TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

TeleRead calls for well-stocked national digital libraries in the United States and elsewhere. TeleRead's moderator is David Rothman (dr@teleread.org). For occasional highlights from this blog, join the TeleRead Mailing List.

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Saturday, April 24, 2004:
Forgent sues over JPEG use: Trouble ahead for Adobe, other e-bookers and more?

Forgent A lawsuit over the use of the JPEG format for images could spell trouble for Adobe and other prominent high-tech companies in e-books and other areas. If Forgent wins, damages might be well into the tens of millions and maybe even higher. From Wired:

Forgent Networks said Friday it sued 31 major hardware and software vendors, including Dell and Apple Computers, for allegedly infringing on its claim to an algorithm used in the popular JPEG picture file format. If the suits are successful, they could lead to an increase in prices for tools and software used to create and modify images--or even lead the industry to abandon the JPEG format altogether."

Lesson for e-bookers

If nothing else, the Forgent suit is another reason to build the industry as much as possible on unencumbered, no-loophole standards rather than on proprietary technology, especially in crucial areas such as formats and DRM.

Guess who the first defendant is on the alphabetical list in a Forgent news release. Our industry's own beloved Adobe; yes, the same endearing outfit that let the feds make life hell for a Russian programmer with the nerve to defy the DMCA and help consumers make fair-use copies.

In Adobe's case the Forgent suit is poetic justice at a Shakespearean level.

The common thread

The DRM controvery isn't the same as the standards one, but there is the common thread of a dangerous fixation on short-term corporate interests at the expense of technological progress. A little balance, please. OverDrive's hassles with ultra-proprietary tech, often with as much reliance on lawyering as on engineering--no surprise with a lawyer in charge!--is another example of the boomerang effect.

But let's look beyond e-books alone. If I were a Japanese or Chinese chauvinist--or maybe bin Laden--I'd be cheering on Forgent, its Sony suit notwithstanding. Along with miserliness toward R&D, patent suits are a great way to squander America's technological lead.

Better lawyer-to-human ratios in Japan and China

The old warnings of Americans sweeping the floors of automated Japanese factories in the States may yet be on target. No prejudice against the Japanese or Chinese, incidentally. Fair's fair. What's more, I especially admire their lawyer-to-human ratios. Here in the States we graduate ten lawyers for every engineer, while in Japan it's the reverse. Chauvinistic Americans, however, can rejoice that the Japanese government wants to increase the number of lawyers. Perhaps out of fear of being out-attorneyed in WIPO debates?

Memo to the SEC: No wrongdoing charged, especially in Forgent's case, but in your place I'd keep a very close eye on insider stock transactions at companies like Forgent, whose execs theoretically could use lawsuits to jack up share prices, prior to dumps. On or before April 4, Forgent CFO Jay Peterson bought 374 shares at $1.29 each, while Senior VP Harry Russell Caccamisi bought 2,329 at the same price, but I'd suspect that the dollar sums would be well below the commission's threshhold of concern.

Related: Other companies would like you to pay more for the use of subdomains or anti-spam filters. Instead of just uttering the usual platitudes about U.S. jobs drifting overseas, maybe U.S. pols need to start thinking about "Benedict Arnold CEOs and lawyers" jacking up the costs of innovation and expansion.

Comes around, goes around: From the 2003 Forgent annual report: "In late February 2003, the Company received a letter from legal counsel for the independent executrix of the Estate of Gordon Matthews, asserting that the Company was obligated to pay the independent executrix of the Estate of Gordon Matthews for the asserted value of services claimed to have been rendered by Mr. Matthews in connection with his alleged involvement in the Company's Patent Licensing Program. In late February 2003, the Company initiated an action in the 261st District Court in Travis County Texas, styled Forgent Networks, Inc. v. Monika Matthews, et al, for the purposes of declaring that the Company has no obligation to the defendant. In that action, the defendant has filed a counter claim asserting that the independent executrix of the Estate of Gordon Matthews is entitled to recover in quantum meruit for the reasonable value of the work and services claimed to have."

