Carly and I are visiting her parents in Statesville, North Carolina (pop. 23,320) at the junction of Interstates 40 and 77, north of Charlotte. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of textile jobs have fled Iredell County, of which Statesville is the seat. Almost seven percent of workers are unemployed.

Just imagine the boost that better Net connections--and content via TeleRead, including vocational training materials in both text and multimedia forms--could offer business and education. The business leaders of Statesville, as the promotional magazine at the left shows, are trying some PR to woo new employers. And I wish them luck. People here are indeed hardworking and friendly, and Statesville has even won honors in the past for its business climate. For me, however, spoiled by a cable modem back home, and perhaps also for some executives mulling over Statesville as a possible new plant location, this is Internet Hell.

Right now, due to a Third World phone connection, I can't get more than 28K through either of the two national Net providers that I use for dialup--even though the network nodes supposedly are 56K. This is another reminder of the need for universal and affordable high-speed Net access. DSL and cable and other forms of broadband aren't just godsends for multimedia. They're also helpful for serious issue-oriented blogging and many other consumer-related uses. Just as importantly, broadband can speed up the exchange of large Computer Aided Design files and other applications, especially for small businesses that can't afford satellite links to bypass the sorry terrestrial connections I'm suffering right now.

From research to proofing (whoops--I noticed some repeat paragraphs in the "Apathy" item and have just cleaned up the mess), everything suffers with a slow connection. I won't even think of downloading new software. While high-speed access is available commercially in small towns like this one, some people are thoroughly disgusted, if the user reviews at BroadBandrank.com are any indication. The reviews come from all over the country but are not a large, scientific sample. Still, they vividly show that to have high-speed DSL or cable access promised on a contract isn't always the same as having it in reality. It isn't just dialup users who can suffer in Statesville and elsewhere.

But what if our Statesvilles could enjoy advanced-fiber speeds, not just cable and DSL speeds--and perhaps a big Wi-Fi bubble, too? I'm highly intrigued by Larry Lessig's fiber-related column in Wired, Fiber to the People: When customers own the network, everyone wins. The column isn't just about theory--it's about an actual project underway in Burlington, Vermont. Who knows, if high-speed costs were low enough for even casual users, my elderly Carolina relatives might finally hook up to the Net, and then my modem wouldn't have to journey back to the 1990s. Imagine, too, the benefits for high-tech entrepreneurs who just might want to avoid Charlotte's higher real estate prices. If nothing else, Statesville should think of business executives as residential users, too. Do high-tech CEOs--and, yes, Statesville and Iredell want tech businesses, not just more chicken pens--really want their children to grow up in a Net-backwards area?

Compared to test scores from many other districts, by the way, those of the Iredell-Statesville schools aren't a disaster. But they could be better with faster net connections and a wider variety of content online, given the close relationship between achievement in school and the number of books available at home (which TeleRead could vastly increase, especially for lower-income householders, where this really matters). At the same time Iredell-Statesville could blend those new national resources into existing community efforts and encourage whole families to read. Books online aren't worth squat to typical students if the right local backup isn't there. As with telecom, we're talking about coordinated local, state and national efforts. Interestingly, 67 percent of the 2001-2002 expenditures of North Carolina schools came from state rather than local taxpayers. So North Carolina, at least, already Gets It in terms of the needs to spread the resources around to reduce the famous Savage Inequalities. At the same time, compared to wealthier states, the money isn't there--hence, the appeal of a national approach such as TeleRead, which, by driving down the costs of books, could benefit even Beverly Hills and Bethesda.

With or without the Net or local benefits from a well-stocked national digital library system in the TeleRead vein, Statesville has much to offer in terms of its people and its strategic location at the I-40/I-77 intersection. Imagine, though, how much better the town could do if it were as convenient on the electronic superhighway as it is on the concrete varieties. We're not just talking about high-tech jobs, but also the old-fashioned kind in this era of highly networked, just-in-time manufacturing--and the accompanying need for well-prepared workers.

Needed for Statesville: a modern home page for the city government: Take a look at the page. Hardly any graphics. Like my modem, this site is trapped in the 1990s--perhaps in part due to the low speeds that so many people around here must suffer. Statesville is keen on luring new industry, and one wonders: Just what kind of an impression does this functional but primitive Web site make on the Fortune 500 outfits that the city and its business people are trying to lure? A slick magazine is good, but no replacement for a modern official Web site--and, more importantly, a good electronic infrastructure to go along with all the ballyhoo.

