Publishers link up with techies to ‘renew the book’

 1st October 2015

E-readers, tablets, blogs and even online video have shaken up book publishing over the past decade.

Esther O’Toole has been finding out about a Dutch competition that seeks to drive innovation in the industry and is backed by publishers themselves.

It seems almost unthinkable that it was less than 10 years ago that the first effective e-readers came on the market, followed swiftly by the first iPhone and other smart phones with e-reader capacities. Now, reading on your phone, tablet or laptop comes as naturally to many people as picking up a book.

However, the question of whether digital books and magazines mean the end is nigh for traditional print media has still to resolve itself. As smart phones have become bigger and better, e-reader sales have begun to slow. The number of e-book sales in comparison to hard copy sales is still steadily increasing though, with 7% of the Dutch consumer market being in e-books at the end of 2014.

Traditional publishers are aware of the need for innovation in their industry and have now teamed up with the start-up gurus of Rockstart to stimulate further change.

‘Everywhere in the world publishers, whether in news, music or books, struggle with the internet,’ says Wiet de Bruijn, chairman of the Dutch publishers’ association GAU. ‘With the Renew the Book project we say we want to stimulate change and we are not afraid to admit that the best ideas might come from outside the publishing industry.’

Challenges

Digitised reading has affected the business models of publishers, book marketeers, libraries and book shops. The global book market is worth in the region of €89m  annually, so there is plenty at stake and a big incentive for rejuvenation.

‘The first big wave of disruption has hit its peak, so this is a good time for Renew the Book and to start looking for new, long term, sustainable methodologies in publishing,’ says Rockstart’s Christoph Auer-Welsbach, who is running the competition. ‘It’s clear from changes in the music industry that a lot can go wrong if you’re not prepared to innovate.’

‘Publishers need to re-examine their value proposition and think where they can improve upon it for the industry, authors and readers. The experience of reading a book needs to shift. I want different reading experiences for different times in my day, in my life,’ says Auer-Welsbach.

Rockstart is putting its very best publishing gurus and years of experience in the hands of the Renew the Book winners. In turn, the publishers are providing a €15k non-refundable grant to allow the winning team to build a solid and sustainable foundation for their new business.

So, what are they looking for?

Renew the Book aims to be low risk for entrants and thereby as accessible as possible. The aim is to find ‘revolutionary ideas’ so the scope is wide open.

Ideas might range from new forms of marketing that help book stores reinvent themselves and encourage in-store purchases, alternative ways to manage the publication process from start to finish or how gaming could be used to encourage children to keep reading.

‘While the ways we publish and consume books are changing due to technology, the stories themselves help us understand the world we live in,’ says Auer-Welsbach. ‘We strongly believe books have been and will stay important for us as human beings.

For more information, visit www.renewthebook.com

Deadline for applications October 12.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Publishers link up with techies to ‘renew the book’ http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/10/publishers-link-up-with-techies-to-renew-the-book/

Dutch company launches plan for recycled

plastic roads 

BusinessLife & Culture September 17, 2015    

An artist's impression of how the plastic roads would work.

Dutch company KWS Infra is developing a new sort of road made from recycled plastic. This, the company says, will not only cut down on plastic waste but reduce CO2 output from road building and usage, and make roads more sustainable and safer. Esther O’Toole reports. 

An estimated eight billion tons of plastic is floating around in the oceans and 55% of our plastic waste is still incinerated. Innovative Dutch companies have been busy looking at feasible ways of fishing the plastic out of the sea and shipping it to shore. Now KWS Infra, part of the VolkerWessels construction group and the biggest road builder in the Netherlands, has come up with a plan to turn that kind of plastic waste into roads. 

The roads themselves would be made from prefab sections prepared offsite from 100% recycled plastic and brought en masse to the building site, with road markings and guard rails already in place. Being light weight and easy to transport they could take months off construction times. 

The fabric is thought to be more durable than asphalt and needs little or no maintenance, being weather proof and impervious to weeds. The other major advantage is that they are hollow allowing space for piping, electric cables and – another hot topic for VolkerWessels – internet connections. 

Internet 

VolkerWessels is now investing in multiple projects for urban renewal and connected city innovation, including placing internet receivers along roads, be they antennas and masts or embedded in street lights and wind turbines. Plastic roads fit into this picture perfectly. If the space inside the decking could also be used to house net connectors, losing reception in a tunnel would become a thing of the past. 

