newsletters, zines and journals started online
from scratch, skipping a print version.

Authors began creating websites to self-publish their work or
post it while waiting to find a publisher. Communication with
readers became easier through email, forums, chat and instant
messaging. Some authors explored new ways of writing, called
hypertext literature.

More and more books were published with both a print version
and a digital version. Some books were "only" digital. Other
books were digitized from print versions.

New online bookstores began selling "only" digital books.
Aggregators partnered with publishers to produce and sell
digital versions of their books.

People no longer needed to run after information and to worry
about living in a remote place with no libraries and
bookstores. Information was there, by the numbers, available on
our screen, often at no cost.

In 2009, most of us would not be able to work, study,
communicate and entertain without connecting with others
through the internet.

Here is the "virtual" journey we are going to follow:

1971: Project Gutenberg is the first digital library
1990: The web boosts the internet
1993: The Online Books Page is a list of free ebooks
1994: Some publishers get bold and go digital
1995: Amazon.com is the first main online bookstore
1996: There are more and more texts online
1997: Multimedia convergence and employment
1998: Libraries take over the web
1999: Librarians get digital
2000: Information is available in many languages
2001: Copyright, copyleft and Creative Commons
2002: A web of knowledge
2003: eBooks are sold worldwide
2004: Authors are creative on the net
2005: Google gets interested in ebooks
2006: Towards a world public digital library
2007: We read on various electronic devices
2008: "A common information space in which we communicate"

Unless specified otherwise, quotations are excerpts from NEF
interviews <http://www.etudes-francaises.net/entretiens/>.

1971: PROJECT GUTENBERG IS THE FIRST DIGITAL LIBRARY

= [Overview]

The first ebook was available in July 1971, as eText #1 of
Project Gutenberg, a visionary project launched by Michael Hart
to create electronic versions of literary works and disseminate
them worldwide. In the 16th century, Gutenberg allowed anyone
to have print books for a small cost. In the 21st century,
Project Gutenberg would allow anyone to have a digital library