Versions of the following have appeared online regularly, since 1992, as a feature of the FYI France ejournal, ISSN 1071-5916, which is distributed for free via email every month except August. Ejournal subscriptions may be obtained via email request to: kessler@well.sf.ca.us

Here this file is one of a number made available -- hopefully attractively, all in one place, and relevant to libraries and online digital information work in France and Europe -- as part of FYI France (sm)(tm), an online service to which anyone can subscribe for 12 months by postal mailing a check for US $45, payable to Jack Kessler, to PO Box 460668, San Francisco, California, USA 94146 (site licenses also are available): please write your email address on the front of your check. Please email suggestions for improvements to me at kessler@well.sf.ca.us
 

An extraordinary online event -- of interest to anyone involved in books, writing, libraries, digital text, ebooks, online video, "information", econferencing, or the Internet or the Minitel or a lot of other things -- is taking place right now and over the next few months at,

Roger Chartier, Stephen Harnad, Theodore Zeldin, and many other luminaries, discussing "texts" and various favorite subjects... even Jason Epstein, talking about and discussing (with you!) "Reading: The Digital Future"... and Umberto Eco, opining on "Authors and Authority", and wondering, "Do intellectuals play the role of a Web - filter?"...

And everything is free - of - charge. Participants / viewers / you can download free ebooks, watch free videos, and take part in open online discussions with other viewers and with the "speakers": just think, Roger Chartier and Jason Epstein and Umberto Eco, answering your questions and arguing with you about "the decline of the book" and "etexts"...

The event is presented by the BPI / Bibliothèque publique dŽinformation, the Institut Jean Nicod (CNRS), the EURO-EDU / Association Européenne pour le Développement de lŽEnseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche sur Internet, and Giantchair, an Ebook Distribution Company: the extraordinary program --

"Every two weeks a new topic is explored. The author's text on the topic can be downloaded for free on this site. To take part in the discussions, you will need to sign up. Past discussions are open for viewing only."

• Readers and Readings in the Electronic Age Monday, October 15 - Wednesday, October 31 How does one read on-screen? Does the change in the support of texts mean that the contents of texts will change as well? What are the texts that will still be called 'books' once they are made available through the unified medium of screens? Speaker - Roger Chartier

• * What the Internet tells us about the Real Nature of the Book Wednesday, October 31 - Wednesday, November 14 The philosopher may wonder: what is a book? This is an ontological problem: the book is at once a physical and a mental entity. Speaker - Roberto Casati

• Skyreading / Writing in the Post-Gutenberg Galaxy Wednesday, November 14 - Friday, November 30 In the Post-Gutenberg Galaxy, a profound dividing line will emerge between so-called "non-give-away work" and so-called "give-away work" such as scientific and scholarly research papers. Speaker - Stevan Harnad

• Digital Journalism: Virtual Journalism? Friday, November 30 - Friday, December 14 What is the difference between a newspaper and an Internet portal? Does an electronic newspaper have to guarantee the same services as a portal? Speaker - Bruno Patino

• Personal and Professional Conversation Friday, December 14 - Monday, December 31 It is often suggested that conversations over the Internet tend to be informal. But an e-mail etiquette is already beginning to emerge. Is informal communication really possible? Speaker - Theodore Zeldin

• Reading: The Digital Future Monday, December 31 - Monday, January 14 Various book supports will continue to coexist, while the range of expertise needed for the publishing of texts and the management of rights is already undergoing a radical transformation. Speaker - Jason Epstein

• Babel and the Vintage Selection: Libraries in the Digital Age Monday, January 14 - Thursday, January 31 What is a library in the numerical age? In an institution which, traditionally, is devoted to the written word and to its memory, the advent of unstable and potentially infinite information could put in question the very nature of the library. Speaker - Equipe BPI

• Reading without Writing Thursday, January 31 - Thursday, February 14 This contribution to the symposium will reflect on the future of texts which will continue to be read but will no longer be written. Speaker - Dan Sperber

• The New Architecture of Information Thursday, February 14 - Thursday, February 28 After having observed in our usability labs hundreds of users interacting with websites and other electronic media one fact is clear: users do not read more than four lines of text on the screen. We will try to explain why. Speakers - Stephana Broadbent, Francesco Cara

• Authors and Authority Thursday, February 28 - Thursday, March 14 What is the role of the expert and of the intellectual at a time when information is accessible to virtually everyone? Do intellectuals play the role of a "Web-filter"? Speaker - Umberto Eco

Apologies for duplication to those with whom I already have been discussing this "text-e" event, on a couple of econferences -- bears repeating, I figure, plus broadest possible dissemination.

And many thanks once again to Peter Graham, who first announced this event to me and to many others on Exlibris.

A thought, as well, that anyone interested in econferencing and "video conferencing" generally -- as who among us is not, nowadays, as "face - to - face giant conferences held in big city hotels and convention centers" now are "so September 10..." -- we all might take a hard and systematic look at the structure which these "text-e" people have assembled and mounted.

