TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for January, 2007

By David Rothman

“When there’s a lull in my creativity, I honestly pick up who I think is the queen of romance novels—Jane Austen. I know that sounds strange coming from an African-American writer, but I was raised by the classics, and before I even read Richard Wright, my mother made us read Shakespeare and Tolkien. I’m inspired by everything, though.” – Sylvia Hubbard, whose Web sites you can find listed here. Story blog here. Info on Stone’s Revenge novel here.

The TeleRead take: So what book—fiction or nonfiction, classic or not—is your lull-killer?

By Jon Noring

We are making progress on the BookX Project (pronounced “books”), previously known as “SimpleBook.”

The purpose and goals of BookX are outlined in the last TeleRead update from last November.

But to briefly summarize, the BookX system is envisioned to enable “almost push button” conversion of a single and fairly simple master XML document into most, if not all, e-book formats in use today and tomorrow. It is the goal to build a simple system (most, if not all, of which will be open source) to master simpler types of books, such as fiction. We believe BookX will be able to master most of the e-books published by the smaller, independent e-book publishers, who really need a system like this to save them time, effort, guarantee more uniform results, and make it easy to edit and republish their books.

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By Jane Litte

This year, Wiley & Sons celebrates 200 years of publishing. The company is responsible for the wildly popular but oft-criticized “For Dummies” books for which, like Hallmark cards, there is a book for every occasion. Wiley & Sons doesn’t stay in business because it practices old-school publishing tactics. When technology forges ahead, Wiley & Sons strives to adapt. Recently it has begun experimenting with releasing a free e-content version prior to a book’s print debut.

That’s not the only good news from Wiley. Joe Wikert (photo), a vice president and executive publisher in Wiley’s Professional/Trade division, acknowledges that DRM in its present form is hobbling the current e-industry. I like his candor.

Unfortunately, Wikert’s response to a reader complaint about crippling DRM is to send a signed paper copy to the blogger. I would hope that Wiley & Sons’ growth and adaptability can translate into DRM-free content; what better way to help Wiley truly come of age in this increasingly technologically attached society?

By David Rothman

Some of the most honest and useful commentary on e-books, including serious thoughts on DRM and e-formats, comes from the Dear Author site devoted mainly to romance novels.

No stereotypes. We’re even in Geek Girl territory since Jane Litte, one of the Dear Author blog’s two mainstays, does a little PHP. More importantly, Jane loves and cares about e-books, and while never hesitant to give a consumer perspective, she seeks out publishing insiders to get their side. Recently, for example, Jane interviewed Claire Israel of Simon & Schuster and Ann Allessi of HarperCollins.

So in our new incarnation, we’re especially pleased to add Jane to the list of TeleBloggers.

Including an explanation of the “Dear Author” name, here are a few details from Jane—who lives in the Midwest with her husband Ned and a young daughter: (more…)

By Robert Nagle

Recently, I’ve become a big fan of a French music sharing site called Jamendo. All the music is Creative Commons, free for streaming. But if you like an album, you can download it for free via BitTorrent or eMule. So far, the site has 2300+ albums uploaded. For those who thought YouTube’s revenue sharing announcement was a big deal, I say, let’s look instead at Jamendo’s business model:

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By David Rothman

The TeleBlog’s daily readership often surpasses that of LibraryJournal.com and normally exceeds the audience of The Book Industry Standard if you go by Alexa.com. Would you believe, the TeleBlog even beats Publishers Weekly on rare occasions. Check out the numbers yourself.

We may well be the most popular Web blog dedicated to e-book industry news and views, as opposed to, say, mobile news in general. Whether the topic is DRM or Iraq, we’ll generally cover it from an e-book angle, and this focus has helped put us on the map. At various times we’ve drawn links from major sites ranging from Wired News and Slashdot to the New York Times, NPR and the Chronicle of High Education, where we’re on the blogroll of the Wired Campus blog. Boing Boing and the Yale LawMeme have praised us, and if:book and MobileRead also have been gracious.

Problem is, I’ve ended up writing at least 90 percent of the TeleBlog’s posts, and to continue at this rate without an adequate revenue stream is out of the question. Google ads would not do the trick. And with a zillion free news sources out there, a subscription plan doesn’t make sense.

