Ebeneezer Myles Tetteh – Sam Woode, Atsu Dekutsi – Woeli, Alex Sulzberger – Worldreader, Drew Budwin – Worldreader, Lesley Mensah- Worldreader, Elliot Agyare – Smartline, John Nkrumah – EPP, Kwasi Amork – Regener8, Harriot Tagoe – Afram, Colin McElwee- Worldreader. Photo by Joseph Botwey (Worldreader)

As you may know we have spent much of the last 12 months building up our relationships with the local publishers in Ghana as we seek to ensure that local content is centre-stage on our offer of reading material to students and teachers in the iREAD pilot.

These publishers have been the bedrock upon which we have launched the pilot offering us not only approved school text books but some wonderful stories and novels to get the students reading.  So, Joseph Botwey, our Mr. “Worldreader Operations” in Ghana, suggested we should gather all of our partner publishers together in one room and give them an update–an enlightened suggestion as we were not only able to present to them the latest news and results from the pilot in Adeiso and Kade but also to receive feedback and suggestions from the publishers themselves. Being a partner is just that–exchanging information and insights. It’s important to remember that we are collectively breaking new ground so it was really useful to get feedback in person and for the publishers themselves to listen to their colleagues describe the enormous social and commercial potential the digitization of books presents.

You can see a small initial sample of their books for sale at http://amzn.to/mFOMSb. Many of these books have not been seen outside of Africa and we will be presenting many more for sale during the rest of this year.

Looking forward we plan to continue to pass information back to our publishing partners on what material has been read in the pilots, which books students like best and share the challenges of publishing material designed for paper books in an electronic format.  We’ll celebrate this meeting at least once every six months, and at a different publishing house each time. So a big thanks to Elliot Agyare from Smartline who so professionally set up this meeting at his offices on this occasion.

Anyway, all that just leads me to the suggested response to the above question, as there doesn’t yet exist this collective noun. How about an “edit of publishers” or a “proof of publishers”? Suggestions please, but avoiding all reference to paper and printing!

Worldreader Note: Apologies from Sub Saharan, Sedco, Adwinsa and Evans who couldn’t make it on this occasion.