Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

It is widely accepted that the book publishing industry is not keeping pace with an increasingly digital-mediabased society. Challenges for innovation include the high-cost of quality digital production, and risks of notknowing how products will be received by consumers. The timing for embracing digital media is now: adultreading rates and electronic book sales in the youth eBook market are rising. Today's youth (aged 12-16), ademographic that wants to be inspired by stories and characters, represent 6% of tablet owners in the U.S. andthe applicants believe there is an opportunity to newly engage young readers. PadWorx Digital Media haspublished more than a dozen critically-acclaimed Interactive eBooks, including Dracula: The Official StokerFamily Edition and A Christmas Carol, using a proprietary publishing platform, padXtec. The proposed projectis to develop and evaluate a new interactive reading experience for tablets, with web development and betatesting in the target market. Methods: PadWorx plans to: 1) expand their position in the interactive eBookmarket with new products, and 2) productize their proprietary publishing platform, padXtec, for licence to thedigital media industry. For the first goal, PadWorx will collaborate with Humber College to produce'TheatreBooks', tablet-based interactive eBooks that combine classic stories, with a dramatic, 'Theatre of theMind' style audio, and interactive illustrations to create a novel entertainment experience, starting with CharlesDickens' A Christmas Carol. Faculty and students from Humber's Film and TV Production and Web Designand Interactive Media programs will work with PadWorx to develop the e-Book, manage project milestones,evaluate user metrics using data analytics and track market research. Expected Outcomes: This project wouldallow PadWorx to innovate within two markets simultaneously: the consumer eBook market with the proposed'Theatrebooks' series, and the digital publishing market with ready-for-license version of their proprietaryengine, padXtec. The benefits to PadWorx include diversification of products and markets, the potential fornew revenue, and expansion of their core business from publisher to publishing platform provider.