In the spring 1999 Open Society - Georgia Foundation (OSGF) organised a contest for the best Georgian website. The goal was to foster the idea of creating websites in Georgia in the Georgian language as well as to promote the Georgian State and the Unicode standards of coding of the Georgian alphabet on the web. Sites in order to be eligible to participate in the contest were expected to have at least 50 percent of content in Georgian and to use Unicode. The competition was to attract as many participants as possible, therefore no further conditions were set.

About 90 sites were submitted to the contest, the majority of which represented non-profit entities or private persons. Unfortunately, only six commercial sites were presented, which indicates low interest of the Georgian business in the internet. Three awards worth $700, $450 and $300 in each of the three categories (sites of non-profit organisations, commercial sites, and personal sites) were given. They were complemented by special awards for technical fulfilment, for the most interesting opening page and for the most useful site. Information on the participants and a list of winners is available at <www.osgf.ge/webcontest>.

Total funding from OSGF and OSI Internet Program for this project was $6,775. [based on information from Sandro Karumidze, OSGF <sandro@osgf.ge>]

DIGITAL PRESERVATION SUMMER SCHOOL IN BULGARIA

The current state of digital preservation of medieval manuscripts and early printed books in the Central and Eastern Europe is still characterised by isolated small-scale projects and lack of cooperation between institutions. Additionally, courses on digital preservation are not included in the basic university programs throughout the region. Important collections are still not catalogued. The conditions of obsolete forms of storage lead to damages, not to say that the above conditions are in many cases obsolete. Work in the field should be carried out within internationally accepted standards, which have in these instances not been applied to Slavic manuscripts and early printed books. The basic aim of the summer school on these topics organised in Sofia on 26 July – 13 August was therefore to improve this situation by direct training and, at a later stage (till mid-2000), producing a reader on digital preservation of specialised collections.

The participants came from 16 countries (Albania, Armenia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Georgia, Indonesia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Rumania, Russia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkey, USA, Yugoslavia). The resource persons were from different organizations, which currently run major projects in the field in countries including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Hungary and the UK.

The school was held under the auspices of Ms. Emma Moskova, the Minister of Culture of Bulgaria. The national media coverage of the event was impressive including seven live interviews and reports on the National TV and information in the national radio and specialised newspapers.

The school will be followed-up by establishing a list server in the field. The long-term impact among other issues will improve distant electronic access to the local library collections.

The school was financed by Soros-affiliated institutions (HESP, OSF-Sofia) and other sponsors from various countries. [based on a report from seminar organisers Serguey Ivanov, Associated Professor of American University in Bulgaria <serguey@nws.aubg.bg>, and Milena Dobreva, Resident Fellow at Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Sofia, Bulgaria <dobreva@math.bas.bg>]

MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION SEMINARS IN GEORGIA …

The Georgian seminar was held in Tbilisi on 26- 30 July. It was the most recent in a series of seminars (ISBN in June 1997, Publishing Finance in July 1998, Publishing Associations in November 1998, Book Design in May 1999 – see Forum 3, 21, 24, 37).

The participants of the seminar were selected through a competition. Based on the CV-s and letters of motivation the Publishing Program review commission identified 14 managers and marketing staff, not only from Tbilisi but also from the countryside, for participation. The Armenian and Azerbaijani foundations also sent participants, 5 from each country. The seminar was held by Book Market Research (BMR), a Polish consulting company.

The objective of the seminar was to introduce participants to the concepts of marketing in publishing. Principal part of the course was a presentation of practical solutions to general and particular marketing and distribution problems, research and promotion. Usage of the internet as a marketing tool was covered, too. The course had a form of interactive lectures oriented towards the practical rather than theoretical issues. During the presentations the participants had to do short tests (for instance SWOT analysis, structure diagram, single sentence test, etc.) The presentations lasted for four days but the trainers were available also on the fifth day for individual consultations.