Caveats: I'm all in favor of writers, inventors and other creators of valuable intellectual property being compensated in the best capitalistic manner. That's different from IP terrorism based on hyper-aggressive exploitation of old patents. Oh, and a few words for lawyers. Notice my reference to the SEC? Engineers aren't the guys you turn to for protection against illegal insider trading? Too, I appreciate the good guys who defend us from the bad guys. Furthermore, even the lawyer-rare paradise in Japan may not quite be what it seems. While attorneys are scarce, they reportedly gouge big time, and more lawyers could mean more reasonably priced legal help for people who genuinely need it.
posted by David Rothman at 3:20 PM | permanent link

The Evil Genius takes on the Luddite Parrots

Parrot While the glories of e-books are apparent to the open-minded, even some techies still don't grasp how far the technology has come along--with or without the Librie.

Evil Genius Dave Slusher has analyzed Slashdot readers' reactions to a Librie-related news item and neatly broken down the cluelessness into four major categories:

--Paper books are just fine. Why do we need ebooks?
--The screen sizes are too small/the resolutions are too low/I don't like reading off of screens all the time.
--You can't read ebooks in the tub.
--I like the feel/smell of paper books.

Pretty tedious, huh, just as Dave observes? The Luddites and techie accomplices won't stop parroting the same old lines. Alas, they're not even right about e-books and bathtubs.

A good $75 e-book reader

And hardware costs--not on The Evil Four, but certainly a common argument? Well, you can buy a used Sony Clie T615C with a color 320 x 320 screen for perhaps $75. Without eye strain I can read hour after hour on a similar Sony. Yes, maybe a PDA screen is too small for some people, but that's going to change in the very near future as tablet prices come down; what's more, E Ink will get better and cheaper. Meanwhile PDA-displayed e-books show the great promise of the medium.

So what about the costs of the e-books themselves, an argument that I would make if a Luddite? Blame the DRMsters and middle people. E-Books should be much cheaper. Meanwhile, until a Universal Consumer Format ends the format wars, complete with nonproprietary DRM, frugal readers can stick to public domain classics and borrow books from Knowledge.com and the increasing number of public libraries with digital books. Needless to say, the economies of a TeleRead-style national digital library system could also help immensely.
posted by David Rothman at 10:42 AM | permanent link

Friday, April 23, 2004:
PDM format defender Lee Fyock may leave company

Librie Lee Fyock, loyal defender of proprietary e-book formats and also a much-appreciated contributor to the eBook Community List despite numerous differences with many of its members, especially moderator Jon Noring and me, may leave Peanut Press/Palm Digital Media.

The possible Fyock departure follows a merger between PP/PDM owner PalmGear and Pinpoint. Operations are moving to North Carolina, and Lee says he most likely will want to remain in the area of Maynard, Massachusetts.

In a note received since the original post of this item, he says: "Ask me again at the end of June." OK, Lee. I guess I was prematurely nostalgic. Some telecommuting, perhaps?

Possibly beyond relocation alone

My hunch, by the way, offered without the slightest help from Lee and very possibly with a future denial from him, is that some other major changes in people and perhaps even philosophy may be happening, too.

This move perhaps is not just about relocation and consolidation. Real work needs to be done on the PDM reader, a veritable antique; I own a Palm-powered PDA but would go beserk without Mobipocket. For the sake of existing PDM fans, I hope that the company maintains the current format and reader right now--but cares less about those antiques in the near future.

Next incarnation

In Lee's next incarnation, if he leaves Palm, perhaps he will immediately recant and redirect his talents to the cause of a Universal Consumer Format. Um, not gonna happen tomorrow in Real Life, but maybe someday? Meanwhile, if you're looking for an e-book-hip software developer with many years of experience, drop me a note and I'll forward it to Lee.

Lee will remain on the eBook Community list and, in fact, has just served up a gift for fellow developers: "I've documented some features of PML that were previously undocumented. This includes the small-caps tag, a tag for a large set of non-standard characters (developed mostly for use with our dictionaries), specs for cover art, etc."

