Subject: Fwd: Questia Press Release
David L. Green (david@ninch.org)
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 07:09:25 -0700
Message-Id: <v04210107b512f881b0e9@[209.247.53.247]> Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 07:09:25 -0700 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: "David L. Green" <david@ninch.org> Subject: Fwd: Questia Press Release
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
April 7, 2000
QUESTIA PRESS RELEASE
http://www.questia.com
In the context of the relationship of e-commerce ventures with our
own mostly nonprofit enterprise, I thought readers would be
interested in this recent announcement of a commercial service
enterprise promising rich access to digitized research tools. This
is, at least currently, a library service restricted to books and
journals.
David Green
===========
>Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 17:42:50 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>
>To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
>Subject: Questia Press Release
>
>More on the e-books front: a large new vendor positions self to license
>academic books. Limited contact with this vendor suggests a different
>approach: targeting content. Will be worth following their progres. Ann
>Okerson
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>4 April 2000
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>FOR BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY EDITORS
>
>Questia Reveals Development of Revolutionary Online Research Service
>Will deliver on the true promise of the Internet by providing access to
>the wealth of human knowledge.
>
>Houston TX (April 4, 2000) - Questia Media, Inc., a new media venture
>driven by an extraordinary team of experienced leaders and visionaries,
>today revealed the development of a revolutionary online research service
>that will deliver on the true promise of the Internet by providing access
>to the wealth of human knowledge. Through ongoing funding projected to
>total $210 million during this year and next, Questia is building the
>first online service to provide unlimited access to the full text of
>hundreds of thousands of books, journals and periodicals, as well as tools
>to easily use this information. For millions of college students, the
>Questia service will enable them to research and compose their papers at
>any time, from every connected corner of the world.
>
>"Throughout history, many people have struggled with inadequate access to
>knowledge," noted Questia founder and CEO Troy Williams. "Important
>events such as Gutenberg's printing press and the emergence of the public
>library have made books accessible to larger audiences. Yet still today,
>many people struggle with inadequate access. Even those with access to
>the world's largest libraries cannot avoid the fact that books are finite
>resources that are available to only one person at a time - an access
>limitation that Questia overcomes."
>
>"Questia is different from most eBusinesses," Williams continued. "Most
>have been merely translating today's brick-and-mortar activities to the
>Internet, converting brochures into websites or setting up eCommerce to
>sell goods and services online. But none of this activity really delivers
>on the promise of the Internet -- to provide access to the wealth of human
>knowledge. By digitizing the books most needed by college students, by
>making them accessible to all students at any time, and by hyperlinking
>footnotes and references to the precise page cited, Questia is creating a
>revolutionary research tool that enables users to instantaneously follow a
>complete train of thought from one book to another. This has never before
>been accomplished in the history of human learning, and it offers the
>possibility to truly change how people learn," Williams concluded. Similar
>to a traditional library model, emerging Internet-based library and
>electronic book services are limited by the actual number of copyrighted
>books they purchase - one copy of a book can only be accessed by one
>person at a time. In contrast, Questia will offer a complete research
>service with rights secured directly from publishers so that an unlimited
>number of people may access a given book at a given time. Questia expects
>to have a robust 50,000 volumes digitized by early 2001 and is projected
>to have over 250,000 within three years - that's greater than the number
>of volumes in over 80 percent of all academic libraries in the United
>States.
>
>Substantial investment in people and dollars
>
>Questia has quietly amassed over $45 million dollars in venture funding
>from the venture capital firm TA Associates of Boston and individuals, and
>has grown in just a few months to over 200 employees in Houston and New
>York.
>
>"The Questia vision is so compelling that we have been able to attract the
>very best talent to our team," said Williams. "Compaq co-founder Rod
>Canion, Enron chairman and chief executive officer Ken Lay - both
>extraordinary visionaries in their own right - are on our board of
>directors and actively participating in our mission. With the recent
>funding from TA Associates, senior managing director Andy McLane also
>joins the board. Moreover, we have built an experienced senior management
>team from the publishing, Internet, and computer industries that is
>absolutely first-rate. Finally, we have enrolled important academic and
>publishing partners," Williams said.
>
>Williams founded Questia Media, Inc. in 1998 after completing Harvard Law
>School. He formulated the vision, enrolled others, built a prototype of
>the service and secured venture funding - much of this from a small
>Houston apartment furnished with nothing but a folding table, a PC, and a
>five-dollar plastic chair.
