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Press

Overview
Press Coverage
Blog Coverage (Highlights)
Video
Newsletters
Logos & Images
Additional press questions? Please email press@gluejar.com.
Thanks for your interest! As of January 2011 Unglue.It is in alpha release. Things are mostly working but they're rough around the edges and may change without notice. Please do kick the tires and forgive us any mess.

Overview

What?
Unglue.It offers a win-win solution to readers, who want to read and share their favorite books conveniently, and rights holders, who want to be rewarded for their work.

We will run crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for specific, already-published books. When we reach goals set by the rights holders, we'll pay them to unglue their work. They'll issue an electronic edition with a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. This license will make the edition free and legal for everyone to read, copy, and share, noncommercially, worldwide.

At present, in our alpha phase, we're not running live campaigns (though you may see some fake campaign data for testing purposes). However, most of the other features of the site -- such as searching for books, adding them to your wishlist, and personalizing your user profile -- work. We invite you to try them out and give us feedback.

Once we've fully tested our payment processes and user experience, we'll have a beta launch. At this point we'll announce our founding rights holders, run live campaigns, and invite everyone to join the site.
Why?
As ereaders proliferate, more and more people are enjoying the ereading experience. However, their favorite books may not be available as ebooks. Their ebooks may come with DRM which makes them unreadable on certain devices, and difficult or impossible to lend to friends. Or they may not be able to tell if they have the legal right to use the book as they'd like. The situation is even more challenging for libraries, which may not be able to acquire ebooks at all, or can only acquire them under legal terms and DRM restrictions which run counter to library lending.

When books have a clear, established legal license which promotes use, they can be read more widely, leading to enjoyment, scholarship, and innovation. By raising money to compensate authors and publishers up front, Unglue.It encourages the benefits of openness while ensuring sustainability for creators.

For more background, read our president Eric Hellman's thoughts on a public broadcasting model for ebooks (on why the numbers work) and the development of Unglue.It.
Who?
Unglue.It is a service of Gluejar, Inc. We are Eric Hellman, Amanda Mecke, Raymond Yee, and Andromeda Yelton, with help from designer Stefan Fabry and software developers Jason Kace and Ed Summers. We come from the worlds of entrepreneurship, linked data, physics, publishing, education, and library science, to name a few. You can learn more about us at our personal home pages (linked above) or the team page of our corporate site.
When?
Unglue.It is in alpha -- a limited release for testing purposes -- as of January 2011. If you sign up for our newsletter, we'll tell you the moment we're in beta. At that point we'll have active campaigns and we will open account signups to everyone.
Where?
Gluejar is a New Jersey corporation, but its employees and contractors live and work across North America. The best way to contact us is by email, press@gluejar.com.
What does it cost?
Unglue.It is free to join and explore. Supporters pay only if they choose to support campaigns, and the amount is up to them. Unglue.It takes a small percentage from successful campaigns, with the remainder going to the rights holders.
What's your technology?
Unglue.It is built using Python and the Django framework. We use data from the Google Books, Open Library, LibraryThing, and GoodReads APIs; we appreciate that they've made these APIs available, and we're returning the favor with our own API. You're welcome to use it. We use Less to organize our CSS. We collaborate on our code at GitHub and deploy to the cloud with Amazon EC2.
I have more questions...
Please consult our FAQ (sidebar at left); join the site and explore its features for yourself; or email us, press@gluejar.com.

Press Coverage

New Crowdfunding Initiative to ‘Unglue’ Ebooks Launches in Alpha
Information Today - January 30, 2012
Unglue.it Crowdfunds Unlimited Licenses for Beloved E-books
Publishing Perspectives - January 23, 2012
Gluejar to Make Soft Launch of Website at ALA Midwinter
The Digital Shift (Library Journal/School Library Journal) - January 16, 2012
“Our Friends in Seattle” and Other Euphemisms from Books in Browsers 2011
Publishing Perspectives - November 2, 2011
Digital Transition Questions Examined at Books in Browsers Conference
Publishers Weekly - November 1, 2011
Books Unbound
New York Times (Bits blog) - October 28, 2011
New Technologies, New Directions Emerge at ALA 2011
American Libraries - August 13, 2011
Publishing News: Week in Review
O'Reilly Radar - 8 April 2011

Blog Coverage (Highlights)

Ebooks: A Brief Fix On a Moving Target
The Plugged-In Librarian - November 1, 2011
Vom mai citi cărți? Sau altceva? (Romanian)
Chip Online - October 31, 2011
Nueva propuesta para el acceso abierto a los libros electrónicos (Spanish)
I+D de la Lectura - September 7, 2011
EdLab Review: Gluejar
EdLab blog - September 2, 2011
Gluejar ou comment désengluer les livres numériques (French)
S.I.Lex - July 28, 2011

Video


November 2011
Eric Hellman, "The Network is Overrated"; talk at Books in Browsers 2011.

June 2011
Eric Hellman explains the Gluejar model to David Weinberger at LOD-LAM 2011.

Newsletters

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You can also subscribe to our newsletter.

Logos & Images

Full logo, 161px x 70px

Logo image only, 44px x 30px

300 ppi screenshot of a book page on Unglue.It. Features include links to the book, where available, at Google Books, Open Library, GoodReads, and LibraryThing; social sharing options; tabs with user comments and more information; and an explore bar linking to other books and users. The user list is dynamically generated, reflecting others interested in the same book.

300 ppi screenshot of a supporter page. Supporters can readily see all the books on their wishlist and filter for active or successful campaigns. Icons show how many other ungluers have wishlisted a book or, for active campaigns, their progress toward completion. Unglued and public domain books have links to freely available copies. Numbered badges show how many successful, active, and wishlisted books a user is supporting. Supporters can link to their home page and accounts on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, and LibraryThing (note icons in upper right), as well as import books from their GoodReads and LibraryThing accounts to their wishlist.

300 ppi screenshot of a supporter page in panel view. This displays the same information as the list view, but in a less information-dense, more visually arresting format. Supporters can toggle between views.

300 ppi screenshot of a search result page, powered by Google Books. Users can add books to their wishlist with one click, or click through for more information. Books with active campaigns display a progress meter. Books that are already unglued or in the public domain link to freely available copies.

300 ppi screenshot of a search result page, in panel view. As with the supporter page, users can toggle between views.







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