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LSI Expand Partnership With PediaPress

Last month we took a look at the launch of the Wikipedia Create a Book service supported by software tools designed by Mainz-based PediaPress. The Create a Book service allows users to create their own styled book based on selected content from Wikipedia's English language content. It was unclear if PediaPress were going to provide all aspects of the service or find a specialised partner. Well, they have, by making the decision to expand their existing partnership with Lightning Source (LSI 268.40). Lightning Source will provide the print manufacturing and distribution as part of the partnership deal.

From the Lightning Source/PediaPress press release:

 

"With our innovative Create a Book platform, we required a technologically advanced company that understood the web-to-print model, and could satisfy our requirements. We needed a professional and reliable organization with high quality one-off book manufacturing and a globally distributed print network, and we found that with Ingram’s Lightning Source."

Heiko Hees, Managing Director of PediaPress

The recent start-up of Create a Book on the English language site of Wikipedia follows the successful launch of identical applications on the German, French, Spanish and 14 additional Wikipedia sites. Since the inaugural launch of the first Wikipedia book application in February 2009, Lightning Source has printed Create a Book wikis in 17 languages and has delivered books to 33 countries.

PediaPress is based in Mainz, Germany, the small city in which Johannes Gutenberg changed the world forever by inventing modern printing with moveable type. Five hundred years later, our mission in Mainz is still the same – making printed knowledge available to all.
 

“The content-driven model from PediaPress and Wikipedia is part of the forward-thinking method of book supply we envision as the future of print-on-demand, and we are delighted to work with the PediaPress team on this innovative web-to-print model.”

David Prichard, President and CEO, Ingram Content Group Inc.

The Create a Book feature from Wikipedia enables a user to build a custom book from the articles chosen from their search on Wikipedia and other wiki sites that are supported by PediaPress' book creator feature. Upon the completion of content collection, the user creates a book title, adds an editor name and selects a cover photo from a group of images and photos associated with the content selected. A 30-page preview is provided to the user for review. The user purchases the book online from the PediaPress web site, and book files are then uploaded to Lightning Source for manufacturing. Printed books are then shipped to their final destination from the closest of Lightning’s networked print facilities.
 

"[The aim of PediaPress is] to capitalize upon best-of-class technology to bring affordable books and textbooks to the corners of the world, where books and education in some geographic areas is still a luxury. PediaPress is based in Mainz, Germany, the small city in which Johannes Gutenberg changed the world forever by inventing modern printing with moveable type. Five hundred years later, our mission in Mainz is still the same – making printed knowledge available to all.”

Heiko Hees, Managing Director of PediaPress

 

ABOUT PEDIAPRESS
PediaPress brings wikis to print. The web-to-print service enables users of Wikipedia to create custom books based on their individual content selection from the free encyclopedia. Books can be created on the Wikipedia website with articles in 272 languages and are delivered to customers in more than 100 countries. The PediaPress web-to-print service works with most of the more than 100,000 wikis worldwide, which are frequently used to collaboratively create and share content on the web and within organizations. The company established a long term partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation which operates several wiki-projects, including Wikipedia with its more than 350 million unique users per month. PediaPress was founded in 2007 as a subsidiary of brainbot technologies AG and is located in Mainz, Germany.

To learn more about PediaPress visit www.pediapress.com

 

This is a cross-posting from Mick Rooney's POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing.