A paper delivered at a publishing industry

1. Dealing in Disruption: eBooks, Universities and Publishers in a Digital Age
The common pattern when a disruptive technology rattles the complacency of a
market sector is the emergence of a ‘horseless carriage’, imitative of the existing
product and market model. More gradually, radically disruptive models tend to
emerge, often from the sidelines. In this talk, Eve Gray will offer a strategic
review, from a South African perspective, of developments and changing roles in
our increasingly networked universities, in a publishing industry facing the
challenges of emerging e-textbook markets, and of some of the more radical
alternative models emerging locally and globally. The question is how these
could best come together in the interests of higher education and industry
growth.
Eve Gray is an Honorary Research Associate in the Centre for Educational
Technology and an Associate in the IP Law and Policy Research Unit at the
University of Cape Town. She has a background in scholarly and higher
education textbook publishing and has worked as a strategy consultant in the
publishing industry and a researcher exploring the potential that information
and communication technologies offer for the development of more effective
communications in African universities.