One encouraging detail: Either on its own or because of a Media General policy, the Statesville Record and Landmark publishes the e-mail addresses of reporters along with their bylines (at least in the printed version). It isn't as if no one around here uses the Net. But the issue is quality of access, not just quantity. Don't average Statesville citizens deserve more than merely e-mail and s-l-o-w Web browsing?

Telecom specifics: My in-laws' local phone service is from LecStar, presumably relying on BellSouth's infrastructure. In the past I've actually enjoyed better dialup Net connections in Statesville than right now, but even then they've lagged behind the equivalents in the Washington, DC, area. While high-speed access is the real solution in the long run, Statesville would do well to worry about the here and now. It and other places in North Carolina should force phone companies to think of of Internet access as the norm. With the hassles involved in getting good service, it's no wonder that Statesville-like towns are behind large cities and suburbs in Net usage. The Vermont approach isn't a panacea--but could help where sufficient local interest existed among civic leaders, business people and educators.

Something nice about N.C. Sen. John Edwards: While he's still wimping out on net copyright, like just about all the Democratic candidates and certainly George Bush, I'm delighted to see him depict rural broadband as a priority, just so he'll indeed stand up against the likes of Bell South and consider innovative approaches such as the Vermont one advocated by Prof. Lessig. The federal government should encourage cities that, like Burlington, Vermont, want to take infrastructure issues into their own hands while at the same time creating opportunities for the private sector. Knowing the realities of PACs, I'm thinking that perhaps arrangements could be made with the Bells and the like to pay 'em off one way or another so they wouldn't feel threatened. Yes, the Bells have plenty invested in existing infrastructure. But if Statesville and the rest of America are to thrive in the 21st century, we move to on to fiber optics, wi-fi, voice-over-the-Net and TeleRead. Ideally Edwards and other policymakers can come up with enough specifics, and actions, to back up their broadband rhetoric and related promises on issues such as jobs and education.
posted by David Rothman at 9:30 AM | permanent link

Today's New York Times carries a story about Ditson Garcia, a whiz of a CompUSA sales rep in Emeryville, California. A Bay area businessman, for example, intended to buy just a mouse and ended up with a $600 flat panel display, too, along with other items, bringing his total to nearly $1,000.

So here's the deal. Maybe Microsoft, Adobe and Palm and other major members of the Proprietary Format Promoters' Forum can arrange with CompUSA to pick Mr. Garcia's brains. They can ask this guy to give coupons to PDA-buyers for steeply discounted e-books, with the understanding that the customers will speak up about any issues involving DRM, format conflicts and the rest. I suspect that Ditson Garcia would hear his share of complaints. The e-bookers might gain a new understanding from him of why the industry is moving no more than a pathetic $10 million or so in books a year--a fraction of Tom Clancy's income.

But that shouldn't be where the experiment ends. See if, from the front lines, Ditson Garcia has ideas to make e-books more palatable to the public. Or will he throw up his hands because, with the present DRM approaches and Tower of eBabel, this is Mission Impossible? My hunch is that PalmDigitalMedia e-books might fare better than the others because the company's DRM is less obnoxious than, say, Microsoft's. Still, even in PalmDigital's case, plenty might be learned from an actual retail situation in the flesh. This could be the equivalent of 100 focus group sessions.

Glossy paper e-book catalogues: Anyone know if the e-book business is arranging for colorful e-book catalogues to be included in the boxes of PDAs sold in stores and otherwise--yes, the old-fashioned pulped-wood variety of catalogues? Slick, glossy catalogues, perhaps on CompUSA shelves, too, could be one way to reach the semi-Luddites. Ditson Garcia just might have some thoughts on the matter. Please note that CompUSA charges vendors for placement, so that's how the arrangement could make sense from the chain's perspective. As for sales reps, it isn't as if e-books would have to be part of their commission--rather they would be one more way to show the usefulness of PDAs, Tablet PCs and so on. Speaking of which: E-bookers should arrange for actual e-books to be loaded on demo units and for sales reps to be encouraged to show them to customers. This could happen as an experiment in certain stores in the Bay area and others with a higher-than-usual interest in books and presumably e-books.

The caveat: Of course, I continue to believe that Microsoft cares more about the DRM religion than about moving e-books. But I'm open-minded. Microsoft's sincere participation in an experiment like the above would be one way of helping to disprove my theory.

