1997. This was a new step in the changes underwent by the traditional publishing chain since the 1970s. The traditional printing business was first disrupted by new photocomposition machines, with lower costs. Text and image processing began to be handed over to desktop publishing shops and graphic art studios. Impression costs went on decreasing with desktop publishing, photocopiers, color photocopiers and digital printing equipment. Digitization also accelerated the publication process. Editors, designers and other contributors could all work at the same time on the same book. For educational, academic and scientific publications, online publishing became a cheaper solution than print books, with the possibility of regular updates to include the latest information.

[In Depth (published in 1999)]

Since the 1970s, the traditional publishing chain has drastically changed. The printing work done by pre-press shops was first disrupted by new photocomposition machines. Text and image processing began to be handed over to advertising and graphic art agencies. Impression costs went on decreasing with desktop publishing, copiers, color copiers and digital printing equipment.

In 1997, text and image processing was provided at a low price by desktop publishing shops and graphic art studios. Digitization accelerated the publication process. Editors, designers and other contributors could all work at the same time on the same book.

Digitization also made possible the online publishing of educational and scientific publications, which appeared as a far better solution than print books, because they could be regularly updated with the latest information. Some universities began distributing their own textbooks online, with chapters selected in an extensive database, and articles and commentaries from professors. For a seminar, a small print could be made upon request with a selection of online articles sent to a printer.

Electronic publishing allowed some academic publishers to keep running their business, with lower costs and quick access. This way, small publishers went on publishing specialized books, for which the printing in a small number of copies had become more and more difficult over the years due to budgetary reasons. These books could now be regularly updated and their readers benefit from the latest version. Readers didn't need to wait any more for a new printed edition, often postponed if not cancelled because of commercial constraints.

Electronic publishing and traditional publishing became complementary. The frontier between the two supports - electronic and paper - was vanishing. Most recent print media already stemmed from an electronic version anyway, on a word processor, a spreadsheet or a database. More and more documents became only electronic. And more and more print books were scanned to be included in digital bookstores and libraries.

At the end of the 1990s, there were no reliable statistics yet proving that the large-scale use of computers and electronic documents would make us paperless and save some tress, as hoped by all of us who believe in nature preservation. We were still in a transition period. Many people still needed a print version for easier reading, or to keep track of a document in case the electronic file was accidentally deleted, or to have some paper support for their documentation or archives.

1997: LOGOS DICTIONARY

[Overview]

Logos is a leading translation company located in Modena, Italy. In 1997, Logos had 200 in-house translators in Modena and 2,500 free-lance translators worldwide, who processed around 200 texts per day. The company made a bold move at the time, and decided to put on the web all the linguistic tools used by its translators, for the internet community to freely use them as well. The linguistic tools were the Logos Dictionary, a multilingual dictionary with 7 billion words (in Fall 1998); the Logos Wordtheque, a multilingual library with 300 billion words extracted from translated novels, technical manuals and other texts; the Logos Linguistic Resources, a database of 500 glossaries; and the Logos Universal Conjugator, a database for verbs in 17 languages.

[In Depth (published in 1999)]

The Logos Dictionary is a multilingual dictionary with 7,580,560 words (as of December 10, 1998). The Logos Wordtheque is a word-by-word multilingual library with a massive database of 325,916,827 words extracted from multilingual novels, technical literature and translated texts. Logos Linguistic Resources is a database of 553 glossaries. The Logos Universal Conjugator is a database for the conjugation of verbs in 17 languages.

Logos is an international translation company based in Modena, Italy. In 1997, Logos decided to put all the linguistic tools used by its translators on the web for free. Logos had 200 translators on the spot and 2,500 free-lance translators all over the world, who processed around 200 texts per day.

When interviewed by Annie Kahn in the French daily newspaper Le Monde of December 7, 1997, Rodrigo Vergara, the head of Logos, explained: "We wanted all our translators to have access to the same translation tools. So we made them available on the internet, and while we were at it we decided to make the site open to the public. This made us extremely popular, and also gave us a lot of exposure. The operation has in fact attracted a great number of customers, but also allowed us to widen our network of translators, thanks to the contacts made in the wake of the initiative."

In the same article, Annie Kahn wrote: "The Logos site is much more than a mere dictionary or a collection of links to other online dictionaries. A system cornerstone is the document search software, which processes a corpus of literary texts available free of charge on the web. If you search for the definition or the translation of a word ('didactique', for example), you get not only the answer sought, but also a quote from one of the literary works containing the word (in our case, an essay by Voltaire). All it takes is a click on the mouse button to access the whole text or even to order the book, thanks to a partnership agreement with Amazon.com, the famous online bookstore. Foreign translations are also available. However, if no text containing the required word is found, the system acts as a search engine, sending the user to other websites mentioning the term in question. In the case of certain words, you can even hear the pronunciation. If there is no translation currently available, the system calls on the public to contribute. Everyone can make their own suggestions, after which Logos translators and the company check the forwarded translations."

1997: MULTIMEDIA CONVERGENCE

[Overview]

As more and more people were using digital technology, previously distinct information-based industries, such as printing and publishing, graphic design, media, sound recording and film making, were converging into one industry, with information as a common product. This trend was named "multimedia convergence", with a massive loss of jobs, and a serious enough issue to be tackled by the ILO (International Labor Organization) by 1997. The first ILO Symposium on Multimedia Convergence was held in January 1997 at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. This international symposium was a tripartite meeting with employers, unionists, and government representatives. Some participants, mostly employers, demonstrated the information society was generating or would generate jobs, whereas other participants, mostly unionists, demonstrated there was a rise in unemployment worldwide.