Hey, good luck, Lee, whatever you decide!

Update, 3:46 p.m.: Beyond adding Lee's latest to keep us all in suspense, I tweaked the above item to make it clear that this isn't necessarily just a move, but could be much more. I wish the company good luck in the possible transition. Perhaps the reborn North Carolina operation will eventually understand the advantages of a nonproprietary approach, rather than spending a fortune trying to beat Microsoft at its own proprietary game. Remember what happened to WordPerfect? It once thought it would forever be the Kong of the word processors.

With an Open eBook-inspired format at the consumer level, the nonMicrosofts could more economically develop and maintain e-book software. Especially they and retailers would spend less money on DRM, which could be handled by a consortium open to any company agreeing to abide by reasonable membership terms.
posted by David Rothman at 10:56 AM | permanent link

'Spear-shaker' ado shows foolishness of eternal copyright

Librie One of the dreams of Mary Bono and Jack Valenti is that copyright be eternal or within a day of that. This on top of registration no longer being required for material to be copyrighted!

In honor of the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death--the first happened on April 23, 1564 and the second on April 23, 1616--I'll reproduce a relevant excerpt from a newspaper columnist for whom I created a Web site a few years ago. Notice all the tantalizing questions raised by Bruce Kauffmann in his History Lessons column on The Bard? Even genealogy, it appears, would be not enough for copyright purposes if the Bonos and Valentis prevailed; literary detectives would also be in constant demand. Here are Bruce's thoughts based on the works of true specialists:

...Was William of Stratford really Shakespeare? A growing number of scholars say no.

These scholars disagree about who really was Shakespeare. Some say Christopher Marlowe, others Francis Bacon. But the man most believe was the real William Shakespeare is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford.

The circumstantial evidence is compelling. De Vere, who was a regular at Queen Elizabeth's court, was a talented poet and playwright, traveled extensively, spoke several languages, and studied the law. Also, many events in Shakespeare's plays mirror events in de Vere's life. Hamlet is practically autobiographical. De Vere's father-in-law, Lord Burghley, bears an uncanny resemblance to the character Polonius, and some of Hamlet's lines in the play reveal an insider's knowledge of Burghley's life. What's more, de Vere's private correspondence contains phrases and passages that also are found in Shakespeare's plays...

The arguments go on; you can read the full column in the Portland Oregonian. Bruce writes that de Vere's 'nickname was "'Spear-shaker,' reflecting his jousting skill, and...his family crest was a lion brandishing a spear."

Beyond coincidence, very possibly

We're talking, in other words, about a number of facts that would appear not to be more coincidence. And if Bruce is right? Then even "Shakespeare" may not be as reliable a brand name as the standard suspects would lead us to believe. So what happens if well-off zealots win eternal copyright and similar controversies arise in the future? Will lawyers have to double as English professors and, in many cases, as master genealogists?

Details: While not a Shakespearean scholar, Bruce, who was once a speechwriter and head radio writer for Dan Rather, does care about his facts. Also, please note that the copyright-related opinions are mine, not necessarily his.

If you love the odds and ends of history: For private reading, you can sign up for free for Bruce's weekly column, which he sells to newspapers and others Could be a natural for school systems and libraries, too, given Bruce's skill at popularizing his subject matter.
posted by David Rothman at 9:21 AM | permanent link

A selfish reason for OverDrive to stop gouging the little guys

The gang at OverDrive might want to read what Virginia Postrel has to say about one of the main values of Internet commerce--to be exact, choice. Time to stop gouging one-book publishers and remove those $300-a-year storage charges? Better treatment of all publishers, in fact, would hep.
posted by David Rothman at 3:47 AM | permanent link

Thursday, April 22, 2004:
Librie vs. Luddite: Guardian review refutes e-book-hating California professor

Librie The Manchester Guardian's detailed review of the Librie has come out just in time to refute a clueless academic who'll forever cite outdated studies. Excerpt from J. Mark Lytle impressions in the Guardian:

The quality of the display will come as quite a shock to any seasoned user of mobile devices; it looks more like paper than the computer screen it is. The closest comparison is to think of old-fashioned ink on pulp you're likely holding now, unless you're reading this online, in which case the Librie looks far better.