The library angle: Needless to say, the industry might also consider working closely and systematically with librarians to observe the behavior of e-book users close up--in Real Life. This would require some flexibility on the part of the librarians, too. Quite properly they're concerned about commercialism. The project would have to be multivendor and genuinely consider the needs of librarians and their patrons (libraryspeak for "users"). Yes, some library-oriented experiments have happened in the States and France, but the industry is still rather out of touch with the needs of libraries.

Why all this talk about adjusting to the status quo: TeleRead favors the national digital library model for e-books. But (1) much of the wisdom learned from retail situations will apply to libraries, too, (2) e-books will never take off with any model unless there is a demand for them, and (3) it would be wrong to have the library model alone, given the need for other models to maintain full freedom of expression, not to mention the virtues of competition.
posted by David Rothman at 7:39 AM | permanent link

George Soros and relatives are big supporters of the Democratic Party. And guess what? His Free Expression Policy Project has released a report that is critical of the Sonny Bono Act and the DMCA. In fact, the Project even links to the TeleRead site.

The TeleRead take: Does this mean Soros is on the good guys' side? I don't know. But as with Steve Bing, Net activists should not automatically give up. In my opinion, the Democratic Party will deal with copyright issues the way its big donors wish. The party is no longer so grass-rootsy, regardless of all the fuss over Howard Dean, and has more than a few professional hacks to feed. If Terry McAuliffe and friends sense that the super-rich are finally grasping the size of the gap between the DMCA-Bono duo and the standard liberal causes, then the Dems just may turn around. No miracles seen immediately ahead! But given that the Dems are bought, it would be wise for copyright activists to try to enlighten the actual owners rather than just focusing on mere politicians.

Take Soros, a survivor of Nazism and Communism in Hungary. Don't merely throw the standard anti-DMCA rhetoric at him. Instead tell him, truthfully, how DCMAism's Big Brotherish approach will be terrific for rationalizing the actions of dictators abroad. Just months ago, the RIAA saw fit to track down and go after a 12-year-old girl in a housing project; and, even worse, the copyright fanatics want the federal government at the taxpayers' expense to seek out alleged infringers without the private sector even having to speak up. This is just one of the many copyright-related outrages in the Bush-favored FTAA treaty--see Article 4.6, which, according to IP Justice, allows "Criminal Charges Without the Need for a Private Complaint." Sooner or later DMCAish laws may well be used against political enemies in the States and abroad--the proposed treaty is a civil libertarian's nightmare. If I were Soros, I just might be willing to give a DMCA-hip law professor a few minutes to explain the potential for abuse of the already-abusive DMCA and related legislation--both existing and contemplated.

The fact that the next Jack Valenti will most likely be a Republican, as reported on CNBC and in the LA Times, could in time make a DMCA reversal all the more palatable to the Democrats if activists can successfully educate the right people--including, of course, the richest. No saints expected among billionaires. But the Bono Act and the DMCA are sleazy enough to be embarrassing even by Wall Street and Hollywood standards.

Related: Kudos to Rep. Kucinich for speaking out against the abuse of copyright to silence free speech. More via Copyfight. Now to encourage plenty of other politicians of both parties to do the same. Campaign cash could go a long way in the casesof less idealistic legislators.
posted by David Rothman at 4:06 PM | permanent link

Read Gary North's funny essay about paper-fixated Luddites--complete with a StarTrek reference that inspired the essay's title. (Found via eBookAd.)
posted by David Rothman at 2:10 PM | permanent link

Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota wants an e-mail tax. Just what we need to encourage democracy from many-to-many communications, huh? Guess it's time for the inevitable historical comparison.
posted by David Rothman at 11:04 AM | permanent link

Self e-publishers and perhaps even the commercial variety might check out BannersAndCovers.com. E-book covers are $22, e-zine covers are $18, software boxes are $29, and banners are $14. I have not tried the service myself, and perhaps there are catches. However, the samples look professional (see left), and the testimonials seem rather convincing. E-mail me if you do use the service and want to share your opinion.

Caveat: While professional, the covers I saw were still no competition for the best work from major publishers. Look at the example above; I myself don't like the way the word "Marketing" goes right against the guy's belly, and I've got other criticisms, too. Obviously you'll want to supervise the artist carefully. Just the same, the price-quality ratio is fine, especially for short how-to e-books where the total investment won't be that great anyway. Check out a much-better-looking sample.

