NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Democrasoft, Inc.
(OTC: PinkSheets: DEMO), VOOK and first-time author Jonathan D. Messinger today jointly announced
that Messinger's e-book 11 Days in May is the recipient of this
year's Digital Book World Publishing Innovation Award in the
category of best non-fiction ebook. The announcement was made today
at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo at the Hilton Hotel in
New York City. According to the
Digital Book World website, the award honors "the most innovative
ebooks, enhanced ebooks, and book apps in 14 categories. It is the
mission of the PIAs to highlight excellent publishers/authors,
encourage new thinking, and improve the reading experience in the
digital age."
Messinger's ebook 11 Days in May: The Conversation That Will
Change Your Life, published by Waterfront Digital Press and created
by Vook, uses Democrasoft's unique new WeJIT technology to allow
readers to communicate directly with the author and with each
other, from topic-based discussions within the ebook. These
discussions are made possible with author-embedded links in the
ebook that connect readers and authors in an embedded online
discussion space where they can engage with each other in various
types of structured discussions.
The award-winning book was written over the course of eleven
days in May 2012, hence the title 11
Days in May. When envisioning the ebook, "I was inspired to create
a total immersion experience," says Messinger. "What that meant I
wasn't exactly sure, I just knew that I needed to somehow make 11
Days in May not just an engaging book, but an interactive
story."
Messinger's inspiration led him to a collaboration with
Democrasoft and its brand new WeJIT collaboration tool, assembled
by VOOK. Now, through the enhanced version of his ebook, readers
can respond to Messinger when he asks questions like "who am I?"
"why am I here?"and "where did I come from?" Thirty-two embedded
WeJITs link readers to a collection of one-page online WeJITs, each
dedicated to a particular topic or debate. William Gladstone, founder and CEO of Waterfront
Digital Press, notes that readers of the ebook can forward the URL
link for any embedded WeJIT to anyone, through social networks like
Facebook or Twitter, even to those who don't yet have the book and
might not have heard of it.
"What's amazing is that readers are actually poised to increase
book sales by inviting others to join in specific discussions
launched from within the ebook," said Gladstone. "That's a first in
the publishing world and when you combine it with the other
interactive features offered on the Vook e-publishing platform, we
think you're looking at a watershed event for authors and
publishers around the world."
"The combination of Vook's publishing platform and Democrasoft's
WeJIT capabilities has redefined publishing, turning a terrific
book into a real game-changer," says Matthew Cavnar, Vook's VP of Business
Development.
According to Richard Lang, CEO of
Democrasoft, "The opportunity that WeJITs represent for the
publishing industry is to recognize that WeJITs can become a portal
to new 'real estate' within an ebook, where publishers can
participate in the benefits of multi-way collaborative discussions
within their publications."
11 Days in May is available from Vook at
http://vook.com/storefronts/book/11-days-in-may.html as well as
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple's iBookstore.
For more information about WeJIT's, or to schedule an interview
with Democrasoft senior management, please contact Mark Kithcart at: mkithcart@democrasoft.com or
call 888-993-8683 x 706.
About Democrasoft
Democrasoft, Inc. is an innovation and licensing company with
a history of pioneering technology. It is the creator of the
Collaborize platform and Collaborize Classroom
(www.CollaborizeClassroom.com), the award-winning
blended-learning platform for grades K-20. It is also the creator
of WeJIT (http://www.mywejit.com), a new model for
self-contained, topic-based online collaboration that stretches
across various platforms and communities. Democrasoft is dedicated
to facilitating a vision of online "social networking with
purpose." For more information, please visit
www.Democrasoft.com.
About JD Messinger
Former CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting, Singapore, Messinger is one of 37
Distinguished Graduates from the United States Naval Academy.
A former nuclear submarine officer and the Exxon executive who
helped supervise the Valdez Oil spill cleanup, Messinger was
nominated as CNBC Asian CEO of the year, was the Channel News Asia
"IT Person of the Week" and a senior advisor to the Singapore Prime Minister, members of
parliament in Great Britain,
China, Brunei, Australia and Malaysia on corporate, national and industrial
evolution, innovation and energy. A television and radio show
creator, his position papers have been distributed to three U.S.
Presidential candidates and dignitaries around the world. For
more information please visit
www.JDMessinger.com.
About Waterfront Digital Press and Waterside Productions,
Inc.
Waterfront Press is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Waterside
Productions, Inc. a full-service literary agency founded in 1982 in
Cardiff, California. As the
world's premier literary agency for computer and technology
authors, Waterside Productions' agents have successfully
represented more than 5,000 books to over 50 publishers, generating
more than $200 Million for authors.
Waterfront has worked with some of the top authors in the world
including Eckhart Tolle, Deepak
Chopra, and Neale Donald
Walsh. For more information please visit
www.Waterfrontdigitalpress.comor
www.Waterside.com.
About Vook
Founded in 2009, Vook has created an innovative technology
platform that allows content holders to create great ebooks, add
video, audio and images, publish the ebooks to their own Web pages
and to the major e-retailers, and track their sales. Vook provides
a turnkey solution for content strategy, including editorial,
marketing and distribution services and has worked with a range of
partners, including The New York Times,
NBC, Simon & Schuster, Google, American Express Publishing, and
Newsweek Daily Beast. For more information, please visit
http://vook.comor contact
Allison@vook.com.
SOURCE Democrasoft, Inc.