In May 2003, Acrobat Reader (5th version) merged with Acrobat eBook
Reader (2nd version) to become Adobe Reader (starting with version 6),
which could read both standard PDF files and secure PDF files of
copyrighted books. In late 2003, Adobe opened its own online bookstore,
the Digital Media Store, with titles in PDF format from major
publishers (HarperCollins, Random House, Simon & Schuster, etc.), as
well as electronic versions of newspapers and magazines like The New
York Times, Popular Science, etc. Adobe also launched Adobe eBooks
Central as a service to read, publish, sell, and lend ebooks, and Adobe
eBook Library as a prototype digital library.
September 2003 > The MIT OpenCourseWare: course materials of MIT online
for free
The MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) was officially launched in September
2003 by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to put its course
materials for free on the web, as a way to promote open dissemination
of knowledge. In September 2002, a pilot version was available online
with 32 course materials. 500 course materials were available in March
2004. In May 2006, 1,400 course materials were offered by 34
departments belonging to the five schools of MIT. In November 2007, all
1,800 course materials were available, and regularly updated. MIT also
launched the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) in November
2005, as a collaboration of educational institutions that were willing
to offer free online course materials. One year later, the OCW
Consortium included the course materials of 100 universities worldwide.