The interpreters for the seminar came from Kyiv, where they had interpreted at the same seminar conducted two weeks earlier [see Forum 37]. The seminar, co-organised by Open Society Georgia Foundation and CPD with input from OSI-Armenia and OSI-Azerbaijan, cost $26,151. [based on information from Eka Mazmishvili, Open Society Georgia Foundation <eka@osgf.ge>]

… AND IN BULGARIA

The Bulgarian seminar was conducted within the Cultural Journals Project [see Forum 2 and 33] in Sofia on 8-11 September. Training was delivered also by BMR and the seminar had a form similar to the course in Tbilisi. The 21 participants were book publishers as well as editors of cultural journals, a bookseller and a wholesaler.

All participants were asked to bring their product but only the most brave did so. Their books were subjected to an uncompromising analysis and some publishers became depressed and worried about their future but others took the criticism as a stimulation for initiative and further effort.

As usual, the trainers arrived in Sofia two days before the seminar and spent this time visiting bookshops and publishers.

The seminar cost $12,000. The cost was born by Soros Center for the Arts – Sofia with a contribution from CPD and Central East European Book Fund in Amsterdam. [based on information from Milena Deleva, Soros Center for the Arts - Sofia <mdeleva@sca.osf.acad.bg>]

FAILURE AT SEMINAR ON PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATIONS IN SLOVAKIA

The objective of the seminar, organised in Bratislava on 6-7 September, was “to foster the strengthening and development of non-governmental associations of Slovak publishers and book distributors”. The trainers were selected to represent associations from an East European country (Grzegorz Boguta from Poland) and a Western one (Peter Kilborn from the UK). An additional lecture entitled “The Internet and the Book Trade” was to make the seminar more attractive. Unfortunately, the seminar was a failure as only few people turned up, moreover, the majority of them occupied rather junior positions within their companies. Also the president of the Publishers Association spent only one hour in the seminar.

Among the reasons for this poor attendance was the unwillingness of publishers interact socially as there are deep political divisions reflected also among the publishers. However, clearly the decision of the organisers (CPD and Open Society Foundation – Slovakia) to run this seminar under current conditions was wrong, too. The lesson learnt is that it is important to ascertain the need for our activities before committing to them. As they say "you can bring the horse to the water, but you can't make the horse to drink". In our own case we need to assess before spending time and money whether or not the horse is thirsty. The seminar cost $7,500. [JC]

TRANSLATION PROJECT RESULTS IN HUNGARY …

This year the foundation ran only the East Translates East project competition (CEU Translation Project was terminated last year in order to focus support exclusively on translations from East European languages). Encouraged by the growing interest in the project, the publishing committee recommended that the Soros Foundation - Hungary increases the project budget allocation sixfold in 2000 (the size of the actual increase is being decided). At the moment the biggest problem will be creating a pool of translation reviewers for all involved languages.

The following grants were awarded:

1. Acin, Jovica: Apokalipsa Sad/Apocalypses Now, $958, $119/author’s sheet (from Serbian)

2. Konstantinovic, Radomir: Filozofija palanke/Small Town Philosophy, $2,500, $113/author’s sheet (from Serbian)

3. Gombrowicz, Witold: Dzienniki/Dairies, $1,666, $32/author’s sheet (from Polish)

4. Lotman, Jurij M.: Kultura i vzryv/Culture and Discontinuity, $1,041, $86/author’s sheet (from Russian)

5. Lovinescu, Eugen: Istoria civilizatiei romane moderne/The History of Modern Romanian Civilisation, $1,916, $56/author’s sheet (from Romanian)

