The Unbound Book Conference: bloggers needed May 19-21!

On: April 21, 2011
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About Elias van Hees
Elias van Hees is currently a MA student of New Media, he studied at the University of Rotterdam and received his Bachelor Degree in Information Technology and Communication (2009). Elias is a self-employed web strategist, more information is available on www.eliasvanhees.nl. Interests: social media, research, politics, music, webdevelopment, seo, branding, concepting, user experience and usability.

Website
http://www.eliasvanhees.nl    

We’re seeking bloggers for the Unbound Book Conference (http://eboekenstad.nl/unbound/), a timely international forum on the future of the book and reading and publishing in the digital age.

Dates
Thursday, May 19 @ Hogeschool van Amsterdam
Friday, May 20 @ Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), Den Haag
Saturday, May 21 @ Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (ObA)

Speakers include:
Frank van Amerongen, Arianne Baggerman, James Bridle, August Hans den Boef, Florian Cramer, Gary Hall, Suzanne Holtzer, Miha Kovač, Tomas Krag, Veljko Kukulj, Alan Liu, Anne Mangen, Bernhard Rieder, Ray Siemens, Femke Snelting, Nicholas Spice, Bob Stein, Simon Worthington, Dirk van Weelden, and more.

Conference description:
The conventional notion of the book, based on centuries of print, is becoming rapidly outdated. Meanwhile the capacity to create digital book-like functions and forms is endless. In a double sense, the book is unbound, both from the bindings of the printed volume, but also the boundaries between types of content (pictures, video, animations, and games) and modes of authorship in a wide, interconnected electronic space.
These possibilities may be exciting, but the digital book is left without obvious contours. The entire concept of ‘bookness’ needs reinvention. To do this well, we must go back to the basics. That means not only questioning the future of the book and its institutional and intellectual infrastructures, but also asking what we may want to retain of the familiar printed volume, even as we embrace the digital future.
Those developing these (sometimes competing) technologies and standards too often ignore perspectives beyond immediate market-driven concerns. It is critical therefore that cultural and user-centric initiatives step in to affect how we design, utilize, and disseminate the book’s future forms. What new models can advance writing, collaborating, distributing, reading and interpreting knowledge? What affordances can affect the formatting and designing of dynamic content? Through panel discussions, presentations, and workshops, the Unbound Book Conference will bring together academics, designers, writers, librarians, software and hardware developers, and publishers who want to take part in defining their roles within this transformative landscape.

If you want to help at the conference, you would be blogging 2 or 3 speakers a day in English, and you can choose how many days you want to visit the conference. Your reward would be free entrance to the conference, free lunch and 25 euro a day.
If you have any questions, or want to have more information, feel free to send an e-mail to Elias van Hees (Elias.vanHees@student.uva.nl). I hope you can help us blogging at this event!

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