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Meet our partners: IN2

Clara Pont2022-06-01T16:29:24+02:00

Alexandru Stan is leading the research and innovation projects of IN2.

How are you imagining right now the Möbius Book prototype development?  

Well we are currently in the midst of it. We tested our initial initial concepts and designs in the first pilot phase and now in the second pilot phase that will run until September 2022 we are giving readers, prosumers and publishers  prototypes of the different components that make up the Möbius Book to play with and provide feedback. For instance one component we invite prosumers to try out is the Möbius Creator, a web application that they can use to create digital books which have embedded in them videos, images and, most importantly, 3D sound effects or music. This will transport the reader directly in an immersive environment. Of course the eBook readers available right now are not be able to render this experience; this is why we are developing our very own Möbius Player. The feedback we are getting right now from the participants in the pilot is key to how the  Möbius Book prototype will be further developed, so we are very excited about the upcoming co-creation sessions during the next months.  

You have developed a web-based authoring environment for the creation of mixed-media stories. Which are the key advantages? Will it be deployed in the project?  

During the last 5 years we have dived deep into the challenge of creating a user-friendly tool for a more modern digital storytelling. We explored different ways in which people who are not necessarely experts in the use of digital technolgies can tap into their own digital collections of photos, videos, sounds, documents and re-use those together with other aggregated content e.g. from social media, cultural repositories like Europeana, etc. We named this tool Tellit (https://tellitapp.com/) as it enables users to tell the stories they care about in a more interactive and visually engaging way. One of the key advantages of the tool is that it separates the creative process of creating a story by putting together different mixed-media items from the part of how a story is visualised. In this way a creator can decide and change at any time the way in which a story is visualised, depending for instance on which device it should be shown. Another key aspect is that the tool becomes also a central content hub for the user, providing a single home from which to search, access and re-use the available content which would otherwise be in different siloes. Tellit will be one of the underlying tools that we are adapting and customising for Mobius, in essence using it as the core building block for the Mobius Creator. 

Which is specifically your role in the project?  

I am involved in the technical innovation activities of the project, starting from the requirements engineering and system architecture specification to the actual implementation and delivery of the new Mobius Book format. Especially, as part of the IN2 team, we are focusing on the Mobius Book creator and the dashboards that make up the prosumer intelligence toolkit; and of course we are collaborating closely with the EUT team on the development of the Mobius Player.  

IN2 as a technical partner, has a role in developing the prosumer intelligence toolkit. How would you define that? Which is your implication on it?  

Indeed one of the main problems reported by publishers is the lack of information about community trends, performance of certain titles, etc. The prosumer intelligence toolkit, or PIT as we call it, is an innovative tool for content creators and publishers to better understand the trends and feedback distilled from the data of open prosumer communities. It does this by providing interactive visualizations put together in a easy to use dashboard which allows users to get an aggregated and distilled view of the data gathered from different sources. The team of EUT is providing the underlying algorithms used to analyze and distill the data, while we at IN2 are focusing on the visualization and user interface for the dashboard.  

What do the Möbius Book need, technically speaking?   

From a technical standpoint, to make the Mobius Book a reality it is necessary to extend the current formats and standards for eBooks and create a very efficient, use-friendly and intuitive toolkit to produce and consume such immersive books like the ones we envision. This is no easy task and requires a constant interaction with users, developing and improving the technology based on the feedback received.  

The Pandemic has hit hard the publishing sector, what were your thoughts before and now about the evolution of the book industry? 

The latest industry statistics show that in fact the publishing industry has fared very well during the COVID pandemic. However, although book sales have gone up, so has the pressure for publishers to better engage readers. There is indication that reading habits have changed during the pandemic, with more people turning to books for entertainment. Prosumer communities like Wattpad have also shown a very healthy development during this time, indicating that especially for younger readers a more interactive, prosumer-oriented, book experience is welcomed. This is good news for Mobius.  

Finally, it would be much appreciated to know what you expect from the Möbius project. 

