Project - MÖBIUS -- Renewing the book experience

Overview

Möbius was born to invigorate European book publishing by re-modelling the traditional value chains and business models. The main challenge we address is to embrace the prosumers’ potential as valuable contributors, drivers of new products and services, including new enriched media experiences.

The book of the future is playing out now. The main work in Möbius is centred around:

• Building a prosumer intelligence kit : By applying digital methods from computational social science, complemented by user studies, to analyse and learn from the vast open online communities of readers and writers. The new prosumer intelligence toolkit will allow publishers to better understand how global readers are relating to books, their characters, storylines. Data analysis will be possible thanks to an interactive data visualisation and a user-friendly dashboard for professional use.
• Developing a prosumer business model: By exploring and proposing new business models and ways for identifying and valuing prosumers contributions to the publishing value chains. In strict compliance with existing IP and copyright legal frameworks, Möbius aims to illuminate governing logics that allow the creation of fair, sustainable, and productive relation with prosumers.
• Creating the Möbius book: By designing and developing the software tools that will allow the production of new immersive and interactive book experiences. The Möbius book will be a cross-media production that will integrate a digital version, a 3D audiobook (3D audio and binaural reproduction of the reading experience), and audiovisual content based on the book arts.

Möbius brings together highly complementary, multidisciplinary, and cross-sectoral partners with expertise in the publishing sector. Alongside IN2, the following organisations formed the project consortium:

• Eurecat, Spain (Coordinator)
• IMEC - Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Belgium
• DEN Institute, Belgium
• MVB - Marketing und Verlagsservice des Buchhandels GmbH, Germany
• Bookabook Srl, Italy
• European Network of Living Labs, Belgium
• Mobile World Capital Foundation, Spain
• Federation of European Publishers, Belgium
• Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig, Germany
• KU Leuven, Belgium