The Public Library of Science (PLoS) was founded in October 2000 in
California as a non-profit organization whose mission was to give
access to the world's scientific and medical literature, with a search
engine and hyperlinks between articles. PLoS posted an open letter
requesting the articles traditionally published in expensive journals
to be distributed freely in online archives, and asking researchers to
promote the publishers willing to support this project. From October
2000 to September 2002, the open letter was signed by 30,000 scientists
from 180 countries. The publishers' answer was much less enthusiastic,
although a number of publishers agreed for their articles to be freely
distributed immediately after publication (or six months after
publication for some of them). But even the publishers who initially
agreed to support the project of PloS made so many objections that it
was finally abandoned. PloS became a publisher of free high-quality
online scientific and medical journals in January 2003.
October 2000 > The eBookMan, a multimedia personal assistant by
Franklin
In October 2000, Franklin launched the eBookMan, a multimedia personal
assistant that - among other features (calendar, voice recorder, etc.)
- allowed people to read books on the Franklin Reader. Three models
(EBM-900, EBM-901 and EBM-911) were available in early 2001, for
US$130, $180 or $230 depending on the RAM size (8 or 16 MB) and a
backlit or not LCD screen. Much larger than the screen of its
competitors, the screen was only in black and white, unlike the Pocket
PC or some PDAs from Palm. The eBookMan could also be used to listen to
audiobooks and music files in MP3 format. In October 2001, people could
read books on the Mobipocket Reader, and the Franklin Reader was also
available for the Pocket PC and PDAs from Psion, Palm, and Nokia.