Digital publishing in developing countries | Octavio Kulesz
» Sub-Saharan Africa «
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In commercial terms there isn’t much to be gained. But in terms of recognition and diffusion it may be a good option.70
Regardless of the possible virtues of Worldreader or OLPC, what is certain is that both initiatives are based on a technological platform that seeks to install itself “from above”, in completely heterogeneous contexts.71 As is to be expected, the difficulties don’t take long to surface: the lack of content adapted to the users and the absence of a business model designed for local creators and entrepreneurs. In other words, they are projects that first get the technology on the ground and then face the problem of generating nothing less than an ad hoc “ecosystem” of people and infrastructure. Worldreader and OLPC have achieved international renown – no doubt because of the stature of the actors and contributors involved –, but they are not the only projects related to digital publishing in subSaharan Africa. On the contrary, there are numerous local ventures that start from very different premises.
Between the digital and the analogue: experiences with CD ROM and print on demand Founded in 2008, the publishing house Nouvelles Éditions Numériques Africaines (NENA) bases its business model on marketing electronic books on CD ROM. From its headquarters in Dakar, this company compiles law books in PDF format – with DRM – which it sells in Senegal and Cameroon. Each one of these books contains thousands of pages and comes with hyperlinks and other interactive tools. Marc-André Ledoux, the head of NENA, has a very strong opinion about the projects imposed on Africa from outside without taking into account the particular conditions of the local context:
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In the field of African publishing, international cooperation projects and NGOs only complicate matters, every time they give assistance for a set period to publications that are ‘orphaned’ once this time is up,
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Ibidem. The criticisms already outlined several years ago now by Lee Felsenstein make interesting reading on this point: “Problems with the $100 laptop”, The Fonly Institute, 10th November, 2005.
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