PublishingLab 2.51

The world of digital publishing has been growing steadily for several years. The arrival of tablets and smartphones has accelerated the developments, and today it is impossible to imagine a media landscape without e-books, newspaper apps, and digital magazines. Digitalization is turning the field upside down! The PublishingLab is a ‘hybrid publisher’ working at the intersection of publishing and digital technology, both in print and digitally.

The entire publishing chain is influenced by these developments: technology is changing the creation, production, distribution, marketing and end use of publications. The PublishingLab researches into the impact this will have on the branch as a whole.

PublishingLab activities are directed towards the following three groups:

1 makers (authors, designers);
2 intermediaries (publishers);
3 end users (readers / students).

The PublishingLab conducts applied research by doing innovative experiments in the field of (digital) publishing. This can be research on the impact of developments on the branch as a whole, conducting small experiments in the field of EPUB3 such as research/work on user interfaces for collaborative online editing environments, research/work on conveying hybrid publishing concepts and workflows to a non-expert audience or just looking into interesting design problems to tackle.

In collaboration with the Institute for Network Cultures, the lab also builds on existing research into digital publishing. A two-year project works together closely with four publishers as well as developers and designers in order to carry out research into multichannel publishing. This project has already resulted in various tools and a publication.

The PublishingLab is part of the Amsterdam Creative Industries Network.