Bottom line: Less of David and ideally more of you

So here’s the deal. Effective immediately, I’ll post only when the muses drive me to it—maybe once or twice a week. I hope other contributors will fill the vacuum. I’ll provide editorial assistance if need be so people can appear here at their best, writing in the TeleBlog’s informal style. So feel free to pitch in with your own articles on relevant topics for a global audience.

Who knows? Maybe in the end the number of posts will increase. I’d love that. My goal is not to be indispensable. (more…)

By Branko Collin

Samsung announced a 7.2 megapixel cam phone last week (photo). Late last year, Nokia announced the N95, a 5 megapixel cam phone. Could these phones be the next gadget for the mobile archivist? Combined with Abbyy OCR software, text versions of the documents scanned this way could even be transmitted to one’s personal ivory tower to be dissected by minions before you get back.

If any of our readers speak Korean, I’d appreaciate a translation of Samsung’s original announcement page, because the Babelfish translation leaves too much to the imagination. So far, I am not even sure this is a phone (although it does seem to have networking capabilities).

Related:

• Next: OCR cellphone ban for the libraries?
• Print-to-speech reader

By David Rothman

One problem with multimedia e-books is that they’re a challenge for low-powered devices such as cell phones and PDAs.

But what if the chips get more powerful and are easier on batteries? And suppose you can read even regular e-books for longer periods of time?

That ultimately could be the bottom line of new developments in chip tech. Check out the details from the New York Times and Ars Technica.

Related: Working in a clean room at Intel, from the company site. “Bunny suit” photo is of an exhibit in the Intel Museum.

By David Rothman

As a hot e-book reader, the $100 laptop excites me. You’ve got to love the tablet shape that it can take, and the display could be a worthy rival for E Ink-style technology. But the OLPC machine has a lot more going for it, even a feed reader for video blogs. See the Coevolving Innovations blog for further info on some fun details.

Of far greater importance, however, from school and library perspectives, is the issue of just what books and other goodies will be available to the Third World children for whom OLPC designed the machines. I’ve given my two cent’s worth, OLPC News has picked up my thoughts, and now Ethan Zuckerman, founder of the IESC Geekcorps, weighs in. I couldn’t agree more with his observations on the need for localization. Another issue also will arise in the content area. The laptop comes bundled with the educational philosophy of constructivism, which many tech-minded educators love, but which could be anathema to tradition-minded teachers in the Third World. OLPC’s insistence on constructivism could be one reason why the project is focused on developing countries without the U.S.’s strong teachers unions.

The $100 laptop’s six categories of content–from e-books to eToys-style apps

Zuckerman, who enjoyed easy access to the OLPCers, reports that the laptop project has six categories of content in mind: textbooks, supplements to enrich them, news-related text and other media, arts and cultural content, special apps in the vein of eToys, and manuals and instruction manuals. If you’ve got time, also read his thoughtful 6,000 worder, Child’s Play – How One Laptop Per Child plans to bring computers to a billion schoolchildren… and a revolution to the computer industry.

Related: OLPC: The First Easy Linux Desktop Distribution and OLPC Classroom Testing in Um Computador por Aluno, Brazil, from OLPC News. For a brief overview of the OLPC project, see today’s Christian Science Monitor. Excerpt: “The next step in turning this techno-dream into a reality begins in February when prototypes of the XO laptop go out to be kid tested in a dozen or so countries from Brazil to Rwanda, Libya to Pakistan.”

By David Rothman

Dear Google: A a very minor stockholder, I hope you’re not counting on a killing from novels read via your E-book Museum approach, which doesn’t permit downloads. Listen to the ladies at DearAuthor.com and their angry readers. The DA headline tells all: I’ve Seen the Vision of the eBook Future via Google and Random House and It Stinks.

Yes, I know: fiction will be just part of your virtual inventory. Still, if a very informal TeleRead poll is representative, even the nonfiction won’t appeal to most people if you and certain publishers insist on an E-book Museum strategy. Better to offer e-book files as well. Hey, museums and libraries are cool, and I love the idea of Web-based boos—but we all like to keep the best reads.

Detail: Google at least lets you download files of free, public domain books, although they’re in a PDF format that is a disaster for handheld users.

Related: Google Adding Maps to Books, Ads to Follow?, from Gizmodo. Also see AP story.

Photo credit: Picture from Zach K, via Creative Commons and Flickr.