Public-domain-related idea: I'd prefer to see classics online with their original covers. But that isn't always possible. If the money were available, might Project Guteberg strike up a relationship someday with a service like this--provided that the covers would fit in with the periods in which the books were written? With bandwidth and storage in mind, readers could be given a choice of browsing the collection or downloading books with or without covers. Whatever the case, I believe that public domain e-book sites would do well to offer more graphics for those wanting them.

posted by David Rothman at 8:54 AM | permanent link

Fascinating, isn't it? The new Adobe Reader 6.0 for desktop and laptops has been out for months, and yet we still lack a fresh update for the Pocket PC to replace the old PPC Reader, which can't display files created with 6.0 enhancements.

Talk about format chauvinism and disdain for customers! Adobe says it'll come out with a fresh PPC version if there is demand. Just how knuckleheaded can those people get? The line from an Adobe guy in September was that "We are looking into supporting e-books on the Pocket PC." Just looking? It's November, and I still haven't heard anything different even though the natives are growing restless. As one puts it, "I write on a computer; I read in a hammock. Please get with it, Adobe."

When it comes to open-mindedness about rivals' products, along with the needs of wrong-branded users, Adobe apparently must rely on Microsoft for inspiration. Perhaps for masochistic people wanting to read e-books in Adobe format, Microsoft can act out of character and come out with "Pocket Adobe."

Of course, the real solution is a Universal Consumer Format, ideally based on the existing OeBPS approach used at the production level, so consumers no longer need to put up with stupid excuses from the hyperproprietary folks. Plus, UCF reading software could offer users more control over the display of e-books than do the proprietary products.

The Palm angle: Yes, Adobe did update the Palm version--perhaps unavoidably, due to the popularity of the OS on hand helds. But, at least as of last month, the Palm version couldn't read PDF created with Open Office. More format-related fun! Perhaps a fix has come or will be coming from OpenOffice.org.
posted by David Rothman at 6:00 AM | permanent link

Discouraging news comes from Andreas Bovens about a possible rise in fees charged to book-rental shops--and a threat to libraries, too. "It is sad to see that, while there are ongoing efforts to widen the Japanese commons, the Japanese Ministry of Culture seems to move in the direction of copyright extremism and a curtailment of the availability of culture," he writes.

The TeleRead take: A preview of the pay-per-read future that Bruce Lehman and other DMCAists want us to have? What applies to p-books in Japan may well apply to the e-variety all over the place if the good guys lose there and elsewhere.
posted by David Rothman at 8:01 AM | permanent link

Interested in organizing your Project Gutenberg books in a slick way? Check out the free Jujusoft eLibrary when it's ready in the final version, or try the beta. Based on the description from "Mr Juju, aka Mark Pursey," it looks like a handy tool to download and store PG texts for use with your favorite viewer--which just might end up being Jujosoft's companion reader, if the interesting ballyhoo holds up.

Two important caveats: First off, remember that I haven't sampled the beta yet. Second, eLibrary is apparently just for Windows desktops and laptops right now, as opposed to PDAs, which is too bad, considering how cheap memory cards have become. But some screenshots really intrigue me--click here for much better views than the one I'm reproducing.

Elsewhere at Jujusoft I saw a mention of the forthcoming BookReader for desktops--which will offer anti-aliasing for smoother letters, control of font and display settings so you can make PG-style plain text look good and spiffy, persistent bookmarks and other features. To preview the BookReader, the site offers downloads of .exe books such as The Time Machine and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but I assume that the executables are just for demo purposes. Given the virus and spyware potenital of .exe books, I'll avoid 'em--but not in this case. The Eccentric Eclectria blog liked the actual BookReader beta. Meanwhile, you may want to sign up for the Jujusoft mailing list and read the Juju blog and the Mr. Juju's bio.

Encouraging detail: Jujusoft lets you change the size and style of the text on its well-designed site--look in the left column. Amid all the puffery about "enjoyable reading" or whatever, why don't more e-book-related sites offer this capabilty, which, of course, an XHTML/CSS combo can make easier? Sooner or later we'll be adding it to the entire TeleRead site, and I suspect it'll eventually show up on the Gutenberg site as well.
posted by David Rothman at 5:29 AM | permanent link

You bet people are worried--and justifiably. I know: no deal so far. But let's remember that Google, though much friendlier to the Net than are most corporations, isn't a philanthropy. To the list of questions for Presidential candidates, let's add this one. "Would you like the Justice Department to go after Microsoft BIG if it pulls maneuvers like this?" In the future, e-book writers and publishes could be especially affected. You'll recall that Google is moving more and more in the direction of Amazon.
posted by David Rothman at 5:09 AM | permanent link