TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for January, 2006

By David Rothman

The guy down in that small Southern town–the place with a thirty percent illiteracy rate–chatted with me yesterday about e-books and other do-goodin’ stuff. We’re thinking Last Mile, the whole works, and inevitably WiFi came up. It turns out that Florida has a horrible law–industry-bought, of course–that can possibly wreak havoc on jurisdictions trying to do WiFi.

So what’s the lesson for e-books? Well, in the cases of both WiFi and e-books, laws have been used to bolster short-term commercial interests, harming the long-term interests of even the companies themselves. Far from cutting out commercial WiFi providers, MuniFi should be a nice market for those able to adapt. None other than Earthlink, hardly a bastion of socialism, is serving the city of Philadelphia. No need for Earthlink itself to do huge advertising expenditures to convince people to take out overpriced subscription! Too bad other Pennyslvania localities will face the obstacle of a law somewhat in the Florida vein. MuniFi and ad-supported WiFi are far, far more logical and sustainable as business models than the gouge-based type. MuniFi just isn’t that expensive compared to its benefits in areas ranging from K-12 to business development.

Now on to the e-book parallel. Think about the DMCA police mentality and the onerous anti-piracy measures that some e-book-related companies have imposed on consumers–initially thinking that convenience wouldn’t matter so much, now that the law was so obliging. (more…)

By David Rothman

The library world has been kicking around the definition of Library 2.0 and what’s truly new. Meanwhile Rochelle has a pretty good take on 2.0 from a somewhat different perspective–as part of a discussion on libraries and the concept of community.

Ideally the library world will spend a little less time spelling out the details of “new”–and a lot more time discussing specific ways for Library 2.0 to come about as a community-builder to augment the old-fashioned brick, mortar and sneaker variety.

As Rochelle correctly sees it, an important part of Library 2.0 is the ability of readers to “discuss and annotate and share.” This is “all about communing, about collaboration, albeit without literal perambulation. I don’t think one necessarily needs to move one’s legs in order to keep the ideas flowing.” Exactly! A Christian Science Monitor commentary, blind to the potential of e-books and other technology as community builders, is way off.

But how actually to implement various 2.0-related concepts, new or not? As a civilian, I would like to see librarians more about particulars such as, “What kinds of embedded in-book discussions or what kinds of catalog entries need moderation?” Less term-parsing, please–and more practicality! In fact, instead of thinking, “What do we need to do to get The Library 2.0 seal of approval,” librarians should think, “What specific services do our patrons need, and how do we make them happen?”

By David Rothman

Here, from Slashdot. That’s good news for OpenReader since we want to an OpenOffice plug-in to serve as a creation tool for individuals and small publishers.

By David Rothman

“According to the Lowell Sun, U.S. Rep Marty Meehan’s staff has been heavily editing his Wikipedia bio, among other things removing criticisms.” – Slashdot.

By David Rothman

“Assume the industry successfully establishes an XHTML-based reflowable document format based on the evolution of OEB, with an associated single-file container package with pluggable DRM, then I see no strong raison d’etre for Mobi, BBeB, or any of the other OEB-derivative eBook formats to hang around forever. That doesn’t mean BBeB will go away overnight and indeed Sony has discussed taking steps to make it more open and accessible, but in the long run I believe the momentum behind interoperable XML-based formats is unstoppable.” – Adobe exec Bill McCoy. Related: MobileRead reaction.

By David Rothman

Over at Scobleizer and Business 2.0/CNN, they’re mentioning the TeleBlog’s observations on cellphones vs. MIT’s laptop project for Third World kids.

Robert Scoble says he can read better off a nice, big screen–but that when he goes to London he sees folks reading with phones, not laptops. He himself reads “thousands of words per day on my cell phone.” Heck, Robert, that’s cool, but with a larger screen it might be tens of thousands of words. Furthermore, typical TV screens, which billg wants used with cellphones via adapters, are excruciatingly fuzzy now and probably will be in the near future in the Third World.