By a TeleRead Contributor

I wonder if the upcoming generations of seriously hearing impaired people—mostly from improper use of headsets—will eventually impact on audiobooks.

Or will they just turn up the volume, thereby doing more damage?

Moderator’s pointer to related link: Apple software update will reduce iPod ear threat. Rejoice, audiobook and podcast fans! Looking back, I think that headline was too kind to Apple. – David Rothman

By David Rothman

“It would be far more efficient for publishers to transmit native XML files to Google for ingest.” – Peter Brantley, a newly elected IPDF board member who is executive director of the Digital Library Federation and earlier worked at Random House.

By David Rothman

“I’ve been buying a lot of ebooks lately, which means I also end up surfing onto the websites of many epublishers. I’m boggled by how badly designed some of them are.” – mrsgiggles.com.

By David Rothman

E-books could help the West balance out the trade deficit with China, a point I made earlier. But, no, this hardly a cure for the defict’s root causes—such as unfettered consumerism and the decline of manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe.

Besides, as Joscha Bach writes in from Germany and as I totally agree, it isn’t as if the Chinese are themselves are short of creativity in literature and other areas. After you read this post for a little context, check out the Chinese-originated comedy shown here. Whether the product is a video segment or an e-novel or a better toaster, such innovations will give the Chinese leverage in the fields involved. The more prosperous China becomes, the more appealing its culture will be to the rest of the world. In the copyright area, the bottom line might be less Hollywood influence in the long run. Don’t take it for granted that DMCA- and Bono-style laws will prevail just because U.S. entertainment moguls want them to.

Microsoft’s DRM marketing wedge: Thank you, DMCA

This isn’t to say that copyright and DRM defenders won’t fight back politically, legally and technically. Learn about Microsoft’s Vista-related DRM ambitions. But here in the States and elsewhere, those with a different vision are counterattacking. A new Linux alliance has come about partly out of sensible fears that Microsoft will use proprietary DRM as a marketing wedge, taking advantage, of course, of the anti-circumvention sections of the DMCA.

Meanwhile, as tangible evidence that the United States hardly has a lock on creativity, you might view the hilarious YouTube clip above. As Joscha writes: (more…)

By David Rothman

How does the new N800 from Nokia stack up against the 770 for e-reading? Roger Sperberg is impressed overall with the features of the N800, shown here. But for reading himself to sleep, he’ll stick to the old machine:

…the top-of-the-device rocker button with the + and – zoom is far easier to use on the 770 than the new formation, and this is significant for use of the internet tablet as an e-book reader. You see, FBReader utilizes + and – to advance (or retreat) in the e-text you’re reading, and it’s just plain easier. Not to mention that, sans cover, the 770 weighs only 6 ounces, which is easier to hold up when you’re lying in bed, reading before falling asleep.

So I’m keeping the 770 and my wife gets the N800.

What’s more, here in the States, the 770 will set you back $350 at CompUSA while the N800 costs $50 more.

Related: MobileWack’s roundup on tablets and Mike Cane’s anti-Nokia rant.

(Via Internet Tablet Talk.)

By David Rothman

Eric Dezenhall wrote a pretty entertaining mob novel called Money Wanders.

Now some public-access advocates warn that his pit-bullish PR firm will be spinning some fiction about their efforts to decouple knowledge from money. See Nature article.

Related: Sick on the Great Plains: The perils of ‘efficient’ information policies, a TeleBlog post from August 2003. Also see Is this the end of the scholarly journal? from the Jan. 24 Christian Science Monitor. Among other things, the Monitor notes: “A year ago, the respected US journal Science was forced to retract two papers it had published about stem cells. The articles had been submitted by a South Korean team led by Hwang Woo-Suk. Peer reviewers, as well as the editors, had failed to detect the fraud.”

Related: Dorothea Salo’s follow-up, in the wake of the AAP’s response to the Nature article..

(Dezenhall item spotted via Peter Brantley.)

By David Rothman

“The race to get flexible plastic displays to market is heating up. Philips spin-off Polymer Vision said Wednesday it will work with manufacturer Innos to build its 5-inch flexible, plastic displays.” – Red Herring.

What this could mean to you: Lower-cost e-paper devices from Philips and perhaps others. Note Innos’s interest in nanotech. (more…)