Interactive E-Book Introduces World's First Instant Collaboration

SANTA ROSA, Calif., Aug. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Democrasoft, Inc. (OTC: Pinksheets: DEMO) and VOOK ePublishing in San Francisco, today announced the arrival of the world's first two-way interactive e-book, which features a new technology that allows real-time author and reader-to-reader dialog and collaboration from inside an e-book.

The newly-released book grabbing all the attention, 11 Days in May, published by Waterfront Press, will offer readers the opportunity to communicate directly with both author JD Messinger, and also with other readers, from right inside the e-book. This groundbreaking discussion capability is made possible by a new cloud-based collaboration technology developed by Democrasoft, which links any reader with a book's author, other readers or any other person with access to the Internet. The new technology is called "WeJIT," and it promises to forever change the way authors, their books and their readers come together.

According to Democrasoft Chairman & CEO Richard Lang, WeJIT is a new approach to collaboration that allows instant communities to form around any topic of common interest. With a few clicks, an individual WeJIT is formed by any individual wanting to enable an instant, collaborative community. In essence, the WeJIT is a one-page website, with a unique URL, dedicated to a particular topic of discussion, debate or even decision-making, in a multitude of engagement models. It can be formed in a matter of seconds, free of charge for individual use (www.MyWeJIT.com). In the case of 11 Days in May, author JD Messinger has created and embedded 32 WeJITs inside his new e-book, on an assortment of topics covered in the book.

"This is an amazing way for me to communicate with my readers, while they're actually reading the book," said Messinger. "It creates the opportunity for readers to have vibrant dialog and exchanges on the multiple ideas contained inside the book. In a way, it creates an instant book club around any subject that readers care to participate in and to involve others in."

William Gladstone, founder and CEO of Waterfront Press, the publisher of both the e-book and   printed editions of 11 Days in May, also points out that readers of the new e-book can actually forward the URL for any embedded WeJIT to anyone, even those who don't have the book and may have never 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 e-book," said Gladstone. "That's a first in the publishing world and when you combine it with the other interactive features offered on the VOOK epublishing platform, we think you're looking at a watershed event for authors and publishers around the world."

Matthew Cavnar, VP of Business Development at Vook, said that the Vook ePublishing platform combined with the WeJit capabilities perfectly compliment the interactive features already embedded within 11 Days in May. These other features include images and videos; specially composed music; Messinger's CNN radio interviews with famous guests, and original artwork.

"The combination of VOOK's publishing platform and Democrasoft's WeJIT capabilities is something that we believe is going to completely redefine e-book publishing," said Cavnar. "We are very excited about the possibilities going forward and believe that this combination is about to take what was already a terrific e-book and turn it into a real game-changer."

Lang says that the inclusion of WeJIT capability in e-books, beginning with 11 Days in May, is evidence of one of the core advantages that WeJITs bring to online collaboration: "portability."  He points to the fact that every self-contained WeJIT discussion or collaboration is associated with a unique URL (web address), which can then be shared with anyone, using existing social networking platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, to name a few. He said that in future e-books, readers themselves would be able to instantly create and share WeJITs around any topic they are reading about in an e-book.

"WeJIT is not a competing social network," said Lang. "Instead, WeJIT is a way to enable an instant community to form around any individual topic, comprised only of people with an interest in that particular topic. There's no need to join, manage or moderate yet another platform. WeJIT is to collaboration what Google is to search."

Lang said that anyone wanting to create their own WeJIT to instantly engage any group, large or small, on any topic, can do so by visiting: www.MyWeJIT.com and creating a WeJIT for free. According to Lang, the WeJIT platform is available to larger groups and organization under a variety of licensing arrangements, including white-label.

11 Days in May is available for hardcover pre-release at www.Amazon.com and www.BarnesAndNoble.com.  The e-book is available now from Vook at http://vook.com/storefronts/book/11-days-in-may.html.

About JD Messinger. JD Messinger is the former CEO of Ernst & Young Consulting (Singapore), one of 37 distinguished graduates from Annapolis (1981), a former fireman, nuclear submarine officer, and former radio and television show creator, producer and host. In the world of business, JD helped supervise the Valdez Oil spill cleanup and is an advisor to Fortune 100 clients and governments on five continents. He lives in Texas with his wife and their three children. For more information please visit www.JDMessinger.com.

About Waterfront 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.com or www.Waterside.com.

About Vook. Founded in 2009, Vook has created an innovative technology platform that allows anyone to create great e-Books, add video, audio and images, publish the e-Books to their own Webpage and to the major e-Tailers and track their sales. Vook works with a range of content partners including NBC, Simon & Schuster, Franklin Covey and Hay House and most major distribution channels including Apple, Amazon, Google and Barnes & Noble. For more information, please visit www.Vook.com.

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.

For inquiries or more information, please contact Imal Wagner at [email protected].

For more information about WeJIT's, or to schedule an interview with Democrasoft senior management, please contact Mark Kithcart at:  [email protected]or call 888-993-8683 x 706.

SOURCE Democrasoft, Inc.