In fact, as it's a reflective screen, it looks the same whether you read it indoors or out...

So--when will the academic and library worlds finally adjust to the new reality? While E Ink machines could cost less and e-books for them need to be available through better business models, that'll happen in time.

Detail: No, the review wasn't written in response to the California professor who thinks e-book displays are hopeless. But it might as well have been. The professior might also want to consider a study out of Indiana, which showed virtually no loss in comprehension among young e-book users. Not only is the tech improving, but the younger generation is far more comfortable with it.

(Found via Very Interesting People list.)
posted by David Rothman at 8:37 AM | permanent link

More from the OeBF e-book conference for librarians

Open eBook logo OK, better late than never. Via Library Journal, here's a detailed report from the Open eBook Forum conference for librarians. Notice? The Tower of eBabel is high on the list of librarians' concerns. Pricing matters, too:

...the current business model is "whatever the traffic will bear," said Tom Peters of TAP Information Services. netLibrary's Gillian Harrison and others noted that "we're looking to test new models, [but] we're caught between the established library market and the established publishing industry," which currently dictate the one book, one user model.

Yes, time to get past this anachronism! For years, TeleRead has advocated pay per access, with caps in place that publishers could bypass by gambling money up front and along the way.
posted by David Rothman at 7:37 AM | permanent link

Add TeleRead headlines to your Web site for free

You can add TeleRead headlines to your Web site for free--in all of five minutes. Go to the Clinton Goveas site and tell how you'd like the headlines to appear, then insert the automatically generated code on the page where you'd like us to show up. Here's a preview of one possibility. You can even reproduce our full text on your site. Whether you want headlines or the complete text, key in the following RSS address after you're at the CG site: http://www.teleread.org/blog/rss.xml.

Disclaimer: TeleRead isn't associated with Clinton Goveas. Also be aware that CG may run small text ads at the tops of pages summed up through headlines links. The ads don't appear in CG-created repros of the full text.
posted by David Rothman at 6:10 AM | permanent link

'Libraries, Wired and Reborn'

Libraries, Wired and Reborn vividly chronicles the effects of the Gates Foundation's grants on library computer use. So how are books faring? From Steve Lohr's New York Times article:

Melquan Jones, a 16-year-old junior at Samuel Gompers, was looking up information on the history of the printing press for a school report. He browses the nearby books occasionally, he said, "but I come here mostly for the computers."

His is a common sentiment, according to Mr. Charlton, who estimates that more than half of West Farms users ages 12 to 18 come to the library mainly for the computers. "We draw them in with the computers," he said, "and then try to convert them to reading books." The conversion tactic, he says, succeeds with perhaps 40 percent of the young people.

Better than 20 percent, say? Yes. But still a minority. While the Gates Foundation program has done much good, it has yet to live up to promise in the area of electronic books. Furthermore, what about computer use in the home, where e-books could be enjoyed at leisure by parents and children alike? In fact, the article says:

Studies have shown that minorities, immigrants, lower-income groups and people in rural areas rely more on libraries for access to computers and the Internet than do Americans in general. Of course, that does not mean that the digital divide has closed: a teenager waiting for a half-hour stint on a PC at the South Bronx library does not enjoy the same Internet access as a teenager with a PC with broadband service in the bedroom.

Exactly! Let's hope that the new wireless technology and a TeleRead-style approach can eventually help further narrow the digital divide. Unfortunately, Kerry campaign advisor Brian Levine never followed up when I sent him information on TeleRead.

Low expectations

Probably Levine's silence means that either the Kerry campaign won't do anything or, in the unlikely event it does, a TeleRead-style approach will be presented as an in-house idea.

