Future Think

"If you're a publisher and you publish a book on Amazon," says Democrasoft's Co-Founder and CEO Richard Lang, "as an author or publisher, you don't know anything about the people [who bought it]. All that data went to Amazon. … With a WeJIT in that book, every time somebody logs in, the basic information about that person] is captured. Suddenly, the publisher can add them to their mailing list and tell them about other books they might be interested in."

Lang emphasizes that Democrasoft only captures users' names and email addresses for the publisher, and that that information is neither published nor sold.

The benefit for readers is that a WeJIT is a form of community building, fostering discussion with other readers around a common topic.

WeJIT was born from another Democrasoft product called Collaborize, an online collaboration tool for teachers. "Over 46,000 teachers have launched sites," says Lang. "It became apparent very quickly that there is a natural affinity for the publishing industry."

(Democrasoft has a lengthy history in media delivery; formerly called Burst.com, its streaming media technologies have been licensed by Windows, Apple and RealNetworks.)

There are two models available for using Democrasoft's WeJIT platform: One allows a publisher to offer the capabilities to their authors on a per-title basis (as little as $99 for unlimited use within a title). The second is a site license, essentially a flat fee, that grants publishers carte blanche use across all titles.

For more information on WeJITs, visit mywejit.com or democrasoft.com.

—Brian G. Howard

THE READING ROOM

Member-driven book discovery.

The Reading Room offers book lovers the opportunity to create and join reader communities tailored to their personal interests. "My dream was to find a place on the web where people could to go to find out about really good books," says CEO Kim Anderson from her base in Australia.