the manager, developer and risk taker of the idea. Can this two only work hand in hand?
We argued in class that there is a possibility of the author doing all the publishers work and heading straight to distributions, however must only target a particular kind of audience.
In John B Thomson book Books in the digital age read that the author have to depend hugely on the publisher to create a good reading material, because Most of the jobs were done by the publisher. Important jobs such as content acquisition, content development, quality control, design, sales, marketing, warehousing and distributions are the most important aspect of the jobs.
I believe even as the word is rapidly becoming a much more global village, it is still a long way before an Arthur and the publisher can depart separate ways. It will really take time. Today, for a great and quality published job to be done need both the Author and the Publisher. An Author who is not targeting a larger audience have a choice of doing something different like creating e-publishing, blogs and online based stories, but will defiantly need a publisher if he wants a great job done. On the other hand, Publishers in this day and age, create a web page and sites looking for Authors, this shows that authors are having more choices in the way they can express their ideas and get money from it. Some still do the job on their own, going directly to the consumers and costumers while majority of them go through an online publisher to get their work notice. A lot of smaller Publishing companies are based online and are working hard to attract consumers, they give discounts invite you to download some certain works for free, etc.Only already know traditional and successful authors go to big publishers such as the Cambridge and Oxford press, this have to do mainly when they know the work is going to be successful.


References
John B Thomson (2005) Books in the Digital Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Whitmore Publishing Company. 2009[online] Available at http://whitmorepublishing.com/home.asp
Dorrance Publishing Co; Inc.2009. [online] ( updated 26 March 2009) Available at http://www.dorrancepublishing.com/info.asp?program=internetworldsearch&layout

My very first blog

I didn't know much about blogs until going to my e-publishing class. i have always heard about it but didn't care to know what it was. Since i do know would be very happy to use it, because i find it quiet interested and something that can help my writing career.
Thanks.