10 years ago this month we published the very first series of Diffusion eBooks, Performance Notations, launching our particular brand of hand-made hybrid digital/paper publishing on an unsuspecting public. Over the past decade we have followed that series with several others of our own (and a few by partners and collaborators) such as : Species of Spaces, Liquid Geography, CODE, Short Work, Topographies and Tales & Transformations and published well over 400 eBooks (and nearly 200 StoryCubes too). In 2002 we published the design schematics allowing others to create their own Diffusion eBooks (with recent updates for all 4 design variations and right-to-left reading too) and followed that in 2006 with the first version of our online web application for creating eBooks & StoryCubes, the Diffusion Generator. Hundreds of eBooks and StoryCubes were created (not all published here) by its users over a two and a half-year period. For a more in depth history of Diffusion read this post from 2007.

In 2008 we won a small grant from the Technology Strategy Board to build a new prototype service that would be vastly more powerful and flexible than the old Generator – what eventually became bookleteer.com. The alpha version was launched at the end of September 2009 and we now have several hundred users who have created almost one thousand eBooks and StoryCubes with it during its first year, including some in languages such as Arabic and Hindi. In the past 6 months we’ve rolled out lots of new features, such as new sizes, customisable front covers and our exclusive Publish & Print On Demand service. We have also created a crowdfunding scheme for collaborators, partners and friends to support bookleteer’s technical development, Alpha Club. We’ve run a series of events, Pitch Up & Publish, introducing bookleteer to new users – both in our own studio in Clerkenwell and around the country with the Empty Shops Network.

To kick-off Diffusion’s next decade we’re devising a new series of events, Pitch In & Publish, and adopting a new model of participatory publishing for our curated series. Rather than selecting individuals to create eBooks as we have done for previous series we will host events where people can collaborate in designing and creating a series of publications with others. Proboscis will define the series theme and individual topics for each issue, which will be put together during a one-day event. We will be publishing the collaborative publications (which could be an eBook or a series of StoryCubes) on this site and we will be inviting the participants to use bookleteer to create their own personal contributions to the series. A limited edition run of the publication will be printed using the PPOD service for participants. Pitch In & Publish will launch in October 2010 with the first series, City As Material. Topics will include: river, streetscapes, skyline and underside.

Details on dates, guests, topics and how to participate – http://cityasmaterial.eventbrite.com/

Starting in October we will be running regular informal evening workshops for people to literally pitch up and publish using bookleteer.com. Initially these will be held at our Clerkenwell Studio for up to 15 participants – all you need is a laptop and some content (text /photos/ drawings etc) you’d like to create and share as eBooks or StoryCubes (shareables). We will provide free user accounts to bookleteer and guide you through the steps of preparing and generating your shareables to share online, via email or as physical publications. Once created you can publish them on your own website or, if appropriate, we can publish them on Diffusion.

The first workshop will be held during the week beginning October 12th 2009 (date tbc) between 6.30-9pm.
To reserve a place please email us at diffusion (at) proboscis.org.uk
Participants will be asked to make small donation to cover materials and refreshments.

About : These eBooks were produced by students at the University of Waterloo for the Anarchaeology: Collecting Curating and Communicating Culture course, run jointly by Proboscis and Render in Winter/Spring 2008.

Downloads

• Diane Braga – Cambridge, The City I Didn’t Know A4 | US Letter PDF 1.2Mb
• Colin Carney – KW Bug Out – A4 | US Letter PDF 1.4Mb
• Meghan Doherty – My Town, My Community, My Identity A4 | US Letter PDF 2.2Mb
• Angie Gaal – My UW Campus A4 | US Letter PDF 514Kb
• Christina Gatchene – Alexandra’s Arrangements A4 | US Letter PDF 1.7Mb
• Katie Gatenby – Your Guide to the Sculptures of the University of Waterloo A4 | US Letter PDF 700Kb
• Ruth van Gurp – Guides to Galt: A Brief History of Architectural Spaces A4 | US Letter PDF 1Mb
• Vicky Huang – Something is Missing! A4 | US Letter PDF 3.8Mb
• Amy Lyons – Guides to Galt: Downtown Restaurants A4 | US Letter PDF 1.84Mb
• Rebecca Macdonald & Andrew Guaglio – The Dissatisfied Art Student’s Guide to the Lounges of UW: Volume 1 A4 | US Letter PDF 1.6Mb
• Rebecca Macdonald & Andrew Guaglio – The Dissatisfied Art Student’s Guide to the Lounges of UW: Volume 2 A4 | US Letter PDF 2.6Mb
• Adam Meyer – Prolegomena to Mundanity A4 | US Letter PDF 1.4Mb
• Heidi Overhill – The Wreck of the “Julie Plante” A4 | US Letter PDF 2.8Mb
• Leslie-Anne Purdy – Activism on the UW Campus A4 | US Letter PDF 1.1Mb
• Nathalie Quagliotto – Guide to Proper Etiquette… A4 | US Letter PDF 385Kb
• Kristina Rogers – The Result of a Petition from 1896 A4 | US Letter PDF 4.5Mb
• Jen Stanfel – Campus Space A4 | US Letter PDF 1.8Mb
• Catherine Telford_Keogh – Positive Space Information Booklet A4 | US Letter PDF 300Kb
• Katie Thiel – Katie Thiel: Artist, Waitress, Student, Daughter… A4 | US Letter PDF 835Mb
• Christina Vannelli – Spaces Defined A4 | US Letter PDF 3.8Mb
• Heather Voituk – Local Culinary Talent A4 | US Letter PDF 550Kb

Published March-April 2008