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

Overview
• Introduction
• Current Technologies
• Plugin Development
• Proof of Concept
• Conclusion
2

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
3

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)
4

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
5

Introduction
– Endowment Model
– Membership Model
– Donations Model
– Conversion Model
– Contributor-Pay Model
– Sponsorship Model
– Institutional Model
– Governmental Model
– Partnerships and Exchanges
– CrowdFunding Model
6

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
7

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
8

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
9

POD Plugin Development
Open Journal Systems MVC Diagram (Smecher, 2011)
10

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
11

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.
12

POD Plugin Development
POD Plugin Structure Diagram
13

POD Plugin Development

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
16

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)
17

Proof of Concept
• Building an interconnected environment
• Advantages for all stakeholders

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)
19

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
20

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)
21

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
22

Proof of Concept
Proving the solution
Before After
23

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
24

Live Demonstration
25

Questions
26