tal book as
a 'total work' putting together text, sound, images, video, and
interactivity: a new way to design, and write, and read, perhaps on a
single book, constantly renewed, which would contain everything we have
read, a single and multiple companion. Utopian? Improbable? Maybe not
that much!" (NEF Interview)

February 2003 > The website of Handicapzero

The association Handicapzero aims to improve the autonomy of visually
impaired people in the French-speaking world, around 10% of the
population. Launched in September 2000, the website of the association
has quickly become a must, with 10,000 queries monthly. The association
replaced it in February 2003 with a general portal offering free access
to national and international news, sports news, TV programs, the
weather forecast, and access to a full range of services for health,
employment, consumer goods, leisure time, sports and telephony. Since
October 2006, a revamped portal has offered more tools for blind
people, visually impaired people, and people who want to communicate
with them. The portal was used by 2 million people in 2006.

March 2003 > Paulo Coelho made a digital experiment

Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian novelist, became world famous after the
publication of The Alchemist. In early 2003, his books, translated into
56 languages, have been sold in 53 million copies in 155 countries. In
March 2003, Paulo Coelho decided to distribute several novels for free
in PDF format, in various languages, with the consent of his publishers.

May 2003 > Adobe Reader replaced Acrobat Reader

In May 2003, Acrobat Reader (5th version) merged with Acrobat eBook
Reader (2nd version) to become Adobe Reader (starting with version 6),
which could read both standard PDF files and secure PDF files of
copyrighted books. In late 2003, Adobe opened its own online bookstore,
the Digital Media Store, with titles in PDF format from major
publishers (HarperCollins, Random House, Simon & Schuster, etc.) as
well as electronic versions of newspapers and magazines like The New
York Times, Popular Science, etc. Adobe also launched Adobe eBooks
Central as a service to read, publish, sell and lend ebooks, and Adobe
eBook Library as a prototype digital library.

September 2003 > The MIT OpenCourseWare

The MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) is an initiative launched by MIT
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to put its course materials for
free on the web, as a way to promote open dissem