TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Archive for April, 2007

By David Rothman

A female executive can read a steamy romance on a PDA during lunch without the boss finding out. Here’s to the privacy of e-books!

But should libraries protect kids from controversial books on topics such as sex or drugs or other minefields? A tricky issue. In the current LISNews, a medical librarian named David Rothman—not me—points to an AP article mentioning a child who learned to sniff nail polish remover via a p-book checked out from a school library. No reference to E. But you can imagine the possibilities. Will keyword-based filtering soon be a feature of e-book servers for libraries and schools, if it isn’t already? The probability that e-book-friendly OLPC machines (photo) will reach the U.S. schools makes these issues rather timely. I’m not the biggest fan of filtering. On the other hand, should New York schools use the same standards as those in Mississippi? Those are issues to discuss now, before implementation. As I recall, OLPC itself has pondered child-safety issues, but the New York/Mississippi example is just one illustration of the complexities that might arise.

LOC’s new blog

Quite separately in another item, LISNews’ Birdie points to a new blog from LOC communications director Matt Raymond (the image at the end of this post, of course, is from LOC).

It’s about time. I hope the LOC blog has a nice, light personal touch while also pointing to authoritative, substantive information in depth. With that in mind, the library might check out the TeleBlog item on a blog from another august entity, Oxford University Press. Matt Raymond or LOC librarians would do well to invite distinguished experts at LOC, and elsewhere in the library and academic worlds, to contribute. Posts obviously could send e-visitors to resources elsewhere on the library’s server. OUP-style navigation features would allow visitors to head for specialized subjects of interest. Librarian of Congress James Billington is a leading authority on Russian history and politics, and ideally the LOC blog can coax some contributions from him. The blog’s current post is Today in History: Who’s Buried in Grant’s Tomb Edition.

Existing categories are Blogging, Capitol Hill, Congress, Curators, Events, Exhibitions, LC Web site, Libraries, New Visitors Experience, News, Thomas Jefferson Building and Today in History. That’s a good start, but as noted, I hope that the blog can also explore specific topics in the depth that the Oxford Press blog intends to—and the right navigation structure and RSS feeds could make this possible without overwhelming visitors.

Detail: The LOC blog isn’t intended to speak officially for the library. Good. That should help make it much more interesting than otherwise.

By David Rothman

It’s a slow morning so far for e-books, but if you want an idea of what competition books will get from VR worlds, check out a fascinating post in a Second Life blog on physical appearance and SL vs. Real Life.

Hmm. So what would a Jane Austen avatar look like—given all the less-than-complementary remarks in the New York Times?

By David Rothman

From Mary Lou Jepsen’s comments in an OLPC Talks transcript just quoted in OLPC News:

The screen is 7.5 3×4 so it is more 30% more area than the last screen. It’s 200 DPI which [is] about 5 times the resolution of your screen which is 72 probably. Why is 72 5x? Because it’s X and Y.

The reason we went high resolution is part of the justification of the expenditure of government for book replacement. The number one reason we prefer to read on paper rather than on a screen, so it’s stunningly higher resolution, color translucent mode is about 800×600 up to XGA and that is 1024×768, it’s a smaller screen so the pixels are more dense [sic].

The center area of the touchpad is touch-sensitive. Across the whole thing you can write so you can learn to write with a stylus, and that’s the whole length of the screen – 6 inches.

The TeleRead take: With OLPC laptops very possibly destined for oodles of U.S. schools, more kids than ever will grow up accustomed to reading e-books and other texts off screens. Same for other countries. That could be bad news for people in the book business who ignore consumers’ intense dislike of DRM. More and more readers will demand e-books—and without the usual DRM hassles.

Related: Terrific IEEE article on Jepsen, including the above photo.

By David Rothman

Here, from DearAuthor.com. The TeleRead take: Remember, people who buy more than their share of e-books are the most harmed by DRM—well, assuming they don’t boycott “protected” titles. Related: ‘EMI to go DRM-free’ in Apple iTunes deal, ‘but at a price’: Biz model ahead for some e-publishers? from the TeleBlog. Also see Killed By DRM: e-Books, from Wired News’s’s gadget blog.

The other side: A more DRM-friendly perspective from Oxford University Press exec Evan Schnittman. He says Apple’s iTunes shows that a “complete technology sales model” can work even with DRM. My counter-argument would be this. Does the book-industry really want one big player dominating e-book retail to the extent Amazon dominates p-book retail and Apple dominates online music? (more…)

By David Rothman

John Scalzi, Jonathan Lethem, Strobe Talbott, Steve Levy and Kelly Link are among the videoed participants in the Authors@Google series. That’s a self-altered photo of Scalzi, by the way.

The series, says the official Google blog, covers topics ranging “from literary fiction to science fiction, sociology to technology, politics to business.” Not everyone’s appearance in the series, apparently, is viewable—I couldn’t find a Martin Amis video from it, for example.

