A view from the south: the perils and promises of digital media for African publishing

From Paper to Digital
Transition Challenges
IPA 2012 Congress
Cape Town

A View from theSouth
A view from the South
The promise and perils of
digital media for African
publishing

We all agree – we are living in
turbulent and changing times

How does this transition look from our
vantage point at the southern tip of
Africa?

… in a context where populations small
and thinly spread over large
geographic areas…

Communications are often poor
and transport costs high…

…inflating distribution costs…

…customs and exchange control
barriers block inter-country trade in
Africa…

AttributionNoncommercial Some rights
reserved by transaid images

… dominance of large global players
can distort the market and can block
global distribution …

Books published (1999)

http://www.worldmapper.org/images/largepng/343.png

Book production is low – in the
mid-2000s, South Africa was
producing 7,600 titles, to
289,000 in the US and 206,000
in the UK

Number of books published, by country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year

We could easily sink into Afro-
pessimism and see Africa as a basket
case – a ‘bookless continent’..

…but we need to understand the
mechanisms that are at play in this
scenario

We do have longstanding traditions to
draw on, including that of Timbuktu
http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2216

NoncommercialNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved by Robert Goldwater Library

…the print tradition at the juncture of
Arab and African scholars embedded
in social networking and oral
traditions…

We live on a huge continent

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/the-true-size-of-africa/

And with Africa manifesting the
promise of continuing economic
growth it is becoming and
important market.

‘…there is a vast and growing new middle class across
the continent: the British, American and European
media houses have lost us. Our own are
booming, and we are finding deals with CCTV (China)
and al-Jazeera. We fly Emirates and Kenya Airways.
We make deals with those who see a common and
vibrant future being a platform for engagement.’

Binyanvaga Wainaina: Hpw not to Write about Africa in 2012
The Guardian 3 June 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/03/how-not-to-write-about-
africa?INTCMP=SRCH

Can we celebrate digital media as a
route to new, more expansive
opportunities?

Offshore cables promise an end to the
digital divide

The trajectory of digital
change…

…starts in the academic sector

In South Africa there is government
support for ‘gold route’ open access
publication of local journals

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-
SA

OA and OER are now becoming widely
adopted worldwide and are supported by
international, regional and national policies

The HSRC Press pioneered a new
model of social science scholarly
publishing, using flexible licensing for
dual stream print for sale and open
access digital

HSRC digital and print books reach
worldwide and have achieved
substantially wider exposure than the
traditional print model

Open textbooks get government
support...

http://everythingscience.co.za/

in 2012 the Department of Basic
Education supplied to schools over 4
million copies of free science and
Maths textbooks from the Siyavula
initiative with open access text and
support material online..

Does this mean government
publishing?

...or a disintermediated publishing
model?

New devices are making a difference…

The horseless
carriage – the
e-reader

http://www.jonmccormack.com/blog/?p=835

…has its advantages…

… reaching pupils in rural African
schools, with the help of mobile
networks…

A more collaborative, interactive model is

Apple iPad interactive
textbooks

Attribution Some rights reserved by music2work2

Territorial rights
‘Territorial Rights’

“This title is
not available in
your
location, Africa
”

Apple iTextbooks are not available in
Africa

African titles are only just beginning to
appear on Kindle

…for local publishers and booksellers
the problem is the lack of open
platform devices…

…making things complicated for
potential readers…

Gaps in availability generate negative
reactions. Is it easier to access
publications illegally than to download
them?

AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by Bichuas (E. Carton)

This arises from a neo-colonial
copyright tradition

NoncommercialShare Alike Some rights reserved by cool-art

1947 The British Traditional Market
Agreement constituted British
publishers a cartel in global
publishing.

Andre Rens in Publishing and Alternative Licensing Models in Africa . Ottowa, IDRC 2010
http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/45649/1/132110.pdf

The BTMA became the subject of an anti-trust
investigation by the United States Department
of Justice in 1974. As a consequence, it was
formally terminated in 1976 by British
publishers – who continued to adopt the same
approach in individual licence agreements with
American publishers, so that the pattern
persisted until at least the end of the 20th
century (Feather 2006: 191; Bryant 1979: 371).


The term ‘territorial rights’ refers to
limitations which copyright
intermediaries such as publishers
place on licences that they
issue, which enable them to engage in
price discrimination.


In South Africa and many other African
countries, parallel importation is
prohibited and criminalised

The mapping of territorial rights onto the
boundaries drawn by the colonial powers
at the Berlin Conference (1984–5) reduces
the viability of African publishers by
limiting their markets, thus ensuring
continued domination by multinational
corporations.


Dysfunctional
business
models are
encouraging
‘piracy’

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50196972/MPEE-1-0-1

…resulting in moral panics and
enforcement programmes…

New disruptive publishing models are
emerging, often with disaggregated
supply lines…

Formal publishing is
only the tip of the
iceberg -

Attribution Some rights reserved by natalielucier

…what else is going on in South African
publishing?

EBW Health Care: free online
content, books for sale, accreditation
and certification of training provided
for a fee

http://ebwhealthcare.com/

Science popularisations reach wide
audiences, often paid for by
government or donor contracts….

Our strength in Africa – mobile
technology

AttributionShare Alike Some rights reserved by DavidDennisPhotos.com

What is missing – real commitment from the
mobile companies to content.
“The key issue for the success of data revenues
is: how can you create a compelling, financially
rewarding ecosystem to generate apps, content
and services that users want more of?”
Roger Southall: Balancing Act

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-607/top-story/open-
innovation-afri/en

Empowerme
nt is likely to
happen
through
collaboration
– new
partnerships
will be
needed

Attribution Some rights reserved by Anthony_Joel

Eve Gray
Centre for Educational Technology
IP Law and Policy Research Unit
University of Cape Town
http://www.gray-area.co.za
http://www.cet.uct.ac.za
http://uctipunit.wordpress.com/about-2/

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