We aim with Mobius to demonstrate to the publishing industry the viable alternatives that new technologies can offer and understand better as a commercial organization what kind of solutions would be best suited for this market in the short, medium and long term. Ideally, after the end of the project we would be able to prepare a commercial solution based on the Mobius Book building blocks that were piloted during the project.

Alexandru Stan is leading the research and innovation projects of IN2. Since 2007 he has been active in European R&D&I, collaborating in over 25 EU-funded projects (CEF, H2020, JPICH, EIT, FP7, FP6, CIP). He is currently involved in the Mobius project and the WEAVE project (https://weave-culture.eu/), which is coordinated by IN2. We has recently involved in the European Data Incubator and the MARCONI project (https://www.projectmarconi.eu/).  He is part of the Steering Board of NEM (New European Media Initiative) and regularly acts as programme committee member for international conferences. 


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AvatarMöbius@mobius_europe·
1 Jul

💡Do you prefer to read on paper or on screen? This dilemma arises constantly, but here it is explainedwhat has happened to traditional reading after the pandemic. Discovering and reading go hand in hand, join us! 🔗👉

https://www.ft.com/content/a1768ded-e039-4c3b-8590-1d5d811ed1c2

📸 Sincerely Media en Unsplash

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AvatarMöbius@mobius_europe·
30 Jun

Möbius Awards Ceremony🏆 The winners of the open call for manuscripts were announced!

👉Meet the winner of the first mobius book
👉Get to know the project and find out how you can be the next one.
👉Discover the winners

Enjoy the full event here 🔗https://youtu.be/elz4tisizM4

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⏰THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL IS CLOSING TOMORROW! 'Th ⏰THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL IS CLOSING TOMORROW!

'The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.' The Nobel Prize Dennis Gabor once said, which seemed to be visioning what the Möbius project aims to do: create the world of tomorrow with the values we dream today according to the New European Bauhaus.🚀

Are you thrilled to be part of it? Then, do not hesitate to participate in the Möbius Open Call! 
 
🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 
 
 Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish  

 🗓Deadline: TOMORROW!
 👉 Link in bio!
The Möbius Open Call is about to close! Don't pro The Möbius Open Call is about to close! Don't procrastinate the submission of your manuscript because there are huge things that can come up!  

🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 

Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish 

 🗓Deadline: January 15th, 2022 

Stay connected! 

Link in bio!
🟣APPLY TO THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL! This is a 🟣APPLY TO THE MÖBIUS OPEN CALL! 

This is a call to all writers, whether professional or amateur🤩! We are looking for short original fantasy stories. The winning manuscript will become the 1st Möbius Book, a cross-media experience involving a 3D audio and virtual reality production and art installation! We want authors to imagine and build a beautiful and liveable future, the future we dream about. Participate now in the creation of the #MobiusBook!🔝 

 🥇1,500€ will be awarded for the best story 

 🥈🥉500€ will be awarded for each of the 2nd and 3rd places.  

 🎫The prizes will be delivered in kind 

Eligibility conditions: 

 💡Unpublished work 

 📄Max. length of 6.000 characters (including spaces) 

 🌍Participants must be of legal age (>18) and EU-citizens (plus Norway and Iceland) 

 💬Languages: English, Italian and Spanish 

 🗓Deadline: January 15th, 2022 

 Link in bio!
🟣 Does this slogan ring a bell? “A book for t 🟣 Does this slogan ring a bell? “A book for the price of a pack of cigarettes” It was from Allen Lane, who started the @penguinrandomhouse

After spending a weekend with world-famous author Agatha Christie, Lane realized that there were no quality books available in train stations, only magazines and pulp fiction. To ensure the success of his business model, he had to sell at least 17,000 copies of each book he published, yet after just one year, three million copies of the first ten published books of the new house were sold! 📚
👉 Link in bio!
🖊Marjorie Grassler
🟣Did you know that the five genres that are mos 🟣Did you know that the five genres that are most likely to generate bestsellers according to Nielsen Book Data are general and literary fiction; children's fiction, crime, thriller and adventure; young adult fiction and romance and sagas?

