Hiroki Kamata presentation at 2013 Digital Publishing Creative Ideas Contest award ceremony at Frankfurt

1. October 10, 2013 at Frankfurt
G3 = Gravity of Gutenberg Galaxy
Creating A Virtual Reading
Environment for pre-Gutenberg Books
Project Beyond G3
Hiroki Kamata
Ebook 2.0 Forum
Object Technology Institute, Inc. Tokyo

2. Two Gs and Manuscripts
West-östlicher Diwan
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3. Manuscript: Embodiment or Tacit knowledge
• Manuscript: all books were manuscripts before printing,
however…
– It has a certain value, calligraphy and illustration that bring deep
meanings of texts
– Helps reading of the texts that inspires imagination and another
creation, in the same form or the other
– Coexisted and even collaborated with printing in East Asia
• Recitation: not just a practice but an art form tightly linked
with texts and sometimes music and theatre
– It requires other person, audience or master, puple
– It’s interactive. and social
• Most of the art forms are linked together by texts
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4. Books Must Help Reading Texts
• Reprint, analog and digital, is not enough
• No book technology is perfect. Why not improve or
complement by digital
• Digital technology must be utilized to help reading,
rather than production
• It will rebuild forms of book as a system, or
environment
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5. Gutenberg Book and Reading
• G-book/reading (15th-20th century) is:
– Discrete
– Static
– Non-interactive
– Reflective
– Silent
– Individual
– Copyrighted
– Personal
• G-book is not the norm for every e-Book!
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6. What's Beyond G3
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An approach toward post-Gutenberg paradigm through revitalization of
non/pre-G books and their experiences
– History of books begun far ahead of G and will continue to evolve after G.
– There were certain types of books that had unique characters and advantages over G-book
(printing press + hard-binding).
– With digital technology, we are entering a new paradigm encompassing every aspect of
structuring, expressing, coordinating, sharing information.
– The Project Beyond G3 is to develop "new" frontier of books (media) mainly through the
electronic reproduction, using EPUB3, of the lost types of books and reading existed
before and went out with G.
Goal: Starting with Japanese pre-G books (9th-19th century) and develop a
common methodology and requirements for specifications (with EPUB3)
and open implementations for the reading environments of pre-G books.
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7. Deconstruction of Books: Before and After G3
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Before G: until 15th Century Europe and 19th Century in East Asia
– Scroll
– Bound Slips
– Codex: handwritten and/or wood block print
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The G Paradigm: 15th through 20th Century
– Industrialized production, distribution, commercialization
– G-Galaxy Big Bang and Dominance of Codex
– Massive destruction of non-codex heritage
•
The Web Paradigm: Revival of Scrolls and Expansion of portable e-documents
– Hyper document and e-replica (PDF)
– Scroll/reflow-able view: HTML, EPUB
– Strip: Short Messages (like Twitter)
•
Post G: 21th Century and After
– Fee structuring, expression, and coordination of knowledge information
– Synthesis of different types of books, reading, old and new
– Intelligent book: context-sensitive, adaptive, self-assembly, and social
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8. Project Beyond G3 Missions
1. Unbound books from G Paradigm by specifying and
designing a pre-G book/reading environment
2. Support Creative Migration toward post-G paradigm:
coexistence and synthesizing of types, old and new
3. Facilitate Renaissance of the Cultural Heritage before G:
more interactive, dialectical, social, and humane
4. Particularly, Explore Edo (Japanese Early Modern)
Publishing Culture and Ecosystem to develop a Virtual
Reading Environment Prototype
5. Can be Applied to East Asian and Other Non-European
Literary Content
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9. Basics of Edo Publications
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Growth of Commercial Publishing Market and Ecosystem (16-19c)
– Published 1,000 titles in late 18th century=n00,000+ copies/yr
– Publishers (called hon-ya, means book traders) and self-publishers, too
• =copyright (woodblock) owner=distributor=retailer=lender
• Trading new/old books and handwritten books (uncensored)
• Three major cities: Edo, Kyoto, Osaka+ Nagoya
•
Three Major Types of Wahon (old Japanese books)
catastrophe
– A: Kibyosi hon (wood block printing)
– B: Emaki-mono (pictorial book as a scroll)
– C. Kanseki (annotated Chinese texts)
•
Readers
– From intellectuals to plain people
– Social reading by the book lovers
– Recycle books for generations
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10. World of Wahon
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11. Difficulties in Reading Wahon
•
Diversity of Japanese language
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How to access Japanese literary classics
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Uncertain: no orthography (can’t fix, until now)
Mosaic: Creole? (extensive use of Chinese, and European lang.)
Enigmatical: weak syntax, rich semantics
Disruptive: major change in late 19th century
through reprint or digital copy
through translation
through reading aloud (by elocutionists)
with tons of glossary, annotation, picture..
with commentaries, introductions, FAQs (by experts and others)
through adaptation, film version, etc.
We need everything, if they worth!
– G Book formats support only a part of the above
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12. Books as an Empathy System
• The World of Tales and stories
– Originated in narratives; folk tales, legends…
– Generated different versions in different time/place
– Elaborated into artistic works by known/unknown authors
– Published in book forms
• Unlike G Books, the are
– Mostly narrated, mediated, curated by someone
– Interactive
– Read aloud
– Shared in the groups
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13. Challenges
• not a replica, but an environment that support shared reading
experiences having lost in G book.
– Gather requirements and analyze
– Design prototypes for educational and Commercial implementation
based on open web publishing standards
• Networking with Activities for the Digital Humanities
Worldwide and Scholarly Editions
– Build a social reading platform collaborating with the
• Key Functionalities
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6.
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image view of pages or part of scrolls
reprint and edit text (scholarly edition, old and new styles)
annotation (historical, modern, socialized comments)
translated (moden, foreign)
read aloud (classic, modern)
dictionary support (concordance, encyclopedia) and bibliography
synchronization (with other media and performances)
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14. We Did So Far
• Workshops (Oct. 2012-2014)
I. Lost Galaxy of Wahon: An approach toward creative publishing
1. Emaki-mono and scrolling of “time space”
2. Kanseki and structured annotation techniques
3. Diachronic Concordance and Issues in Reprinting
II. Functionalities of Books: as a system for knowledge communication
4. Digitization of Buddhist Texts and Issues in Scholarly Edition
5. Initializing Book: Evolution through Experiments of Renga (Linked Images)
6. Encyclopedic Knowledge in the Post-G Age
III. Social Reading Experiences and New “Order of Books”
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15. Key Members
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Konosuke Hashiguchi, Historian and owner of Wahon bookstore
Tatsuo Kobayashi, Unicode Consortium Fellow, IDPF
Akihiko Takano, Professor, National Institute of Informatics
Hiroki Kamata, Ebook 2.0 Forum, OTI, Inc.
Makoto Murata, W3C, IDPF EPUB Advanced Layout WG Chair
Shigeki Moro, Associate Professor, Hanazono University
Toshihiro Anzai, Media Artist
And Others: Editors
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