Versaware Technologies, a New York and Israel-based firm specializing in a new technology for developing multimedia reference works, is launching a multimedia-enhanced online version of the Funk &Wagnalls Encyclopedia and an online bookstore that will sell both optical discs and downloadable editions of its reference books -- editions that are also compatible with all proposed electronic book formats. The site will offer free access to all 29 volumes of the F&W Encyclopedia, which is fully searchable and updated monthly, as well as an online version of The Random House Webster's College Dictionary, a continually updated Reuters newsfeed and much more.
Sol Rosenberg, president of the Versabook division, told PW the company is launching the free F&W website to attract consumer traffic to its Versabook digital titles, showcase its patent-pending technology and "build a market" for its licensed multimedia titles. The company has licensed "more than 1000" print reference titles and is in the process of converting them to multimedia formats. The site will be promoted by print advertising and contests. For a fee, the site also offers the Funk and Wagnalls Knowledge Center, with a wide variety of multimedia content and interactive features.
Versabook has developed technologies to produce multimedia versions of print titles in CD-ROM, DVD, HTML and downloadable digital formats, complete with photographs, full-motion video, sound, music and animation. Versabook's services eliminate the need for publishers to invest in development and programming staff. Once downloaded, Versabooks titles automatically integrate themselves into an animated graphical library interface. Titles and even individual articles from its full list can be interchangeably regrouped into searchable, fully customizable databases. The company currently licenses works from Simon &Schuster, Oxford University Press, NTC and many others.
Rosenberg told PW that Versabook titles are compatible (although without full multimedia) with handheld electronic book units such as Palm Pilot, the Rocket eBook and Softbook. In addition, Amazon.com and B&N.com will sell Versabook digital titles and the company has also discussed converting out-of-print titles and making them available in digital form online.
