1. Publishing in the World of Free Artur Dyro Managing Director Young Digital Planet SA artur.dyro@ydp.com.pl www.ydp.eu IGEP Annual Conference 2009 4-5 June, Rome

2. Different perspectives

3. Challenges & Strategies for Content Development Sustainable Open Source Solution – Myth or Reality Discussing the Open Educational Resources Movement in Africa Collaboratively Pooling and Creative Content Creating Higher Educational Courses Together Curriki - An Easy to Use Open Platform Model for Curriculum Development Free Online Resource for University Students and Professors

4. Sources of free content Publishers give it away to increase sales of printing copies Electronic publishers / IT providers give it away to sell services and software Hardware providers give it away to increase sales of hardware (computers, IWB) Governments disappointed with the results of educational system looking for innovative solutions trying to provide free resources for everyone IT Giants disappointed with the adoption pace of technology in education trying to produce and give away content to speed up technology adoption in schools Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students produce vast amount of content Non educational web content can be easily used in context of education

5. Other trends that challenge our business Decreasing value of the textbooks unable to serve very diverse student population Tendency to replace fixed textbooks with the variety of different resources New initiatives to create free, ”open source” type of textbooks New legislation to equalize electronic and paper based textbooks Expectations to introduce ”iTunes” model for textbooks (much more granular offer) –From ”CD” to ”song” –From ”software” to ”resources” –From ”textbook” to ”pages” (?) Low value perception of electronic content (expected to be free)

6. What to do? "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay Defend current, lucrative positions trying to stop the trends and react accordingly only to real changes (not an early indicators) Massive amount of free content is on the market There are clearly a lot of trends that seem to change our business in the nearest future Be active trying to influence the irrevocable changes and exploit opportunities of new business models to appear ?

7. Possible actions to be considered Really accept the fact that selling textbook is not a sustainable strategy (neither on paper or as an e-book) Give customers reasonable commercial alternatives to the free content Supporting rather than fighting Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students Include free content into our product and marketing philosophy Build up the value perception of electronic content (to be able to sell it at all) Team up to speed up changes in order to prevent other to enter our market and set up the rules

8. Late migration

9. What to do with the textbooks Immediate migration to the electronic environment to avoid next ”Napster” for our textbooks Be prepared to replace textbook as a major mean of transaction Look actively for alternative sources of revenues –Sales of Services –Sales of supplementary eContent linked to the textbooks –Migration from content sales to services about content and process management Experiment with new business models (pay-per-use, more granular offer) Looking for a new role of the textbook in the teaching and learning process Focus on textbook’s as an content organization / navigation tool rather than content delivery vehicle

10. Textbook as a ”backbone” and navigation tool

11. Possible actions to be considered Really accept the fact that selling textbook is not a sustainable strategy (neither on paper or as an e-book) Give customers reasonable commercial alternatives to the free content Supporting rather than fighting Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students Include free content into our product and marketing philosophy Build up the value perception of electronic content (to be able to sell it at all) Team up to speed up changes in order to prevent other to enter our market and set up the rules

12. How to compete with free content Free content values –No payment hassle –Variety –Immediate –Granular –Easy download –Simple format –Easy to re-use –License to change Commercial content disadvantages –Hard to find it (Google proof) –Decentralized (many providers) –Hard to evaluate –Had to pay for part of it –Difficult to adapt and change –Difficult to mix it with other content Free content disadvantages –Does not support any proven instructional program –Non-searchable through subjects, grades, curriculum –Non-guaranteed links –Risk of copyright infringement –Only specific type of content available –Low or medium quality –Big effort needed to collect critical mass of content Conclusions?

13. New features of commercial eContent Advanced search through subjects, grades, curricula, skills Focus on accessibility (”searchability”) rather than protection (Google is great marketing tool) Granularity in using and purchasing Convenient small purchases (micro transactions) Open and reusable for users editing Possible to compile with other content objects (with the trace of the copyrights and respective payments) Centralization (joining competitors)?

14. Possible actions to be considered Really accept the fact that selling textbook is not a sustainable strategy (neither on paper or as an e-book) Give customers reasonable commercial alternatives to the free content Supporting rather than fighting Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students Include free content into our product and marketing philosophy Build up the value perception of electronic content (to be able to sell it at all) Team up to speed up changes in order to prevent other to enter our market and set up the rules

15. User generated content – first question Can supporting it may give us more marketing value rather than cannibalise our business Are they real danger for our offer –In all cases people were overoptimistic about it –Only specific type of content can be created If you can't beat them, join them!

16. User generated content – second question Can supporting of teachers Web 2.0 community be beneficial? –First, help to create, search and manage by providing respective tools –Second Capitalize on traffic Build up services on top Sell services helping teachers to structure this content into proven instructional program Use services and tools to promote and sell commercial offer Can we use active users as a resellers of our offer?

17. Possible actions to be considered Really accept the fact that selling textbook is not a sustainable strategy (neither on paper or as an e-book) Give customers reasonable commercial alternatives to the free content Supporting rather than fighting Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students Include free content into our product and marketing philosophy Build up the value perception of electronic content (to be able to sell it at all) Team up to speed up changes in order to prevent other to enter our market and set up the rules

18. Playlists My Playlist

19. Content re-usage My content My question  Answer A  Answer B  Answer C

20. Possible actions to be considered Really accept the fact that selling textbook is not a sustainable strategy (neither on paper or as an e-book) Give customers reasonable commercial alternatives to the free content Supporting rather than fighting Web 2.0 culture among teachers and students Include free content into our product and marketing philosophy Build up the value perception of electronic content (to be able to sell it at all) Team up to speed up changes in order to prevent others to enter our market and set up the rules

21. Whom we should team up? Publishers –Afraid to be late –Defending position –Do have content and access to the market eLearning / ICT providers –Afraid to be too early –Hungry for growth –Do have technology and know how Co-operation with your traditional competitors to make all your offering really accessible and competing with the free content

22. Three strategies Domestic market –stimulating changes on the market to compete effectively with traditional publishers in the future (lowering textbook value, increasing value of the eContent) UK market –acting as a central platform for publishers providing technological solution (www.yTeach.co.uk) that takes into account most of the conlusions of this presentationwww.yTeach.co.uk International market –helping partners to achieve one of the above

23. Thank you for your attention Artur Dyro Managing Director Young Digital Planet SA artur.dyro@ydp.com.pl www.ydp.eu IGEP Annual Conference 2009 4-5 June, Rome