The Project

Project plan

The research project started by looking at what social, political, technological and economic forces are impacting the market for eBooks.

It then researched:

• Technology Providers, accessibility options and content provided by them.
• Personal Profiles – User’s needs and preferences  (User Metadata), including Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting (AAA)
• Federated Search – Available content, its accessibility and API availability and the metadata associate with this
• Text conversion – converting format to an accessible format, dependant on technology
• Transport mechanisms – looking at API availability
• Metadata annotation – is this required to supplement current metadata?
• Monetisation of the creation of Alternative accessible content formats and how the flow of money will operate.

In parallel Proof of concept tools were  used to explore Users needs and issues federated searching, and training and implementation issues.

A Schools Proof of concept tool (based on Dolphin Sayso and L2L content) was built to research :

• how students wished to display Content (personal metadata), Personal needs and Preferences (PNP)
• what electronic content was wanted by this group and was it available currently (accessible formats)
• how suitable electronic content was found  (Federated Metadata searching and metadata annotation)
• How content could be incorporated into learning in the classroom and at home (available content, technology issues, security, lesson plans, monetisation, teachers take up)

An Elderly Proof of concept Tools (based on Optelec’s Clear Reader and Dolphin’s Guide and Bookshelf software) were built to research:

• how elderly  wished to display/listen to Content (personal metadata), Personal needs and Preferences (PNP)
• what electronic content(e.g. books, local news) was wanted by this group and was it available currently (accessible formats)
• Device and transport mechanisms  (metadata usability requirements)
• how suitable electronic content was found  (Federated Metadata searching and metadata annotation)