Driverless cars, cheap and affordable ones too, will be on the open market as early as next year. What benefits will be reaped from these innovative technologies when they begin to converge? With uninterrupted mobile internet connections along all main highways, a long commute could be set to become the most productive part of the day. 

No wonder then that VolkerWessels is not having trouble garnering interest for their projects. Rotterdam city council was the first to show interest in piloting the PlasticRoad, in early July. 

Interest 

Since then the company has had interest from cities all over the world and are looking to finalise partnerships with plastics and recycling experts soon, spokesman Anne Koudstaal told DutchNews.nl. The aim is to have a team in place by December and to run a feasibility pilot within three years. 

‘We are feeling very positive about it,’ he said. ‘All the good reactions [to July’s announcement] are a huge boost for us and the idea. It makes it all seem so much more realisable.’ 

If all goes to plan, the roads themselves may in turn be recyclable. This would bring PlasticRoad completely in line with the ‘cradle to cradle’ notions of the circular economy being implemented by other innovative ideas such as The Ocean Clean Up Project and the Plastic Madonna art project. 

The Netherlands, despite being one of the smallest countries in the developed world by land mass, has one of the highest carbon footprints per capita; especially in relation to fossil fuel use and cement production. Cutting emissions related to road usage and building would seriously reduce that footprint. Especially when one considers that the road network in the country covers approximately 135,470 km and most of it is tarmacked.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Dutch company launches plan for recycled plastic roads http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/09/dutch-company-launched-plan-for-recycled-plastic-roads/

A Super Seaweed Supper

Pioneering Dutch enterprise sets out to put seaweed on the table.

By Esther O’Toole

Do you eat seaweed? No? Are you sure? Only around sushi? Well, think again.  Seaweed is found in many consumer products from ice cream and processed foods, to vitamin supplements, toothpaste, mascara and biofuel.

What is more, being a sustainable crop, it reduces fresh water, land, and fertilizer usage. This versatile and tasty resource is drawing a lot of interest in international agricultural circles, including one prominent Dutch enterprise, The North Sea Farm Foundation (Stichting Noordzee Boerderij). North Sea Farm have been testing the nutrient rich waters north of Texel, with a view to getting seaweed on more Dutch plates in the very near future.

Initially set up by Marcel Schuttelaar, of Schuttelaar & Partners, the foundation launched a proof of concept mission last November. Using two different growing platforms (one static, one flexible) and two varieties of edible kelp, they set out with the purpose of discovering whether the rough North Sea was suitable for this kind of offshore agriculture.

This month’s first successful harvest seems to indicate that it does. Having laid 10 m of line in the hopes of growing 1 kg of usable product, they ended up with 15 kg!

Koen van Swam, of North Sea Farm, told Dutch News that the partly crowdfunded project was now heading towards scaling up. The June crop is being independently tested for nutritional value and consumer safety and a second harvest is planned for October.

Harmony and Collaboration

Seaweed cultivation can work in harmony with both nature and existing offshore industries like fisheries, sea energy and conservation. It is a challenging spot to cultivate with waves that vary in size from 1m to a whopping 6m, which can sometimes make access to the platforms difficult. However, unlike more sheltered European growing areas (for instance in Norway and The Shetlands) the North Sea offers real space to spread out.

‘This is really pioneering’ said, van Swam. ‘If we can grow it here, we can grow it anywhere!’

He went on to explain that this industry offers the chance for entrepreneurs from many traditionally strong Dutch trades, such as maritime transport, fishing, mussel farming and agrofood, to collaborate. North Sea Farm expects to help create jobs and offer fantastic growth potential for all partners across the supply chain.

This year the global seaweed market for human consumption was estimated at nearly $ 6 million (USD). The Dutch Government are conducting research of their own and have estimated that there is scope for up to 400 km2 of seaweed fields off the Dutch North coast by 2050, with no discernible negative impact. Seaweed is regularly used by fish as a nursery, so the impact could in fact be a positive one.

