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OverDrive – an e-commerce, software program conversion and e-publishing purposes chief – has simply expanded an e-book expertise centre by including 200 e-book editors. This occurred in Montego Bay, Jamaica – one of many much less privileged spots on earth. The centre now supplies a vertical e-publishing service – from manuscript modifying to conversion to Quark (for POD), Adobe, and MS Reader e book codecs. Thus, it’s not confined to the basic sweatshop cum manufacturing centre so frequent in Much less Developed Nations (LDC’s). It’s a full fledged operation with entry to innovative expertise.
The Jamaican OverDrive is the harbinger of issues to return and the end result of a confluence of some tendencies.
First, there may be the insatiable urge for food large publishers (similar to McGraw-Hill, Random Home, and Harper Collins) have developed to changing their hitherto inertial backlists into e-books. Gone are the times when e-books have been perceived as merely a novel type of packaging. Publishers understood the money potential this new distribution channel affords and the worth added to stale print tomes within the conversion course of. This epiphany is very manifest in training and textbook publishing.
Then there may be the maturation of business requirements, readers and audiences. Each the availability facet (title lists) and the demand facet (readership) have elevated. Giants like Microsoft have efficiently entered the fray with new e-book reader purposes, clearer fonts, and large advertising and marketing. Retailers – similar to Barnes and Noble – opened their gates to e-books. A bunch of unbiased publishers make good use of the negligible-cost distribution channel that the Web is. Competitors and positioning are already fierce – signal.
The Web was once an English, prosperous middle-class, white collar, male phenomenon. It has lengthy misplaced these attributes. The digital divides that opened up with the early adoption of the Internet by academe and enterprise – are narrowing. Already there are extra girls than males customers and English is the language of lower than half of all web pages. The wi-fi Internet will grant growing international locations the possibility to catch up.
Astute entrepreneurs are sure to benefit from the business-friendly profile of the manpower and investment-hungry governments of some growing international locations. It isn’t unusual to discover a mastery of English, a university diploma within the sciences, readiness to work outlandish hours at a fraction of wages in Germany or the USA – all mixed in a single worker in these disadvantaged international locations. India has sprouted a complete business based mostly on these aggressive endowments.
Right here is how Steve Potash, OverDrive’s CEO, explains his daring transfer in OverDrive’s press launch dated Might 22, 2001:
“Everybody we’re partnering with within the US and worldwide has been very excited and delighted by the super success and high quality of eBook manufacturing from OverDrive Jamaica. Jamaica has super untapped expertise in its younger individuals. Jamaica is the most important English-speaking nation within the Caribbean and their academic and technical applications present us with a wealth of high quality candidates for careers in digital publishing. We couldn’t have had this success with out the assist and responsiveness of the Jamaican authorities and its companies. At each stage the companies assisted us in opening our expertise centre and staffing it with skilled and competent eBook professionals. OverDrive Jamaica can be pioneering lots of the advances for extending books, reference supplies, textbooks, literature and journals into new digital channels – and can shortly turn into the foremost centre for eBook automation serving each US and worldwide markets”.
Druanne Martin, OverDrive’s Director of publishing providers elaborates:
“With Jamaica and Cleveland, Ohio sharing the identical time zone (EST), we’ve got our US and Jamaican manufacturing groups in sync. Jamaica supplies a ravishing and heat local weather, actually, for us to construct long-term partnerships and to ask our publishing and content material shoppers to return and go to their books in manufacturing”.
The Jamaican Minister of Business, Commerce and Know-how, the Hon. Phillip Paulwell reciprocates:
“We’re proud that OverDrive has chosen Jamaica to increase its management in eBook expertise. OverDrive is benefiting from the investments Jamaica has made in growing the wanted infrastructure for IT firms to find and construct expert workforces right here.”
There’s nothing new in outsourcing again workplace work (insurance coverage claims processing, air ticket reservations, medical data upkeep) to 3rd world international locations, similar to (the notable instance) India. Analysis and Improvement is routinely farmed out to aspiring first world international locations similar to Israel and Eire. However OverDrive’s Jamaican facility is an instance of one thing extra subtle and extra sturdy. Western corporations are discovering the immense swimming pools of expertise, expertise, innovation, and high notch scientific and different training usually provided even by the poorest of countries. These multinationals entrust the locals now with greater than keyboarding and responding to buyer queries utilizing pretend names. The Jamaican enterprise is a enterprise partnership. In a method, it’s a topsy-turvy world. Digital animation is produced in India and consumed within the States. The low compensation of scientists attracts the expertise and R&D arms of the likes of Normal Electrical to Asia and Intel to Israel. In different phrases, there are budding indicators of a reversing mind drain – from West to East.
E-publishing is on the forefront of software program engineering, e-consumerism, mental property applied sciences, fee programs, conversion purposes, the cell Web, and, principally, each necessary pattern in community and computing and digital content material. Its migration to hotter and cheaper climates could also be inevitable. OverDrive sounds comfortable sufficient.
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Source by Sam Vaknin