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Arguably no industry in the world today has been left untouched by the revolution that began with digital technologies and the internet. Each industry has come up against unique challenges, but those in the content industries—publishing among them—whose business models revolve around selling access to content, have been most deeply challenged by a radical shift from a world of content scarcity to a world of content abundance. In the digital age, it has never been cheaper or easier to publish content. Barriers to entry for creators have nearly evaporated, creating immense competition and an unprecedented and unparalleled crowding of the marketplace. The valid fear that arises from this change is that the economic value of content is threatened when it is no longer a scarce resource, and the traditional leaders of the content industries have been trying to grapple with how to minimise the damage of such a change to their business models or, more sensibly, how they can adapt to it. However, a threat can also be viewed as an opportunity, and while the legacy publishers struggle, new players have entered the market, with the advantage of being able to build a business model from scratch that acknowledges and leverages an environment of abundant content. Others again, as part of the Open Web movement, have taken the opportunity to dismiss commercial imperatives and instead embrace different value systems, where community and shared interests prevail[1]. What results is a climate of tension and innovation, where the future of the content industries is yet to be determined.
It must be acknowledged that by enabling the current environment of abundant content, emerging technologies have highlighted an issue that has always existed in content industries; that information and cultural products are not standard economic goods, and as such the traditional markets around them have always been tenuous[2]. This is because content is “non-rival”, meaning that it is infinitely replicable and any one person consuming it, does not deprive any other from also consuming it. It is largely through copyright laws limiting production rights that content creators, or more specifically copyright holders, have been able to profit from the sale of content, but second-hand sales and other methods of sharing content have always posed a challenge. The market around content has also placed the emphasis on the physical product—print books, in the case of publishing—relying on the cost of production and its tangible clues as to the value of the content to justify their monetary value. However, along with being non-rival, informational and creative content is also different from most economic goods in that it has value to both producers and consumers as a non-market resource, and as a contributor to societal welfare[3]. This has placed a tension at the heart of content industries where socially valued material must be joined with traditional market approaches in order to continue to be produced, which often sees the social value of content sacrificed in favour of monetary value. In light of this, content industries’ economic models have arguably always been tenuous, reliant on income from producing and selling a product that differs significantly from most commodities.
As a result, the introduction of digital technologies that have increased the ease of creation, copying and distribution is seen as an opportunity to resolve the tension by many of those who value content as a cultural good, not simply an economic one. It is possible that through these technologies and a new approach to copyright, the content industries can be shifted away from a fragile economic system, to a robust alternative where content itself is abundantly and freely available to everyone, and its production is funded by business models that are not reliant on the sale of content. In order to respond positively to the challenges posed by digital technologies, one promising solution is to move to employing non-traditional business models (e.g. co-operatives, collective membership models) or selling services around content. In order for such a new system to be successful, content must be open and accessible, the emphasis must be on discovery and curation rather than exclusive production, and given the existence of low- and no-cost tools, competition on cost of production must be forgotten[4]. Currently, traditional content providers are finding this transition exceptionally difficult. Whether this is from fear, ignorance, lack of resources or lack of imagination is unclear, but they must face the reality that the business model of simply selling exclusive access to content is under threat.
In light of these developments, two Canadians—one based in Montreal, the other in Berlin—have recognised an opportunity to realise one of their own ambitions; to bring books to the web. With digital disruption causing chaos in book publishing and growing movements actively seeking a new way to publish, Hugh McGuire and Boris Anthony believe they have a chance to positively impact the publishing industry by working to define an entirely new way of producing books, feeding an ecosystem of abundant content and innovative services for readers, and ultimately helping to usher in a new era in publishing. With considerable shared experience in digital publishing, software development and user experience design, combined with a deep appreciation for books and their importance to society, McGuire and Anthony are uniquely positioned to make their vision of the future a reality. To do so, they have founded the Rebus Foundation, and designed an ambitious series of projects that together have the potential to create an entirely new kind of publishing, and an entirely new reading experience.
This report will explore the results of the first six months of development of the Rebus Community, the first project undertaken by the Foundation. As an intern during this time, I was involved with the planning, decision making and pilot launch of the platform, particularly related to communications, community development and product design. The report will begin by discussing the context surrounding content industries in an age of content abundance, and how publishing has been affected so far. It will then detail the Rebus Foundation’s direct response to the challenges of a changing landscape for book publishing and offer an assessment of the current Open Education and Open Textbook movements, the members of which are actively seeking a new model of publishing. Following the discussion of context, it will explain the Rebus Foundation’s first project—the Rebus Community—in detail, and how communication channels, licensing policy and practical tools are being combined to create a community of practice around Open Textbooks that not only produces quality textbooks, but encourages a culture of collaboration and helps to define a new publishing process. Finally, this report will discuss the implications that arise from the Rebus Foundation’s approach to publishing, both for textbook publishers and the publishing industry at large. It will conclude by considering how the Community is poised to move forward and what the future may look like for publishers in an environment where value is no longer extracted from content itself, but from what can be done with that content.
- From An Open Web, the concept of the "Open Web" is that "the World Wide Web from its very inception was designed to be a free and open medium through which human knowledge is created, accessed and exchanged." Read more. ↵
- Benkler, Y. The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. ↵
- ibid. ↵
- O'Leary, B. "Context, Not Container." In Book: A Futurist's Manifesto, edited by Hugh McGuire and Brian O'Leary. O'Reilly Media, 2012. ↵