6. Melihov, Alexandr: Confessions of a Jew, $1,833, $141/author’s sheet (from Russian)

7. Patapievici, H.-R.: Zbor in bataia sagetii/Flying against the Arrow, $1,041, $114/author’s sheet (from Romanian)

8. Plesu, Andrei: Limba pasarilor/The Language of Birds, $1,000, $156/author’s sheet (from Romanian)

9. Saharov, Andrej: New Russian Histography, $1,250, $104/author’s sheet (collection of texts, from Russian)

10. Skrinnikov, Ruslan: The Life and Death of Pushkin, $1,666, $92/author’s sheet (from Russian)

11. Tepeneag, Dumitru: Hotel Europa, $1,666, $75/author’s sheet (from Romanian)

12. Ugresic, Dubravka: Muzej bezuvjetne predaje/The Art of an Unconditional Surrender, $1,041, $69/author’s sheet (from Croatian)

13. Vogrinc, Joze: Televizijski gledalec/Television Viewer, $1125, $140/author’s sheet (from Slovene)

… IN MACEDONIA …

The results include the CEU Translation Project, East Translates East and Books for Civil Society titles.

1. Baudrillard, Jean: Simulacres et simulation, $1,430, $149/author’s sheet

2. Begg, David K., Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch: Economics, $6,930, $283/author’s sheet

3. Bobi, Gani: Kontexti i vete kultures/The Context of Self-Culture, $1,430 (from Albanian)

4. Bryson, John M.: Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations (Revised Edition), $2,640

5. Buergenthal, Thomas: International Human Rights in a Nutshell, $2,750

6. Bugarski, Ranko: Jezici, Pismo/Languages, Writing, Vol. 1,2, $2,090 (from Serbian)

7. Burda, Michael C. and Charles Wyplosz: Macroeconomics: A European text, $4,290

8. Donnelly, Jack: International Human Rights, $2,090

9. Dvornik, Francis: The Slavs in European History and Civilization, $5,170, $116/author’s sheet

10. Eagleton, Terry: Literary Theory: An introduction, $1,980

11. Etkind, Aleksandr: Eros nievozmozhnogo/Eros of the Impossible, $2,860 (from Russian), $111/author’s sheet

12. Gibbons, M., C.Limoges, H.Nowotny, S.Schwartzman: The New Production of Knowledge, $1,430

13. Gilbert, Martin: The Holocaust, $4,180

14. Hayek, Friedrich A. von: The Fatal Conceit, $1,650, $148/author’s sheet

15. Hobbes, Thomas: Leviathan, $2,750, $99/author’s sheet

16. Ishay, Micheline R. (editor): Human Rights Reader, $7,590

17.Janis, Mark W.; Richard S.Kay and Anthony W.Bradley: European Human Rights Law, $4,180

18. Jergovic, Miljenko: Sarajevo Marlboro, $1,210, $161/author’s sheet (from Bosniak)

19. Kadare, Ismail: Legjenda e legjendave/The Legend of Legends, $1,320 (from Albanian), $110/author’s sheet

20. Keane, John: The Media and Democracy, $990

21. Kershaw, Ian: Hitler, $1,760

22. Kolakowski, Leszek: Religia/Religion, $1,650 (from Polish)

23. Kolakowski, Leszek: Mini wyklady o maxi sprawach/Mini-Lectures on Maxi-Issues, $1,430 (from Polish), $340/author’s sheet