👉 Link in bio!
🖊Marjorie Grassler
🟣 With the arrival of the internet and other te 🟣 With the arrival of the internet and other technologies, the publishing sector had to dig to its deeper roots to extract new formats to reach its audiences 📚. So many business models have emerged to tackle the digital disruption, adapting sometimes the old way of working to the online and interactive environment. The encyclopedia salesperson has not disappeared; they have only been uploaded to the cloud!

👉 Link in bio!
 🖊Marjorie Grassler

#mobiusbook #booklovers #bookstagram #techlover #cloud
🟪Book publishing is the largest cultural indust 🟪Book publishing is the largest cultural industry in Europe🤩

💡Did you know that the total market value is €36-38 billion? (@europeancommission)

The majority of the world’s top publishing groups are European-owned: six to eight of the top 10 publishing groups, according to the annual Global Ranking of the Publishing Industry).” 🌍🚀

Source: Publishing Perspectives

#mobiusbook #booklovers #inspiration #publishing #culture #europe #h2020
🟣 Did you know that e-books are 15-20% cheaper 🟣 Did you know that e-books are 15-20% cheaper to produce than physically books? 🤩 Ebooks are often cheaper in the long run than traditional books because there are no printing fees associated with them 🚀 

Source: @breobox

📸 Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash
🟣Looking for fan fiction enthusiasts to join 🟣Looking for  fan fiction enthusiasts  to join an online discussion on  new reading experiences  next Thursday!

✨ Interested in joining? 

👉Leave your details in the link you will find in the bio and we'll reach out to you
🟣🗣 Did you know that in Europe every year th 🟣🗣 Did you know that in Europe every year there are 500.000 titles published and there are 22 millions of titles available? Looking at longer term trends, up to 2007 there was steady growth both in terms of turnover and of title output. In 2008 title production kept growing whilst turnover, adjusting for exchange rates, experienced a flat year. 2009 showed a slight decrease in turnover (accounting for exchange rates) and a slowdown of title growth 📚. 

💡 The crisis had less of an impact on publishing when compared to most other sectors. In 2010, growth resumed (especially exports), although favoured by exchange rates. 📖In 2011 and 2012, the market went down, and title production growth was sluggish; the e-book market grew rapidly, and exports were strong. In 2013 and 2014 the market slowed down again, with the most notable trends being the continuous growth of the e-book market and the good performance of exports, which became even stronger from 2015 to 2017. 

📲The e-book market (now nearing 10% of the total) showed signs of stagnation for the last 5 years (but it could be a matter of capturing the right data), whereas audio book sales exploded in 2019, giving new impetus to digital sales. If 2018 marked a trend reversal in the recovery process started in 2015, 2019 confirmed the positive trend🚀. 

Source: @fedeuropeanpublishers
🟪 💡 “We may be drowning and not even know 🟪 💡 “We may be drowning and not even know it.” Philip Jones, the Bookseller. This sentence opens a discussion on the turbulence created in traditional value chains in the latest edition of The Business of Books 2019. It is an urgent call for action for an industry that is hardly acknowledging that book and reading markets have changed profoundly and have entered the “attention economy” in which books, authors, publishers and retailers find themselves competing against anything and everybody else that connects with the audience. 

Deeper shifts in many of these markets require us to dive beneath the Surface. From Argetina Brazil and Mexico, to the UK and to a slightly less extent, even traditionalist Germany, self-publishing has managed to establish itself as a new industry segment of significant scope -one that has achieved remarkable economic success. However, due to a lack of data, our undestanding of this segment is appallingly incomplete📚

Source: The Business of Books 2019

📸 Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash

#mobiusbook #stories #booklovers #bookaholics #freshthoughts #hypertext #readers #bookstagram #bookaddict #inspiration
🟪The closure of the bookshops has been devastat 🟪The closure of the bookshops has been devastating for the publishing sector. The Spanish ones had 22’5% of losses during the pandemic, as explained by the sector (elperiodico). ⁠
⁠
Product offerings consumer preferences and consumption patterns are becoming more liquid and segmented by various factors, they include different perspectives on books, reading and audio consumption 💡.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 957185