Of course I’m wildly enthusiastic about efforts to reach the poor either way and am delighted to see partnerships between e-book-sellers/libraries and phone companies–or plain Web access to e-books via phones. Give people a choice. I just favor the laptop one. (more…)

By David Rothman

Bill Gates is talking about using not laptops but cell phones with TV and keyboard connections to get Third World kids online.

Me, I’d much prefer MIT’s $100 laptop approach since it’ll lend itself better to e-books. Typical TV screens now lack the resolution that the MIT approach will offer. Hey, I appreciate billg’s broaching the topic of a cellphone-TV duo. But from a literacy perspective, the MIT plan is much better. Besides, what about places in the Third World that are beyond locals TV signals, and where the poor can’t afford satellite dishes?

(Via the New York Times.)

By David Rothman

Adobe e-book boss Bill McCoy just can’t stop. This is a hoot–a giant Proprietary Formatter like Adobe going on a jihad against the OpenReader Consortium for supposedly not being open enough. As a board member of the clubby International Digital Publishing Forum, the Smoke-Filled Room of e-bookdom, Bill should quit before he embarrasses himself yet again.

Thanks to Bill, however, for thousands of dollars in PR. Buddy, you’ve crossed the Rubicon. No longer can you credibly deny now that OpenReader counts. Meanwhile latecomers should check out earlier posts from OpenReader founder Jon Noring and me.

We’re talking about a very dark pot calling a white kettle black. For one of Adobe’s e-book bosses, Bill’s posts on OpenReader have been just plain bizarre, not to mention hypocritical. Remember the purpose of standards–to increase interoperability, encourage competition and drive down costs. Is Adobe a paragon? If so, why does the world need both PDF/A and the continued existence of a proprietary format?

Openness vs. today’s Real McCoy

By contrast, OpenReader is–well, open–and will slash production costs and allow DRM options far cheaper and more flexible than present ones for publishers. We’re looking for a respected, mainstream standards body without all the silly politics of today’s IDPF and the cumbersome bureaucracy of some other bodies. Careful, Bill. We may have a surprise up our sleeves–an unexpected brand-name choice that will make the whole cosmos feel very comfortable, maybe even the Real McCoy. (more…)

By David Rothman

“Best-selling science fiction and fantasy author Darrell Bain is the 2005 Fictionwise E-book Author of the Year. Mr. Bain is one of the top selling authors at Fictionwise and his works maintained an extremely high average rating from Fictionwise members. Authors Lois McMaster Bujold and Anne McCaffrey were second and third, respectively. Mr. Bain’s books also outsold such notables as Stephen King, Michael Connelly, Michael Crichton, and other nationally known authors whose books appeared in electronic form as well as in print.” – News release.

By David Rothman

Do you live in a small, rural community, and are you extremely interested in bringing free e-books to it, including perhaps some modern titles at the popular level–not just classics?

LibraryCity would like to hear from you. Just yesterday, a small Southern community contacted me–a place where the illiteracy rate is 30 percent and the income level is a long way from that of Palm Beach.

In the past, I would have said, “No, we’re still gearing up.” But thanks to our new relationship with the LINCT Coalition, we have more resources now.

LINCT and LibraryCity can’t do the majority of the work–our basic role at present will be advisory. But we will have specific ideas to help you get going with a no-frills approach, using donated computers, easy-to-install software, local volunteers and a very valuable concept called Time Dollars.

E-mail me at my LibraryCity address. Yes, if your community is not rural or small, we’d still love to hear from you. As LibraryCity’s exec director, I’m just thinking that “small” is a great place to start. (more…)

By Jon Noring

Bill McCoy of Adobe has challenged the “openness” of the OpenReader Framework specification that the OpenReader Consortium is now developing. Some of his points I agree with — others I don’t.

I won’t analyze everything he wrote; this is a commentary, not a novel. Instead I will focus on a few of his major claims. Meanwhile I’ll remind the Biblically inclined of Proverbs 18:17, which admonishes everyone to get all the facts, from different perspectives, before deciding on anything.

Now, first, let me thank Adobe for the informal, unofficial technical advice already provided for the OpenReader format — both the framework and the associated encapsulator/container.

