The Espresso Book Machine was described in a 2010 OnDemandBooks.com article in the following words:
A Fully integrated patented book making machine which can automatically print, bind and trim on demand at point of sale perfect bound bookstore-quality paperback books with a full-color cover indistinguishable from their factory made versions.
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| Photo from dailymail.co.uk |
The 'On Demand Books' website compared the Espresso Book Machine to Gutenberg's printing press invention, saying that "the Espresso Book Machine will do for the world what Gutenberg's press invention did for Europe in the 15th century."
The Espresso Book Machine Channel on Lightingsource.com said that the Espresso Book Machine is the latest pioneering distribution in publisher-to-market pathways that will change the way books are consumed.
Aspiring novelists can even bring in a CD of their work and print out a bound copy of their own novel. (Read more about this concept at : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1173013/A-novel-idea-The-machine-print-book-minutes.html#ixzz1GM8QzlD9)
But how did this unique machine come about?
Well, according to the On Demand Books website, it all started back in 1999 when a man by the name of Jason Epstein held a series of lectures at the New York Public Library about a vision for a new generation of pod technology, a fully automatic, low cost device that could be placed almost anywhere. Epstein was unaware that a prototype of a similar machine actually existed in the St. Louis workshop of an inventor named Jeff Marsh.
Then in 2003, Mr. Epstein and his partner Dane Neller founded the company called "On Demand Books" or ODB to develop Marsh's machine and integrate it into the digital world. A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation helped provide the funding for ODB to develop, test and later build the first beta version of the machine. This first beta machine was installed in the World Bank InfoShop located in Washington, D.C. in April of 2006. There the machine printed thousands of World Bank publications over the years.
In September of 2006, ODB installed a second beta publishing machine at the Library of Alexandria, Egypt. This machine was made to printing books in Arabic.
The first actual Espresso Book Machine, Version 1.5, was introduced during the summer of 2007, on a trial run of ninety days at the New York Public Library. Since then, the machine has been installed in multiple locations across the globe, printing multitudes of books for customers.
(Watch the above Video from YouTube to learn more about how the Espresso Book machine Works)
The new version of the Espresso Book Machine, Version 2.2, is now available and is currently being placed in various locations across the world.
So that's a little background history on the Espresso Book Machine.
I found this all very interesting and am eager to find a machine near me to buy an out of print book that has been hard to find.
The goal is to eventually get digital files for all out of print and in print books so that you could literally buy ANY book from an Espresso Book Machine or similar book vending machine.
The question is...how will this affect not only the publishing industry, but also the bookstore industry, both online and in stores??
This is a very interesting blogging topic. This entry in particular is very neat. I've never heard of something like this before. First off, I think you've got good writing skills, and everything seemed to flow very well. You have a lot of links, which I believe are very helpful to your reader. There are a few ways I believe you can improve your blog. This entry just felt a little long to me. I'm guilty of having that short attention span we can blame google for. However, I felt as though you elaborated a lot on the Espresso Machine itself rather than how it's affecting the publishing industry. I think this could mostly be improved by elaborating equally on the machine and your question at the end.
ReplyDeleteYour blog looks very professional. I found your most recent blog seem very interesting. It seems this product could have a big impact on the publishing industry. I think everything really comes down to cost. Another thing would be if it was have the ability to be downloaded to any of the e-readers out there.
ReplyDeleteYou used a lot of good links and a good piece of multi-media. I think maybe a future blog could be maybe an update if more places are getting Espresso Book Machines and if they seem to really be a threat to other publishers and sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. If possible if you have any personal experience with the machine it could add a great angle to a blog.
I agree that your blog site is very well-composed; I found myself reading your profile and wanting to explore a bit, which is good! You do have lots of links in this post (something I am equally guilty of), but I think you should try to eliminate 3 or 4 of them for the sake of simplicity.
ReplyDeleteYour topic was very interesting (I've never heard of such a thing!) and the video was excellent. It has to be exciting for aspiring authors to know that they could rather easily print a copy of their own book. As for your content, I have 1 suggestion: don't talk so much about the history of the machine. I found that part the least 'skimmable' and the least interesting. Instead I'd rather hear about your own opinion about the machine and its impact on you and the larger publishing industry. Overall, good work!
Very interesting topic for this blog. When I first opened the blog up I was blown away by how professional it looks. I really liked the picture you used in this post as well as the video you used. Very nice use of links I found them to be very useful.
ReplyDeleteI think you used top down design very well in this post. I think it is important to not only have how you feel about the topic but also facts that make your opinion stronger. For a future post I would suggest writing about where the nearest machine is at and if possible your experience with this machine.