It is impressive. The "text-e" site offers:

• Home -- everything is in 3 languages, no less -- if "terrorism" hasn't taught the US the virtues of multilingualism, now, nothing ever will -- have a look in job recruiting sites at the plaintive current cries from CIA, FBI, US Dept. of Defense, etc.: "Anybody out there know Arabic?", "How about Pashtu?"...

• Sign up -- client - analysis and mailing lists! i.e. for going further -- well - thought - out site, like I said

• Program -- see above, and there are bios of the "speakers" plus all of the following very useful and free - of - charge options,

  Download this text:
  Adobe eBook (Mac/PC) | Microsoft Reader (for PC only)
  Read this text online | Printable version
  Read the archived debate
  Videos (2 speeds)

  -- some day, soon, someone will figure out how to incorporate interactive video / teleconferencing into one of these econference events, manageably -- oh what "bandwidth" & "filtering" & "information overload" fun we all will have then...

• Participants -- your name in lights, along with the "speakers" and others among the most interesting people in the fields concerned

• Organizers -- details on and links to the BPI, and also to the perhaps less familiar but no less interesting Institut Jean Nicod (CNRS), EURO-EDU / Association Européenne pour le Développement de lŽEnseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche sur Internet, and Giantchair, an Ebook Distribution Company

• Discussion Forum -- entry - point for participating in ongoing discussion topics, related to the current "speaker" presentation, or for initiating your own -- "argue 'books' with Epstein..."

• eBooks -- the etexts by Roger Chartier and Roberto Casati, so far -- very easily downloaded and read, online or off

• Events -- just in case you can get to France non - "virtually"

  "A series of events in the 'real' world are programmed to accompany and enrich the ongoing symposium:

  • Centre Georges Pompidou - Petite Salle
    Monday, November 05 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
    Conference in French: Les-rendez vous de l'édition: Les supports du texte électronique : quelle technologie pour quelle information? With: François Chahuneau, Alain Pierrot, Olivier Pujot, Johan Hufnagel. Chair : Daniel Garcia

  • ENS- LSH, 15 parvis Rene' Descartes, 69007 Lyon
    Thursday, November 08 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
    Conference in French: Les jeudis du numérique Vers un nouveau modèle industriel. Speaker: Eric Brousseau: Fondements des Organisations et des Régulations de l'Univers Marchand ISDN

  • Centre Georges Pompidou - Petite Salle - Niveau - 1
    Monday, November 26 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
    Conference in French: Les rendez-vous de l'édition: L'édition en sciences humaines. With: Colette Becker, Emmanuelle Garcia, Michel Prigent, Peter Stockinger. Chair: Gérald Grunberg.

• Bibliography -- a very good list, assembled by Noga Arikha and Gloria Origgi the principal "EURO-EDU" organizers of the event -- well worth checking over

• Contact Us -- the email address is info@text-e.org

• Press Reviews -- these people are pros -- so far,
  • Sunday, October 14 Domenica - Il Sole 24 Ore, Eco e Epstein sul libro in rete

  • Thursday, October 04 Liberation, En bref: Colloque virtuel

• Press Release -- a good summary, worth reading -- interesting info. on the two principal organizers,

  • Noga Arikha has recently completed a doctorate at the Warburg Institute, London. She is a historian of ideas with an interest in the philosophy of mind, the cognitive sciences and the history of life sciences. She is also concerned with the establishment of dialogues between disciplines, between the academic and the public spheres, and between the sciences and the humanities.

  • Gloria Origgi is researcher in philosophy at the University of Bologna, where she teaches philosophy and cognitive science. In 2000 she founded the EURO-EDU Association for developing Internet-based research projects. She is author of essays in philosophy of mind and epistemology. She is also in the faculty of the Graduate School in Information and Communication Technologies Almaweb, Bologna Italy.

  and, last but not least,

• Search -- thank goodness -- always a sign of a "site which cares..."

As long as so many of us are spending the week beneath the bed -- "waiting for the bomb to drop", or worse -- we might as well econference. There is still a world out there, after all, one involving more than just cluster bombs and anthrax... even though the US and Asian and Western European media for the last few weeks might have led you to believe that there isn't. To the bed - ensconced, then, how better to refresh the brain without exposing the body than to get back in harness intellectually but only virtually, online.

On the other hand, for the more daring and / or more foolish, international air travel and hotel costs never have been lower: supply and demand -- no one else is doing it -- $378 return, SFO to Paris, and my son says student fares are a whole lot less.

But I never have liked standing in lines at all, myself, much less standing in longer lines now supervised by a weekender National Guardsman carrying a loaded gun. So, on to "text-e", and our brave new video econferencing "virtual" world.

Besides, it probably would have been raining in Paris, anyway...

FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal                   ISSN 1071 - 5916

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