E-Books In Cambodia

(Photo credit: Vannak Eng)

I recently presented on e-books in a ‘lightning session‘ at BarCamp Angkor.  (It was in the afternoon on a Sunday, which makes for a torpid audience.) The following slides are meant to be accompanied by spoken discussion, so it’s really just a taste of the larger issues I’d like to sink my teeth into.

I was happy simply to raise the topic, only a small handful seems to be focusing on this niche in Cambodia at the moment.

I’ve published using one-stop shop ‘BookBaby‘, largely for the sake of convenience, and regularly create e-publications with Our Books.   Publishing E-books eliminates shipping costs, which is a huge challenge when you’re cultivating a multinational audience and located in Southeast Asia. Shipping can cost more than the actual product.

And digital content raises a number of rights issues that I’m exploring both in literary and technical terms. If you sold the rights to your publication decades ago, that doesn’t cover a digital or translated edition.  I’m not a fan of ‘digital rights management‘, but Southeast Asia is rife with bootlegging and appropriative tactics. Few copyright laws are enforced. How can we support Open Source and Open Culture but still allow artists to make a living?

More to come! Links: https://delicious.com/slugdog/ebookangkortalk

Postscript: BarCamp Angkor in the news, in this comprehensive overview of Cambodia’s growing technology sector and how it enables free speech. http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/23659/internet-civic-voices-cambodia-struggle-net-control