2002, 64.4% in September 2003 (including 34.9%
non-English-speaking Europeans and 29.4% Asians) and 64.2% in March
2004 (including 37.9% non-English-speaking Europeans and 33% Asians).

1999: OPEN EBOOK FORMAT

[Overview]

In 1999, there were nearly as many eBook formats as eBooks, with every
company and organization creating its own format for its own eBook
reader and its own electronic device. The publishing industry felt the
need to work on a common format for eBooks and and published in
September 1999 the first version of the Open eBook (OeB) format, an
eBook format based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and defined by
the Open eBook Publication Structure (OeBPS). The Open eBook Forum was
created in January 2000 to develop the OeB format and OeBPS
specifications. Since 2000, most eBook formats were derived from - or
are compatible with the OeB format. In April 2005, the Open eBook Forum
became the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and the OeB
format became the ePub format. The ePub format is one of the standards
for the digital publishing industry.

1999: DIGITAL AUTHORS

[Overview]

Like many artists, Jean-Paul began exploring the internet and searching
what hyperlinks could offer to expand his writing towards new
directions. He switched from being a print author to being an
hypermedia author, and created Cotres furtifs (Furtive Cutters), a
website telling stories in 3D. He also enjoyed the freedom given by
online self-publishing, and wrote in August 1999: "The internet allows
me to do without intermediaries, such as record companies, publishers
and distributors. Most of all, it allows me to crystallize what I have
in my head: the print medium (desktop publishing, in fact) only allows
me to partly do that." He added in June 2000: "Surfing the web is like
radiating in all directions (I am interested in something and I click
on all the links on a home page) or like jumping around (from one click
to another, as the links appear). You can do this in the written media,
of course. But the difference is striking. So the internet didn't
change my life, but it did change how I write. You don't write the same
way for a website as you do for a script or a play."

[In Depth (published in 2000)]

I interviewed Murray Suid, a writer of educational books, who was
living in Palo Alto, California. Back in Paris, I interviewed
Jean-Paul, an hypermedia author, who wrote some interesting commen