PediaPress, Lightning Source Extend Wikipedia Custom Book Application to English Content
La VERGNE, TN—June 9, 2010—Ingram’s Lightning Source Inc. today announced an expansion of its work with PediaPress, an organization that provides users with tools to create customized books from wiki content. Lightning Source will support the PediaPress Create a Book custom book feature on the English language Wikipedia site with book manufacturing and distribution.
"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,” said Heiko Hees, Managing Director of PediaPress. "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."
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.
“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,” said David “Skip” 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.
Mr. Hees explained that 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,” Mr. Hees concluded.
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
About Ingram
Ingram Content Group Inc. provides a broad range of physical and digital services to the book industry. Ingram’s operating units are Ingram Book Company, Lightning Source Inc., Ingram Digital, Vital Source Technologies, Inc., Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., Ingram Publisher Services Inc., Tennessee Book Company LLC, Coutts Information Services, and Ingram Marketing Group Inc. For more information, visit www.ingramcontent.com
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- Germany