Abstract Based on a critical review of the current practices and market failure with regard to content supply and use, this paper proposes a new knowledge infrastructure and a content service network (CSN) that will allow consumers to conduct demand and context-driven search for granular content – in any form and format (books, journal and conference papers, theses/dissertations, web and multimedia resources) available as commercial, non- commercial, copyright and public domain content – and to download, aggregate, add value, repackage, render, and super distribute the aggregated content through a real time web-based service model. Argued that the new network will benefit content creators as well as consumers. Keywords: Content supply chain, Publishing, Digital rights management, Intellectual property rights, Content Service Network (CSN) Introduction For knowledge-intensive activities, for example in education and training, consumers often use parts or sections of several books, journals, conferences, etc., such as specific chapters, articles, sections, paragraphs, tables, diagrams, and so on, and repackage the granular contents into a new content package to meet the specific needs for content for a course module in an education and training environment. Such new aggregated content packages may be used interactively by the creator for specific activities such as for teaching and training purposes, or can be distributed by the creator to a group of target users for their successive use and learning. In the current marketplace, aggregation and super distribution of content cannot be accomplished easily. The closest alternatives are printed course packs and electronic course reserves. However, none of these is appropriate for the current electronic environment and knowledge society, because the current processes of creating aggregated content packages suitable for a specific course are not only cumbersome, but are Towards the Conceptual Model of a Content Service Network Gobinda Chowdhury Director, Centre for Information and Knowledge Management University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia Gobinda.Chowdhury@uts.edu.au also very much restricted within the prevailing legal and commercial framework. In today’s content market, consumers are forced to simply buy entire works, even if they want to use only a small section of the text. Taking publishing as an example, consumers must either: l buy books and subscribe to journals and then photocopy or scan the granular elements they actually want for physical aggregation and distribution; or l go online from one proprietary site to another and get access to the digital content in different ways, on different terms and conditions, and then attempt to repurpose and distribute extracts of content within the limits of the various different digital rights management systems and licences. Complex and onerous statutory and commercial blanket licensing schemes have been developed to address this market failure. A contested grey economy has been built up by one section of the consumer community in response to the failure to make a legitimate market for content that meets consumers’ needs (Unchaining educational …, 2004). This paper argues that this market failure can be resolved by creating a new knowledge infrastructure which will facilitate creation of a transparent, streamlined, new content service model for a virtual supply chain that addresses consumer demands for seamless access to use and reuse of copyright and copyright free content. Although it is not highlighted as one of the major players in a country’s overall economy, the size of the content industry and its contribution to the economy is quite significant. A somewhat old figure shows that (Eco-Libris, 2007): l Total annual revenues of U.S. book publishers amounts to $26.8 billion (2004 figures)