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  • Table of contents

    • [+]Preliminaries (3)
    • [+]Introduction (4)
    • [+]Latin America (13)
    • [+]Sub-Saharan Africa (9)
    • [+]Arab World (11)
    • [+]Russia (11)
    • [+]India (11)
    • [+]China (9)
    • [—]Conclusions (6)
    • [+]Appendix (1)

  • Recent comments

    • Sylvain, on the section Traditional publishing and its response to the digital world. Between danger and opportunity:
      Complétement d'accord avec Thierry, en même temps, quelle solution possède une société si ce n'est d'évoluer ? J'aime assez les systèmes d'édition actuels.
      31/05/2012
    • Testere, on the section Technical difficulties of digital publishing in Arabic: ePub and OCR:
      No need to exaggerate. There is always a work around and following is one of them. For current technology, only way to get accurate text in Arabic is either using pdf or image. With following version you can read you...
      23/03/2012
    • Liquid book : le livre au fil du ruisseau, on the section Foreword:
      (…) la dernière conférence matinale par Octavio Kulesz qui rendait compte d’une étude sur l’édition électronique dans les pays du Sud restitue il me semble la qualité et la démarches de toutes les interventions : lumineuses (…)
      18/09/2011
    • chantal, on the section Technical data:
      merci pour la qualité et la clarté des informations que vous véhiculez sur ce site. Nous attirons votre attention sur notre présence dans le secteur du téléchargement de chapitres de livres universitaires. http://www.artelittera.com
      03/09/2011
    • octavio, on the section Digital technology as an opportunity:
      Tout à fait d'accord! Ce sera essentiel d'aller du bas vers le haut, de l'intérieur vers l'extérieur, si le but est de stimuler des "écosystèmes" numériques locaux durables et solides.
      31/08/2011
    • thierry quinqueton, on the section Mobile phones:
      Petite contribution aux difficultés de la communication électronique avec la diversité culturelle : mon e-reader sony bugue sur les ideogrammes chinois contenus dans les notes du texte quand je lis au format EPUB (mais tout est ok dans l'étude en...
      27/08/2011
    • thierry quinqueton, on the section Mobile phones:
      Le témoignage et la présentation de Qian Fucheng est une nouvelle source de réflexion sur l'apparition de nouvelles formes d'écritures et de nouvelles modalités d'édition.
      27/08/2011
    • thierry quinqueton, on the section The new giants of online transactions:
      Le requin et le crocodile La façon dont est présentée l'histoire de Taobao et de Ebay est riche pour nous éditeurs membres de l'Alliance.
      27/08/2011

Thematic axes

As we have attempted to demonstrate thus far, digital publishing displays considerable dynamism and diversity within the developing world. Below we will rearrange these geographical results along the following recurrent thematic axes – technologies, the human factor and the R&D variable. This will allow us to broaden the proposals already outlined in each region and draw [...]

Technological infrastructure

From the point of view of technology, there are four prime movers that continually crop up: POD, online platforms, e-readers – and tablets – and mobile phones. POD, which is relatively strong in Latin America, is less widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab world, in spite of the important advance this tool might represent in countries [...]

The human factor

Technologies are, of course, a key component of the topic that concerns us. But at the same time, it is essential to pay attention to the people who will use them, and this is where the importance of working on the human factor becomes apparent. We must point out in this regard that numerous publishers [...]

Research and development. A laboratory for publishers from the South

If the countries of the South face difficulties when it comes to producing infrastructures and knowledge that are in tune with local possibilities, what is missing to a large extent is the research and development (R&D) variable. States and companies from the North have been investing in this area for decades, which explains their enormous [...]

Action plan

As we have repeatedly pointed out, it isn’t necessary to wait for the South to catch up with the North in terms of technology; on the contrary, it can advance with the materials already available. Of course, it would be extraordinary to obtain 80% Internet penetration in Africa or huge investments in infrastructure throughout the [...]

The end, a beginning

We did warn in the introduction that analysing digital publishing in developing countries would be a complex undertaking, although a fascinating and inevitable one. The object of study has shown to be so unpredictable that the research itself leads us to demolish clichés and build conceptual bridges between seemingly unconnected areas. This may give some [...]