Presentation of Master thesis (June 2012)

1. Master Thesis
Individualisation possibilities for books with
«print on demand»
technique
Aldi Alimuçaj BSc.
Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media (IICM)
21 June 2012

2. Overview
• Introduction
• Current Technologies
• Plugin Development
• Proof of Concept
• Conclusion
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3. Introduction
• What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
„OER are teaching and learning materials that you
may freely use and reuse, without charge “
(OER Commons)
- Free to use
- Edit
- Distribute
- Download
- Print
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4. Introduction
• Differences between OER and other Open
Initiatives
– OER Generalization of all Learning Resources
– We focus on Open Access Journals as its subset
• Why are people sharing for free?
– Technological (Software/Digital Resources immaterial)
– Economic (New business models)
– Social (Social movements)
– Legal (Constraints over existing copyrighted
technologies)
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5. Introduction
• (Re-)Funding OER and Sustainability models
– Knowing the Costs
• Value measurement (Manpower, Market value)
– Where is added-value generated
• Preparation
• Premium services
• Marketing
• Dual Licensing
– Costs and revenue models
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6. Introduction
– Endowment Model
– Membership Model
– Donations Model
– Conversion Model
– Contributor-Pay Model
– Sponsorship Model
– Institutional Model
– Governmental Model
– Partnerships and Exchanges
– CrowdFunding Model
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7. Current Technologies
• Flat World Knowledge
– Innovative, well designed, supporting tools, proprietary
• Open Access Publications
– Classic Repository, focus on simplicity, open source
• Open Journal Systems (OJS)
– Interactive, process oriented, extendable architecture
• Print on Demand
– Amazon (large amount of orders, globally active)
• 10 or more titels to start business
– Epubli
• print on demand and self publishing platform
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8. Current Technologies
• Print on Demand
“the technology based on digital printing
that enables books to be printed even in small
amounts”
• Event based production ↔ Statistical order
• Access to small/random/personal publications
• No storage costs, but slightly higher price per
unit
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9. POD Plugin Development
• A gear between two frameworks (OJS, epubli)
• Extension of OJS’s core functionalities
• OJS is an open source framework
– Written in PHP
– Supports most popular databases through ADODB
– Implements a variant of the MVC design pattern
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10. POD Plugin Development
Open Journal Systems MVC Diagram (Smecher, 2011)
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11. POD Plugin Development
• epubli Interfaces
– Client Web Interface (Browser)
– Web Service (XML Request)
– Partner Interface URL (PHP Script interface)
[POST/GET]
http://www.epubli.de/interfaces/partnerInterface.php?repository=url&action=workbench&pdfURI=
Influence the print job through defined
parameters
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12. POD Plugin Development
• Action
– workbench, price, voucher, order
• Repository
– Customized repository, i.e. tugraz
• pdfURI
– URI to the PDF document
• Price
– Additional charge (amount besides the printing and
shipping costs) static or dynamic
• Format
– A4, A5 etc.
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13. POD Plugin Development
POD Plugin Structure Diagram
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14. POD Plugin Development

16. POD Plugin Development
• Functions
– Select current issue
• Offers the possibility to chose articles
– Show cart
• Show selected articles
– Removing items
– Rearranging the order
– Quick link to preview the article
– Create request
• Compiling the file
• Calculating & Serializing the parameters (price,
timestamp, signature)
• Send request over the Partner Interface
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17. Proof of Concept
• Develop an open source plugin which gives small
and medium OER institutions the possibility to
refinances themselves
• Analyze the chances of success of this new
business model by examining the economic and
technical perspective of the new plugin and
existing solutions in the market
• Starting a topic for discussion about financing
OER (with this business model configuration)
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18. Proof of Concept
• Building an interconnected environment
• Advantages for all stakeholders

19. Proof of Concept
• Advantages for Publishers
– Earn money
– Focus on writing/reviewing/publishing
– No installation/operation costs
– Remain free of contracts and other legal
commitments
– Complete the publishing cycle by adding printed
copies (Students, Pupils with no PC in class)
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20. Proof of Concept
• Advantages for Users
– Price
• Publisher decides whether to charge the user or not
– Access rights
• In contrast with commercial OER repositories
• User can download, view online, print
– Usability
• All in one solution
• Before: Select, Download, Merge, Upload, Configure
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21. Proof of Concept
Prices (in Dollars) for printing-on-demand from FWK and epubli
FWK OER book: Elementary Algebra by John Redden (274 pages)
Amazon book: Elementary Algebra by Jerome E. Kaufmann and Karen L. Schwitters (539 pages)
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22. Proof of Concept
• Advantages for POD Providers
– Increased turnover
• Through the cooperation, customers who probably
wouldn’t use the service
– Marketing
• As OER partner
– New technologies
• Printing industry has to adapt to the digital era and find
new ways of doing business
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23. Proof of Concept
Proving the solution
Before After
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24. Conclusion
• Developing the Plugin
• Studying the business model
• Installing it on L3T.eu and
bildungsforschung.org
• Successfully printing one copy and closing the
test phase
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25. Live Demonstration
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26. Questions
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