A truly imaginative proposal from the Kerry camp would make e-books an important part of the candidate's broadband policy--given all the possibilities that an always-on approach would offer for a national digital library sytem full of interbook links. But politicians and most advisors tend to be rather obtuse creatures, and my expectations are very low.

Speaking of Kerry: Do you think he'll ever talk about repeal or mitigation of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act? Over the years that would free up billions for consumers, libraries and schools to spend on content. Why should we keep pampering the copyright gentry? But, hey, they give to the Kerry campaign. Would that the States be as sensible about copryight as Canada, which recently turned down a proposal for copyright term extension.

(Canadian item found via the Lessig blog.)
posted by David Rothman at 4:11 AM | permanent link

Wednesday, April 21, 2004:
Sony Librie: $5 e-books vanish after 60 days

I love what I've heard about the sharp-as-print screen of the Sony Librie. But Japanese readers will have to pay as much as $5 per book for Librie-format files that vanish after 60 days. This is a most consumer-hostile business model. At least here in the States, people typically want to own books they can't get for free at public libraries. Further details from the New York Times (reg. required):

Sony plans to begin selling the reader next month in Japan for about $380. Users will be able to download electronic books for less than $5 each from a Web site set up by Sony and a group of Japanese publishing companies. At least initially, the works will be rented rather than purchased and thus will disappear from the device after 60 days. The idea of renting the books is a concession to publishers who are worried about unauthorized copying.

Sony says it will wait to see how well the Librié sells at home before deciding whether to offer it in the United States and Europe.

Hmm. Next month? I'd been thinking that the Librie would reach consumers in April. Oh, well. The cosmos has waited long enough for E Ink hardware for e-books, and what's another few days? Best of luck to Sony with the Librie--but another business model, please, especially for us here in the States. Otherwise U.S. consumers may shun the Librie the way they did the Gemstar hardware. Ritzy tech is no excuse for old-fashioned consumer ripoffs. I just hope that if the Librie bombs in Japan due to the stupid rental model, this won't prevent the release of U.S. and European version of the hardware. Will Sony's marketers take this into consideration at all?

Detail: Can't the Times grasp the implications of forcing the rental model--at any price--on readers? This is a great example of the disconnect between newspapers and the public.
posted by David Rothman at 9:14 PM | permanent link

Wikipedia, Open Source novel featured on radio program

The Wikipedia encyclopedia project and Rick Heller's open source novel are discussed on Radio Arthur. Check out the archive. Rick is giving away his entire book for free if you visit his site and email him, and I'd suggest doing so. Smart Genes is a highly readable hybrid of sci-fi and Elmore Leonard. Sometimes you get much more than you pay for.

Related: Mike Cane recommends An Island to Oneself: The Story of Six Years On a Desert Island, a free online edition of a paper book written by Tom Neale and published originally by Collins in the U.K. The reviews on Amazon are glowing.

posted by David Rothman at 8:53 PM | permanent link

So what does The Reading Astronaut read--and use as his handheld?

Can anyone answer the question from Branko Collin about astronaut E. Michael Fincke? I'm curious, too. Wouldn't it be great if we discovered Fincke was reading a public domain book? - David Rothman

A couple of days ago you wrote that Michael Fincke had brought a PDA to the International Space Station for some reading during his six months stay. Have you asked him which type of PDA and which ebooks? I thought of e-mailing him myself, but I figured you already might have done that, and I don't want to waste space-bandwidth. :-)
posted by David Rothman at 6:14 PM | permanent link

E-book libraries as LOL-fighters

Truss book Horrid barbarities against the English language mar the TeleBlog--I'm a better writer than proofer, at least when time is short, which it usually is. Still, even if this blog is just a public notebook, not the Atlantic or My Antonia, I feel the requisite guilt.

Many people don't. In fact, much of the time, they do not even know when they sin. And that's partly why I've been so keen on the idea of well-stocked national digital libraries--well integrated with local schools and libraries--that could mix the best of the old and the new. Otherwise perhaps someday our literary masterpieces will be characterized by an abundance of LOLs and BTWs, which are fine in instant messages and email, but not exactly the stuff of Fitzgerald-level prose. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But then again, consider an Associated Press story that my friend Billy Barron saw on CNN.com:

Lynne Truss fears the English language could be in its death throes.