24. Konstantinovic, Radomir: Filozofija palanke/Small Town Philosophy, $2,750 (from Serbian)

25. Locke, John: Essay Concerning Human Understanding, $2,750, $48/author’s sheet

26. Lotman, Yuri: Kultura i vzryv/Culture and Discontinuity, $1,870 (from Russian), $170/author’s sheet

27. Marshall, Gordon: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, $6,930

28. Mandelstam, Nadezhda: Memoirs, $2,860 (from Russian)

29. Miller, David (editor): Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, $6,930

30. Moi, Toril: Sexual/Textual Politics, $1,430

31. Murko, Matija: Geschichte der Alteren Sudslawischen Litteraturen, $1,760, $126/author’s sheet

32. Popper, Karl: Unended Quest, $2,310, $147/author’s sheet

33. Quine, W.O.: Word and Object, $2,090, $112/author’s sheet

34. Radcliffe-Brown, A.R.: Structure and Function in Primitive Society, $1,540

35. Rawls, John: A Theory of Justice, $3,465

36. Snajder, Slobodan: Utjeha sjevernih mora/Northern Seas Relief, $1,540 (from Croatian)

37. Todorov, Cvetan: Extreme Face, $2,090

38. Todorova, Maria: Imagining the Balkans, $4,070

39. Vlasto, A.P.: The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom, $2,750, $98/author’s sheet

40. Weber, Max: Religionssoziologie, $1,430

41. Zuppa, Vjeran: Uvod u dramatologiju/Introduction to Drama Studies, $1,760 (from Croatian)

… AND IN ROMANIA

The results include both the CEU Translation Project and Books for Civil Society titles.

1. Berlin, Isaiah: The Proper Study of Mankind, $5,000, $100/author’s sheet

2. Billington, James H.: The Icon and the Axe, $2,000, $51/author’s sheet

3. Campbell, David: Writing Security, $1,500, $76/author’s sheet

4. Carr, E.H.: The Twenty Years' Crisis, $1,500, $102/author’s sheet

5. Carrere D’Encausse, Helene: Russian’s Curse, $1,500, $61/author’s sheet

6. Chartier, Rogers & Guglielmo, Cavallo: Histoire De La Lecture Dans Le Monde, $3,000, $86/author’s sheet

7. Dummett, Michael: The Logical Basis of Metaphysics, $1,500, $59/author’s sheet

8.Edelman, Murray: The Symbolic Uses of Politics, $1,000, $75/author’s sheet

9. Erikson, Erik H.: Young Man Luther, $1,000, $57/author’s sheet

10. Foucault, Michel: Les Anormaux, $2,000, $78/author’s sheet

11. Frege, Gottlob: Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik, $600, $53/author’s sheet

12. Freud, Sigmund: Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, $1,000, $125/author’s sheet

13. Gay, Peter: Weimar Culture, $1,000, $94/author’s sheet

14. Giddens, Anthony: The Consequences of Modernity, $1,000, $105/author’s sheet

15. Gilpin, Robert: War and Change in International Politics, $1,500, $75/author’s sheet

16. Grousset, Rene: L'empire des steppes, $2,000, $50/author’s sheet

17. Hamilton, Alexander; James Madison and John Jay: The Federalist Papers, $2,500, $75/author’s sheet

18. Held, David: Democracy and the Global Order, $1,500, $67/author’s sheet

19. Hirschman, Albert O.: The Passions and the Interests, $1,500, $118/author’s sheet

20. Hollis, Martin: The Philosophy of Social Science, $1,500, $75/author’s sheet

21. Holmes, Stephen: Passions and Constrain, $1,000, $42/author’s sheet

22. Jankelevits, Vlagimir: La Mort, $2,000, $68/author’s sheet

23. Ketcham, Ralph (editor): The Anti-Federalist Papers, and the Constitutional Convention Debates, $1,000, $41/author’s sheet

