OBS is back again at the Frankfurt Book Fair again this October, ready to hit the ground running, exploring, and discovering digital publishing innovations and ideas for our clients and partners. One exciting initiative we are exploring is how blockchain networks can be put to use to update and streamline traditional publishing processes. The combination →
From October 8-12, OBS president Laura Fillmore will be attending the Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany. A major conference in the publishing industry, last year’s Fair hosted over 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 nations; more than 9,000 journalists; and hundreds of thousands of visitors. One of the hot topics at this year’s Fair is →
Open Book Systems has been innovating from within the publishing industry since 1982. “OBS” originally stood for “Online BookStore,” the first online book store on the internet in 1992, and now, we are revisiting what it means to publish online. The new Online BookStore will provide publishers with a secure “sandbox” environment for experimenting with →
OBS will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair from October 12-16—come and visit us at the Independent Publishers Guild stand A934-937 in Hall 8A! We started coming to Frankfurt in 1985 and look forward to this year’s event! The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest trade show in the world of books, an annual industry →
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has granted Reykjavik, Iceland official “City of Literature” status. Reykjavik is the fifth city to receive the honor, following Edinburgh, Scotland; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.; and Dublin, Ireland. It is the 29th member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network overall. UNESCO Cities of →
I heard a thought-provoking webcast today, offered by the Book Industry Study Group entitled “Digital Books: A New Chapter for Reader Privacy” and presented by an ACLU representative. She spoke of case law that has been passed protecting our reader’s right to privacy, whether that means prohibiting Google Books from recording our thoughtpaths, and subsequently aggregating, archiving, →
More than any other year, 2010 at Frankfurt was one for problem solving, partner finding, and planning practical approaches to the new terrain our industry is moving into. We finally settled on a platform for publishing e-content that seems almost too good to be true: Negligible up-front set-up cost Strong yet flexible DRM Publisher-controlled backend →
“Americans shoot first, ask questions later,” said the moderator of one panel discussion on the Google settlement held at this week’s Frankfurt Book Fair, reflecting widespread sentiment among non-US-based publishers and agents. “You Americans are all asleep,” noted one agent to me. “Why are you allowing this takeover of the publishing industry by a .com →
Our president, Laura Fillmore, is visiting Germany this week for the Frankfurt Book Fair and for the annual conference of the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM), which OBS has just joined. At the Book Fair, we’re participating with the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) at Hall 8.0, Stands A935 & A936, and we’re also displaying Unknown Soldiers: Reliving →
On arriving in Frankfurt, Germany, for our 20th Frankfurt Book Fair, culture shock first manifested itself in the pocketbook. A $50 Travelers Check cashed in at the on-site bank returned 26 euros, enough for lunch and a postcard. Our apartment’s landlady requested cash up front. We haven’t experienced the dollar’s loss in value quite so much →