Related: Online home of the Authors@Google project and the YouTube video archive for it. Also see Techmeme roundup. Speaking of Amis, see a The Amis Inheritance in the New York Times Magazine.

Also of interest to lit-lovers: Martin Chabon feature in today’s Times. What if Sitka, Alaska, had ended up a Jewish homeland? That’s the super-intriguing premise of his latest novel—The Yiddish Policemen’s Union. Unfortunately, I don’t see an e-edition listed yet on the HarperCollins site. Meanwhile enjoy a Simpsons spoof on Chabon vs. Jonathan Franzen and the art of blurb-rolling.

By David Rothman

“I’m guessing ole Tom’s trickery is not a sustainable model for encouraging mass collaboration in a 21st century business venture.” – Blogging Wikinomics—with follow-up in today’s New York Times.

So, gang, what do you think? Paint the TeleBlog’s fence—while keeping in mind that this one is noncommercial.

As I see it, there’s room for both fence models and the traditional variety. What I hate, though, is the idea of corporations building business plans around the idea of not paying regular contributors for tasks such as routine newsgathering. The fence-painters need to be driven by passion. “Hey, Tom, I don’t enjoy pure white, but how about letting me mix it up with some creative graffiti?”

Related: Wikipedia item—ideally passion-drive!—on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

By David Rothman

PDF Annotator was the topic of a brief TeleBlog item.

But reader Joseph Gray reports finding a free alternative, PDF-XChange viewer. It isn’t as easy to use but offers much more than just annotation: “View, Print, Export Text & Images and add content to PDF files.”

Tracker Software, he says, will soon add a highlighter pen, not just one for drawing—as well as “deleting of drawing objects, sticky notes and typewriter text without having to select an annotation tool first.” In addition, at his suggestion, Tracker is considering a way for users to choose which customized buttons appear in the toolbars. Big thanks, Joe!

Important: I have not tried PDF-XChange and would urge the usual caution. I don’t know the spyware situation here—whether it’s a risk. There is also a Pro version selling for $70 with more features. Feedback welcome on both the free and paid versions!

Related: Alfred Poor’s review of an older version of the Pro version.

By David Rothman

“OLPC added a new country this week: the USA. This move will engage a wider developer community, impacting and improving software and content. Please note that such a move into schools and learning in the USA is not necessarily a commercial machine.” – Walter Bender, an OLPC official, to an email list.

The TeleRead take: I don’t know if you can use the machine in the bathtub, but computing in the rain is no prob. “On a rainy day in Boston,” OLPC says, the organization’s Mary Lou Jepsen “decided to let the BBC film her testing the XO in a downpour. She worked with the laptop for an hour in the pouring rain while they filmed; both she and the laptop got drenched. XO worked fine; the crew were to be able to see the screen clearly outside—it was bright despite the rain.” Any Sony Reader users care to try this? Hey, my Palm TX isn’t built for computin’ in the rain, either.

Not necessarily a machine for adults: Keep in mind the size of the OLP laptop’s keyboad—designed for a child. But the basic technology is out there for Quanta, OLPC’s vendor, to use in similar hardware.

About the photo: Green seems to be the color being played up in OLPC’s PR. But isnt’ this red fun? Let’s hope it’s an option. Photo shows it being used as a tablet—great for e-book reading, when you combine this with the sharp screen.

Related: Don’t think OLPC laptops could end up in U.S. schools? Think again.

(Found via Bill Janssen’s post to the eBook Community list—different from the one to which Walter Bender posted.)

By a TeleBlog Contributor

“Orion Group is to publish its first e-book next year—most likely as an exclusive with Waterstones.com—and Macmillan has also taken its first digital steps outside the academic world, quietly making around 40 mass-market titles available in e-book form” (links added). So reports Publishing News. Photo is of Meg Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries series, which Macmillian will publish in E

Two interesting wrinkles:

• “We have the digital rights management software in place to block access from territories where we don’t have rights” PN quotes Mark Stay, an Orion account manager. “It seemed a good idea to publish it as an e-book first. It seemed the natural way to do it. I don’t think e-books are going to take off until you have an iPod equivalent and you have students using it for all their books. But we want to be ready and I’m sure we’ll learn from the experience.”
• Web 2.0 (”expose of how a strange group of young opportunists, chancers and geniuses found instant fame and fortune by messing about on the web”) will be released a year from now as an e-book before it’s a paperback. Please note some publishers such as S&S, here in the States, are already using e-books to preview p-books.

(Via GalleyCat.

By a TeleBlog Contributor

“Adobe InDesign CS3 now supports the direct generation of OCF-packaged OPS content,” reports IDPF exec director Nick Bogaty. More info on InDesign here. Info on the new feature here. “You can export a document or book as a reflowable XHTML-based eBook that is compatible with the Adobe Digital Editions reader software” (link added).