24. Kornai, Janos: Unpaved Road of Transformation, $2,000, $102/author’s sheet

25. Kristeva, Julia: Le Genie Feminin, Vol 1-3, $1,500, $59/author’s sheet

26. Lenski, Gerhard Emmanuel: Power and Privilege, $2,000, $53/author’s sheet

27. Lipovetsky, Gilles: La Troiseme Femme, $1,000, $49/author’s sheet

28. Mastny, Vojtech: The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity, $800, $36/author’s sheet

29. Nemec, Juraj & Glen Wright (editors): Public Finance, $1,500, $55/author’s sheet

30. Offe, Claus: Varieties of Transition, $2,000, $104/author’s sheet

31. Pearce, David W: The MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics, $2,000, $38/author’s sheet

32. Peyrefitte, Alain: The Confidence Society, $2,000, $67

33. Putnam, Robert D.: Making Democracy Work, $1,500, $89/author’s sheet

34. Riasanovsky, Nicholas Valentine: A History of Russia, $1,000, $23/author’s sheet

35. Rorty, Richard: Pragmatism and Post-Nietzschean Philosophy; $1,500, $86/author’s sheet

36. Roy, Olivier: La nouvelle Asie centrale, ou, La fabrication des nations, $1,000, $50/author’s sheet

37. Said, Edward: Orientalism, $2,000, $80/author’s sheet

38. Sen, Amartya: Inequality Reexamined, $1,000, $41/author’s sheet

39. Stone, Deborah: Policy Paradox, $1,400, $65/author’s sheet

40. Taylor, Charles: The Ethics of Authenticity (The Malaise of Modernity), $1,000, $161/author’s sheet

41. Tismaneau, Vladimir: The Revolutions of 1989, $1,000, $69/author’s sheet

42. Verdery, Katherine: What Was Socialism, And What Comes Next?, $1,000, $43/author’s sheet

43. Veyne, Paul: Comment on Ecrit L’Hitoire, $2,000, $80/author’s sheet

44. Vlasto, A.P.: The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom, $1,000, $35/author’s sheet

45. Waltz, Kenneth N.: Man, the State and War, $700, $55/author’s sheet

46. Welsch, Wolfgang: Unsere postmoderne Moderne, $2,000, $80/author’s sheet

47. Wilson, Bryan: Religion in Sociological Perspective, $1,000, 89/author’s sheet

48. Wolf,Thomas: Managing a Nonprofit Organization, $1,000, $79/author’s sheet

49. Wuthnow, Robert: Rediscovering the Sacred, $1,000, $90/author’s sheet

NEW ON CPD WEBSITE

Russian translation (14 pages) of Brian Green: Bar Coding for Books

STAFF NEWS

Yana Genova <ygenova@osi.hu> has started working for CPD and Darius Cuplinskas <cuplinsk@osi.hu> is back from London. Both can be found in Budapest. In the meantime Milena Deleva <mdeleva@sca.osf.acad.bg> has taken over Yana’s responsibilities as program coordinator in Bulgaria.

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Annoucements

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ELECTRONIC INFORMATION FOR LIBRARIES ‘DIRECT’

The OSI Information Sub-Board has announced a new network-wide initiative: Electronic Information For Libraries ‘Direct’ or EIFL ‘Direct’. It is a joint project between OSI and EBSCO Publishing, one of the world’s largest suppliers of electronic and print journals.

EIFL Direct will provide over 3,000 full-text journals, newspapers and news wires as well as over 1,300 pamphlets and full-text reference books primarily in the social sciences and humanities. A medical database (MEDLINE) is also included. This will be delivered electronically to all countries in the OSI network.

OSI has formed a consortium of 39 countries in the network to participate in this program. This means creating the largest information consortium in the world. The consortium comprises of the following countries: Albania, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Hungary, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malawi, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Yugoslavia including Kosovo, Zambia, Zimbabwe

This project concentrates on scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences and will also provide medical information. Depending on the success of EIFL Direct it is likely that we will launch a similar initiative in 2000 for science and technology literature.

In 2000 EBSCO has agreed to add a significant number of titles which will be of special interest to the countries in the consortium. From 2001 onwards EBSCO hope to start adding local language titles from the region.

OSI is also investigating the use of automatic translation software, which will allow for the journals to be translated from English into Russian.

In addition all staff of the national foundation offices, OSI New York and OSI Budapest will have free access to the service from end of September 1999.

Further information can be obtained at a special Internet site <http://search.epnet.com> to be launched on 22 September or from Anna Balogh, EIFL Direct Logistics Co-ordinator <abalogh@osi.hu> or Michael Kay, EIFL Direct Project Manager and Director of Electronic Publishing Development Program <kaym@osi.hu>.

