SCOPESince the advent of the Web the processes and forms of electronic publishing have been changing. The Open Access movement has been a major driver of change in recent years in regard to scholarly communication. However, on other fields of application, such as e-government or e-learning, the changes are also evident. These are, in most cases, driven by technological advances, but there are many cases where social reality change pushes technology development. The social and the mobile Web and linked data are currently shaping the edge of research on digital publishing. Liquid publishing is on the more daring agendas. Digital Preservation is an issue that poses great challenges, still far from solved. The legal issues, security and trust continue to deserve our full attention.  We need new visualization techniques and Innovative Interfaces that keep pace with the global dimension of information. This is the current scenario, but what will follow? What technologies and social and communication paradigms will we be discussing in ten or twenty years?Elpub 2012 will be focusing on the social shaping of digital publishing by exploring the interplay between culture and technology. This is why we are doing it in the European Capital of Culture for 2012, Guimarães.