North Sea Farm is equally ambitious as they set out to raise in the region of € 400,000 for expansion, hoping the green initiative’s early success will encourage new investors. That amount would allow them to grow 5,000-10,000 kg of seaweed by next season. If they’re successful then you will be needing a copy of the seaweed cook book they’re working on, as it seems highly likely that this nutritious new superfood could be coming to a Dutch dining room near you, very soon.

http://www.noordzeeboerderij.nl/

Science and technology still fail to attract Dutch female students

August 7^th, 2015

Photo: jvanderwolf via Depositphotos

For all its innovative work in tech, engineering and the sciences, the Netherlands lags behind in encouraging women into these fields. Esther O’Toole talks to some of the women working to right the balance.

Last month there was uproar in the international science community when Nobel Prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt stood up in front of a conference of science journalists in Seoul, South Korea and said:

‘Let me tell you about my trouble with girls … three things happen when they are in the lab … You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticise them, they cry.’

In the ensuing media storm, Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant said: ‘One thing is certain: Hunt’s remarks…touch on something bigger than himself. He unleashed a worldwide discussion over sexism and gender…in the sciences.’

Scientists

In 2010, figures from Unesco showed the Netherlands had fewer female science graduates than any other country in the world.

Though the representation varies across the different specialities and in some fields there are undoubtedly more women than in others, for a country that considers itself generally open-minded, egalitarian and educationally advanced, last place seems pretty damning.

Dutch government figures show that since 2007, the number of girls opting for technical courses at havo secondary schools has risen from 15% to 26% and at pre-university vwo secondary schools from 20% to 38%.

Around one in five girls now study technical subjects at vocational or hbo colleges. However, the number of female students taking technical courses at university has remained the same, at 26%. So progress is being made in the Netherlands but very slowly. There is a desperate need for more science and engineering graduates to fill the growing number of jobs in the science and technological fields, so why are girls and young women so reluctant to take up these subjects?

Role models

A study published by Northwestern University in the US at the beginning of May found that the Dutch were the most likely to associate the sciences with men and masculinity. The report concluded that this kind of ‘explicit’ stereotyping is an indicator of biased hiring and a lack of encouragement for girls towards engineering and the sciences.

VHTO, a Dutch expert advocacy group for women in science, says self-confidence, fertility/lifestyle issues and the necessity to opt for specific study paths early in Dutch education are contributing factors to the problem.

In addition, ‘it is hard to find female role models to guest lecture,’ VHTO spokeswoman Masja Gielstra, said.

The VHTO has now developed a database of nearly 2,000 female role models they can call upon. Together they conduct research, consult and organise programmes and events and work closely with the education ministry.

The flagship programme is Girlsday which takes place nationwide every April. Female experts, coached by VHTO to effectively deal with different age groups, visit schools; specifically to introduce strong role models to girls.

‘We find it really important that they start at an early age,’ Gielstra added.

Not only schools participate in Girlsday. This year over 10,000 girls aged 10-15 years visited a company or science centre and 310 companies threw open their doors for experiental workshops, giving girls an opportunity to see for themselves what working in these industries is like.

‘Companies know that more diversity in their teams is good for productivity,’ Gielstra said.

Real Chances

One Dutch company which took part in Girlsday this year is engineering group Royal HaskoningDHV.  While women account for 47% of HR, communications and IT jobs, just 11% of technical staff are female.

Environmental consultant Coco Smits studied environmental science at university and is keen to get more girls onto science and industrial engineering pathways. Assertiveness is essential in a company with multiple projects going on, she says,  but after a time your work will speak for itself.

‘‘Take the chances that come by, be visible and have a clear story of who you are and what you want to do,’ Smit says.

That position is echoed by Annemarie Kin, an experienced Royal HaskoningDHV asset management advisor, who has worked there for 12 years and has four children. ‘It’s important to assess yourself again and again against development points,’ she said. ‘Where can I improve? What can I do for the company…there are real chances here.’

The VHTO does see the fruits of these kinds of partnerships between businesses, themselves, government bodies and educational establishments. Nevertheless, ‘we’re not there yet,’ Gielstra says.

‘It is vitally important that education and businesses keep working together in public-private partnership in the future, so that…the chances for girls in technology and IT remain clearly visible.’

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Science and technology still fail to attract Dutch female students http://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2015/08/science-and-technology-still-fail-to-attract-dutch-female-students/