PREFERRED PLACEMENT SYMPOSIUM

Preferred Placement: The Hit Economy, Hyperlink Diplomacy and Web Epistemology

Symposium by the Design & Media Fellowship, Jan van Eyck Academy, the Netherlands

at Theatrum Anatomicum, de Waag, Society for Old and New Media, Nieuwmarkt, Amsterdam

Saturday, 16 October 10.30-18.00

Preferred placement is a term employed by search engine companies for boosting sites in query returns. Organisations pay engine companies to have their sites placed higher in search engine returns, in order to receive more hits. When they add up, hits count. In the hit economy, organisations hope to gain banner advertising revenue and demonstrable net presence. Hit counts show presence. They indicate measures of site popularity and reliability. Or do they?

A different measure of reliability and reputability may be found in hyperlinks. Quantities of 'links in' single out the authoritative voices on the web, according to the latest engine logics. Hyperlinking is telling in other ways, too. It shows which organisations acknowledge the presence and relevance of others. It also may indicate trust between organisations. When larger sets of organisational interlinkings are mapped, networks of power and knowledge, and landscapes of discourse and debate may be found.

Exploring new engine logic and information visualisation techniques, the symposium will focus on how knowledge is being gained these days from 'reading between the links'. We refer to these new forms of knowing as web epistemology.

The symposium includes presentations on the following:

-Web epistemology: Tracking and authoring reliability

-Banners, clicks and rings: In defense of the hit economy

-The Web as political economy

-Cybergeographies: The new Mappae Mundi

-Footprints in the snow: Subjective and contextual social navigation

-Hyperlink diplomacy: Inside the emerging link economy

-Playing with search engines and mapping geographies of power & knowledge

-govcom.org: Experimenting with the persistent pluralist potential

-The debate engine: Dynamic systems for public dialogue

-10 years of social theory of the net

-Virtual Society?

-A visual language for hyperlink theory

Pre-registration recommended. Information and registration:

<www.govcom.org>

Further information: Richard Rogers, 31.43.350.3576,

<rogers@chem.uva.nl>

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Web Publishing

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E-PUBLICATION CHANCE FOR SHORT TEXTS

www.fatbrain.com

On 18 October Fatbrain.com is launching its new initiative called eMatter, which is to allow texts that are 10-100 pages long to get published and distributed for a profit. Such texts at the moment hardly if at all can find a publisher and eMatter is designed to fill this niche. The system works with a format at the moment not supported by the majority of e-books (which work with html files) but it is designed to be read on screen of a PC. Longer texts are not suitable for eMatter as currently used screens do not lend themselves for long reading. Fatbrain hopes that publishers will use eMatter for promotion purposes, providing revisions and addenda to already published books and to sell short literary pieces. So far three large US companies have already signed up. Also individual authors can use the system for publication of their own texts. [JC, based on Publishers Weekly of 6 September 1999]

MICROSOFT E-BOOK SOFTWARE

Microsoft has announced Microsoft Reader, software designed to display electronic books on the screen of an ordinary PC. It will be available on the market in the first quarter of 2000. The price is unknown yet but Microsoft representatives assured that it will be very low “zero, or very cheap”. [JC, based on Publishers Weekly of 6 September 1999]

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Translations Published - Update

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New titles published within the CEU Translation Project:

CZECH REPUBLIC

1. Berlin, Isaiah: Four Esseys on Liberty, $1,072, $76/author’s sheet

2. Dvornik, Francis: The Making of Central and Eastern Europe, $3,437

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Open Society Publishing Forum is a publication of the OSI Center for Publishing Development.

Archive of back issues: <www.osi.hu/cpd >

Contact person: Jerzy Celichowski <celichow@osi.hu>

Requests for adding to and dropping from the mailing list: Monika Horvath <mhorvath@osi.hu>

You can also contact us at:
Center for Publishing Development
Open Society Institute
1397 Budapest
PO Box 519
Hungary
e-mail cpd@osi.hu
tel (36 1) 327 3014
fax (36 1) 327 3042

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