Brilliant contributions from Adobe

I’m especially appreciative of a few contributions to the OpenReader format from Jon Ferraiolo, a senior computer scientist at Adobe. He is an editor of the SVG specification, which OpenReader plans to support in its Framework.

JonF (and I’m known as JonN) reminds me of several of the brilliant people I observed who authored the original OEBPS Specification in 1999. Adobe as a company does not currently support the OpenReader Consortium, but with people like JonF, I hope that it will. (more…)

By David Rothman

“Forty-eight university libraries in Taiwan and Hong Kong have purchased more than 50,000 OCLC NetLibrary eBooks under an extraordinary cooperative agreement that crosses geographical boundaries.” – OCLC news release.

By David Rothman

Here. Enjoy! The screen shots and other photos are most impressive. And on the CompuUSA site, early user reaction seems to be upbeat despite some glitches reported elsewhere by 770 booster Mike Cane.

By David Rothman

“If this was law a few years ago, the entire digital music movement would have been stopped in its tracks.” – Marc Kantor in USA Today.

By David Rothman

You know you’ve arrived when the big boys start attacking you directly and in public. Bill McCoy, an Adobe executive involved with e-pub activities, has honored the OpenReader format with some criticism that is already a tad obsolete. He is belittling OpenReader as “NoringOSoftReader”–a proprietary creature of OpenReader Executive Director Jon Noring and OSoft, the first implementer. His blog denies he’s doing that; but from the tone, he might as well be.

Bill, the OpenReader Consortium is already shopping around for a recognized standards group. Jon wanted a stand-alone approach similar to the model of the very reputable Digital Radio Mondiale. I said, “No, let’s blend in our actual standards-setting with an existing organization to avoid B.S. from Proprietary Formatters trying to confuse the issue.” And this week, in fact, before I saw your post, we decided to approach such groups after having earlier considered this. Stay tuned.

OSoft’s just the first implementer: Care to do the same, Bill?

Moreover, anyone can build an OpenReader; that’s the whole idea. We’ll be delighted to see Adobe and other Proprietary Formatters join the Consortium and take standards seriously. No, we’ve hardly been bashful about giving Adobe a chance to do its own implementation of the standard. What happened, Bill? You were even supposed to send a guy out to Utah to meet with Jon. Did your bosses thwart you? In your heart of hearts, we’re convinced, you mean well. You’ve already talked about the desirabilty of an MP3 for e-books. That’s us, with our standards-based XML/CSSish approach. (more…)

By David Rothman

From Dan Jackson in the U.K. Thanks, Dan!

I just listened to the first episode of the AnimeOnDVD.com podcast, and among other things they said that Tokyopop has plans to make manga (Japanese comics) available on the new Sony Reader.

This strikes me as a pretty good move, because the sort of people who buy manga and graphic novels tend also to be the kind of people who would have sufficient disposable income to buy the Reader. Though with its native JPEG support, I wonder whether Reader-using manga fans might not simply turn to “scanlations” to avoid the burdens of DRM.

The name is derived from “scans” + “translations.” These are fan-translated versions of manga which are illegally made available for download on the Internet.

Related: Robert Nagle on comics in e format. Also: other articles on the Sony Reader.

By David Rothman

“When you infect a music CD with malicious anti-copying software, how long can you expect it to work for? Unlike most software, music CDs are liable to be loaded into computers decades after they’re pressed; can an anti-copying program anticipate the state of computers in twenty years and ensure that their programs won’t destabilize computers in the future?” – Cory Doctorow.

The TeleRead take: I continue to dislike DRM in any medium, but hope for a compromise between content providers and the rest of the planet. Within e-bookdom, sane format and DRM standards wouldn’t lead to a nirvana, but they could tremendously help address problems such as “future-proofing.” So could systematic archiving and voluntary registration for owners interested in guaranteed future access. For privacy reasons, registration must be voluntary.

Related: Cory’s “Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup:” Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V. Also see DRM for librarians (PDF alert), via LISNews and the Library Journal Tech Blog.