ME-Paper Project Deliverable WP2: Comparative Research
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ME-paper project Deliverable WP2: Comparative research IBBT-SMIT Nils Walravens Wendy Van den Broeck Bram Lievens Hans De Canck IBBT-CUO Greet Jans Yorick Poels Nadia Franck IBBT-MICT Steve Paulussen - December 2007 – Me-paper: comparative analysis Table of contents Introduction......................................................................................................................................................... 3 1 Towards e-publishing.................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 News publishers adapting to electronic publishing........................................................................... 5 1.1.1 Newspapers in a changing media environment......................................................................... 8 1.1.2 Newspapers on and beyond the Web......................................................................................... 9 1.1.3 Towards e-ink newspapers ....................................................................................................... 11 2 To a new e-Reader world?........................................................................................................................ 13 2.1 e-Reader case – studies: overview ................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Yantai Daily....................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.1 Factsheet:................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2.2 Research Objectives & Methodology...................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Technical Framework ............................................................................................................... 16 2.2.4 Content & Medium ................................................................................................................... 16 2.2.5 Organizational issues ................................................................................................................ 17 2.2.6 Project outcome......................................................................................................................... 17 2.3 MINDS Project.................................................................................................................................. 18 2.3.1 Factsheet .................................................................................................................................... 18 2.3.2 Research Objectives & Methodology...................................................................................... 18 2.3.3 Technical Framework ............................................................................................................... 19 2.3.4 Content & Medium ................................................................................................................... 19 2.3.5 Organizational issues ................................................................................................................ 20 2.3.6 Project Outcome........................................................................................................................ 20 2.4 eMprints............................................................................................................................................. 21 2.4.1 Factsheet .................................................................................................................................... 21 2.4.2 Research Objectives & Methodology...................................................................................... 22 2.4.3 Technical Framework ............................................................................................................... 23 2.4.4 Content & Medium ................................................................................................................... 23 2.4.5 Organizational Issues................................................................................................................ 24 2.4.6 Project Outcome........................................................................................................................ 24 2.5 ePaper................................................................................................................................................. 25 2.5.1 Factsheet .................................................................................................................................... 25 2.5.2 Research objectives & Methodology....................................................................................... 26 2.5.3 Technical Framework ............................................................................................................... 27 2.5.4 Content & Medium ................................................................................................................... 27 2.5.5 Project outcome......................................................................................................................... 27 2.6 DigiNews ........................................................................................................................................... 28 2.6.1 Factsheet .................................................................................................................................... 28 2.6.2 Research Objectives & Methodology...................................................................................... 29 2.6.3 Technical Framework ............................................................................................................... 30 2.6.4 Content & Medium ................................................................................................................... 30 2.6.5 Organizational Issues................................................................................................................ 31 2.6.6 Project Outcome........................................................................................................................ 32 2.7 First findings...................................................................................................................................... 32 3 Matrix: Usability issues of ,iLiad versus UMPC. ................................................................................... 33 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 33 3.2 Outcome and future trends ............................................................................................................... 52 4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 53 5 References.................................................................................................................................................. 59 2 Me-paper: comparative analysis Introduction Today media industries are not only confronted with an emerging convergence but are also – more and more - evolving towards digital services. Long before the television- or other media industries, the publishing industry has initiated the process of digitizing its content. It is the scope of the Me-paper research project, to investigate one specific aspect of this digitization process: What are the opportunities and consequences of mobile e-publishing technologies for the newspaper industries with regard to new formats of “news content”, “news creation” and “news production”? Within this report we give an overview of specific research and development projects using mobile electronic devices, with a specific focus on e-ink display devices (like the eReader) and Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPC). Although eReaders and UMPC devices exist since a couple of years, relatively few projects with newspapers have been set-up in the past years. The focus of current eReader devices is mainly on books instead of newspapers. This benchmarking report is divided into three concrete chapters in which different aspects related to the Me-paper research project are being discussed. In the first chapter, the transition towards e-publishing is being placed in perspective. We focus on the trend of news publishers to adapt to electronic publishing. How is the newspaper industry evolving and what is the impact of the changing media environment on newspapers? And what are the potential benefits of e-ink newspapers for the newspaper industry? In the second chapter, we look at concrete R&D projects concerning electronic publishing for newspapers on mobile devices. The main focus is on the e-ink devices, but also projects using tablet-PC’s have been taken into account, as these fit also within the project’s scope. As mentioned above and although the publishing industry and newspapers are thinking about e-publishing for a long time, at this moment almost all their efforts are still concentrating on Internet services. Although we are experiencing a totally new mobile wave, there are only few projects in which the newspaper industry experimented with newspapers on mobile. After a first screening of the e-reader landscape, an inventory of the 3 Me-paper: comparative analysis different national and international R&D projects was developed.