>
>Experienced business leaders on the management team include: Tim Harris,
>former vice president for Compaq (NYSE: CPQ), as VP of finance, chief
>financial officer and chief operating officer; Linda Raglan Cunningham,
>former senior vice president for HarperCollins Publishers, as VP of
>publishing; Randy Dragon, former vice president of technical operations
>for Disney Online (NYSE: DIS), as VP and chief technology officer; Todd
>Papke, former vice president of Internet technology for ShopAtHome.com, as
>VP of engineering; Kathleen Harrington Clark, former director of
>advertising for Compaq, as VP of marketing; David Cabello, former senior
>vice president, general counsel and secretary for Compaq, as VP, general
>counsel and secretary; Mary Ryder, former vice president of operations for
>First Data Corporation/TeleCheck (NYSE; FDC), as VP of customer support;
>and Charles Winder, former vice president of operations for Compaq, as VP
>of operations. A roster of brilliant young Internet visionaries with
>diverse backgrounds and experiences rounds out the senior management team.
>Compelling benefits to students
>
>The Questia service will be live at www.questia.com in early 2001 (near
>start of the second semester of the 2000-2001 academic year) with at least
>50,000 of the most valued volumes in the liberal arts from the 20th and
>21st centuries (not including textbooks). This initial online collection
>will offer access to a range of titles that are today -- for all practical
>purposes -- out of reach of many students. With a monthly subscription
>fee and an existing Internet connection, students will be able to search
>the online collection, research related references, view the actual pages
>of individual titles, and compose and save their papers online. For
>college students doing research papers, the Questia service will become
>the indispensable tool for researching and writing. "Today, it is
>unthinkable for a student to compose a paper on a typewriter; the PC-based
>word processor is the tool of choice. Very soon, it will be unthinkable
>for a student to research and write a paper without using the Questia
>service," Williams declared.
>
>Compelling benefits to publishers
>
>For publishers, Questia represents a tremendous opportunity to increase
>revenues.
>
>Questia has developed a way for publishers to receive revenue each time a
>student accesses even a single page of a title. This has never been
>possible before. Thus, older titles and out-of-print books that have been
>read and studied thousands of times over the years in libraries (yet have
>not generated new income) will now produce new revenues and become more
>valuable assets to publishers. Moreover, current industry trends show
>that traditional individual copy sales of titles benefit from exposure on
>the web because consumers are more inclined to buy books they can browse
>online. Questia will make it easier and more convenient for subscribers
>to locate, search, and browse an entire library of books, vastly
>increasing awareness of previously hard-to-find titles.
>
>In sum, Questia offers publishers a new opportunity to revitalize older
>titles and to broaden the audience and gain exposure for newer titles.
>Through this, they can gain additional revenues for all titles that would
>otherwise have been unrealized.
>
>Compelling benefits to librarians and professors
>
>For librarians and professors, Questia offers a new valuable tool that
>facilitates their goal of helping students to find the right information
>effectively and efficiently. The Questia search function alone - to be
>offered to all at no charge - allows librarians or professors to find the
>exact volumes and pages that can answer a student's question. Because the
>research process is more efficient and less cumbersome, it will mean fewer
>dead-end trips to the stacks, thus allowing for more time for the
>mentoring and thoughtful interaction that actually foster a love of
>discovery and learning.
>
>About Questia
>
>Founded in 1998, Questia Media, Inc. is building the first online service
>to provide unlimited access to the full text of hundreds of thousands of
>books, journals and periodicals, as well as tools to easily use this
>information. For millions of college students and researchers, the
>Questia service will enable them to efficiently research and compose
>papers at any time, from every connected corner of the world. Based in
>Houston, TX with over 200 employees, Questia is delivering on the true
>promise of the Internet by providing access to the wealth of human
>knowledge. Information can be found at www.questia.com.
>
># # #
>Questia is a service mark of Questia Media, Inc.
>
>Contacts:
>Media:
>John Sweney
>Brookwoods Media Group
>713-934-0529
>john.sweney@brookwoods.com
>
>Investors:
>Tim Harris
>Questia Media, Inc.
>713-358-2642
>tharris@questia.com
===============================================================
David Green 202-296-5346 phone
david@ninch.org 202-872-0886 fax
<http://www.ninch.org>
===============================================================
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