By David Rothman

Update 2007/04/28, 11:59 MDT: The OpenReader site is back online, and the “malware” has been removed. Somehow a bunch of links to bad sites and a bad-actor counter got added. They’ve been removed with the help of James “KodeKrash” Linden, who is also now tracking down how the bad stuff got there in the first place. He says avoid using canned CMS like Mambo if possible, a sentiment with which I agree. Now to get the Google bad flag removed for all search results which bring up OpenReader pages. – Jon Noring

Badware has infested the OpenReader site, and it’s down to protect visitors. Earlier I suspended my efforts for OpenReader for unrelated reasons, but I hope that founder Jon Noring can get the site cleaned up and online again. Any security-savvy volunteers ready to help him?

The bigger picture: OpenReader badly needs to end up in the hands of librarians or others with an interest in getting the IDPF to do standards for real—that could be a new mission for the group. Hello, Peter Brantley and friends?

By David Rothman

OLPC’s growing closeness to Microsoft could have a major positive—more interest in the K-12-optimized laptop for use in U.S. schools and libraries.

It’s up to Bill Gates. Will Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, which he and his wife control, kindly adjust to the idea of econo-computers?

If so, given the importance of the Microsoft brand name to many educators and librarians, then this could significantly speed up adoption of the machine. And that in turn could be catnip for e-bookdom in some ways—since, as shown here, the laptop can double as a tablet, with the right ergonomics for books.

The political terrain

Certainly it would appear that U.S. politicians are eager, and now OLPC itself is suggesting that the laptop for developing countries might also reach the States after all. Voila! TeleReaders, so to speak—in line with the vision of the early ’90s. (more…)

By David Rothman

Wilson Rothman—no known relative, although gadget-love might just be in the Rothman genes—has the details at Gizmodo. Also see AP/Chicago Trib.

The TeleRead take: I’ll worry less about the price increase—sooner or later the $100 laptop will live up to its name—than about the darker side of the growing closeness to Microsoft. Will Redmond-style DRM follow in time? Will linux suffer, given all the money that Bill G can throw in? (more…)

By David Rothman

David Haskin decried—with justification—DRM and eBabel and other reasons why e-books have fallen short of expectations. Now another Computerworld columnist, Mike Elgan (photo), has spoken up, in an article headlined Why e-books are bound to fail. It’s already drawn a response.

Ironically, Computerworld is where I first published the TeleRead plan, which would have addressed the issue of consumer costs—mentioned in the article—and a host of other questions. Frustratingly, Elgan focuses on the here and now and in the end comes up with such gems as that most people prefer the touch of p-books. As if zillions of children aren’t growing up accustomed to reading off screens! Oh, well. Imagine how the traditionalists felt years ago about the Web. I’m pleased it’s around to help refute misconceptions like Elgan’s.

Related: 45 percent sales boost in e-books in February compared to ‘06, but still a speck of p-book rev. Why I dislike DRM and other problems with today’s e-books, that doesn’t mean the industry is bound to fail. Time, please. A veteran technology writer like Elgan, of all people, ought to understand that.

By David Rothman

Jack Valenti, one of the planet’s foremost copyright zealots as president of the Motion Picture Association of America, is dead after a stroke at age 85.

He had a good side, too, including some kindness he showed to me personally when he blurbed a XyWrite guide I’d written. And he’ll be widely missed in Hollywood and elsewhere. The Valanti-promoted ratings system for films was far from optimal, but it could have been worse, and it helped keep at bay some of the Bible-thumpers who would have wanted to censor everything. What’s more, he could be surprisingly open minded about copyright-related matters such as the Creative Commons concept and J.D. Lasica’s Darknet book.

That said, it was always rather spooky—the way Jack and his ilk kept talking about eternal or near eternal copyright: “forever, minus a day,” as he put it. The debate, of course, will long outlast the mortal Valenti.

Now that he dwells in eternity of one kind or another, maybe he’ll get a chance to see if his copyright dreams are realized. As both a writer and reader, I hope not.

Related: Washington Post on Valenti: Obit and photo gallery and appreciation.

By David Rothman

“One thing that’s happening in journalism is that there are pressures to keep it short—as in KISS (Keep It Short, Stupid). There’s certainly a place for that. But it’s gone too far. I’ve always believed there’s a place for the longer form.” – Dan Rather in a PC Magazine interview—available as both a transcript and a video.

The TeleRead take: Amen! Granted, Rather is with an HDTV startup specializing in in-depth reporting, but he has something there, and it applies to the Web, not just television. As a reader I care less about the length of an item than (1) the signal-to-noise ratio and (2) how well organized it is. (more…)

By David Rothman

“The Mobipocket Reader will be available on the iRex iLiad ER 0100 from April 30, 2007 onwards.” – News release received in the last few minutes. I’ll reproduce it in full. Related: Earlier item on what this means in the iRex-vs.-Sony battle. (more…)