Proper, written English, that is--the kind with correctly placed apostrophes, elegantly positioned semicolons, commas in all the right places and in none of the wrong ones. It's being shoved aside, she thinks, by an electronic onslaught of uncapitalized, unpunctuated, ill-thought-out Internet verbiage.

Truss, a longtime writer and editor, is sure that trying to halt the decline would be hopeless, but she wants her new book, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" to at least serve as a warm and funny eulogy to a little-heralded but crucial piece of the language: punctuation. [Never mind split infinitives. I myself will sin knowingly in that respect. - DR.]

Despite tackling a subject that's so dry that it's put generations of schoolchildren to sleep, the book has won critics' praise for its humor and readability and it's been a surprise hit in Britain, selling more than half a million copies. Truss also received the book of the year prize at the recent British Book Awards ceremonies--an honor bestowed by a panel of 400 publishers, wholesalers and booksellers, and the public.

"Eats, Shoots & Leaves," whose title comes from a corny punctuation joke about a panda in a bar, is a lighthearted, affectionate tribute to the system of jots, dots and dashes that make written language intelligible.

So what's the remedy, beyond well-stocked e-libraries alone? One good approach would be to showcase the formal efforts of young writers and point out what they're doing right. Last night I was delighted to run across PSU's Electronic Classics Site, out of Penn State. Jim Manis at PSU has not just uploaded a number of classics--he's highlighted some interesting, nonLOL-style prose from PSU freshmen and put online an issue of The Palimpsest Review, a student literary magazine.

Alas, the latest volume in the freshman series seems to be from 2002 (am I missing something?). Same for the lit magazine. I hope he updates his site with more recent writing from students--including perhaps appreciations of the classics and discussions of the literary techniques in them.

No need for all writing to be entirely formal--as this sentence fragment shows. But Manis and like-minded people just may be on to something as a way to counter the trends discussed in Lynne Truss's book.
posted by David Rothman at 9:13 AM | permanent link

Gmail beta: Promising but still some annoying rough spots

Google Was The Big G using ESP to read my thoughts? Scanning the TeleBlog? Or simply including me because I use the Google-owned Blogger so much? Almost surely just the latter. In any event, just after I blogged an excerpt from a Gmail review in an Israeli newspaper, I first spotted Google's invitation for me to try the new Gmail service. Here are quick impressions--with an important caveat that we're talking beta here, not finished product:

--The search feature is well done for the most part and you can even filter out messages with certain expressions. But must I abandon a draft of a letter so I can search existing messages? Not sure, and of course, I could always call up a different window. Still, it would be nice to have a built-in, split-screen arrangement. When I tried to search during composition, a pop-up said, "Your message has not been sent. Discard your message?" Talk about rude interruptions.

--Perhaps there's a way to save an email message as a draft, but at least in the beta I didn't see one. Yahoo Mail, by contrast, has a conspicuous, easy-to-use draft feature. I assume that the final Gmail will include this.

--Compared to Yahoo Mail, the thing ran slowly during my brief test yesterday. This morning Gmail was faster than before. I just hope that the service is faster than Blogger typically is.

--Gmail's file attachment feature didn't function on my system, even though attachments worked fine with Yahoo Mail. I do recall that the Israeli review mentioned that a Word attachment didn't come thorugh right. Maybe Google has disabled the function while the programmers try to get it in better shape.

Bottom line? Gmail may have that gig of storage and superb search feature, and if you get an invitation, do take up Google on this--since you'll want to stake out an address with your own name. But for the moment, Gmail isn't ready for prime time unless you're interested in, say, an archive for your listmail.

The e-book angle: I'm more convinced than ever that Gmail would be a great delivery mechanism. Imagine the search possibilities if nothing else. With the right search options in place, you could simultaneously search your e-books, your email and the Web at large.

A possible Gmail alternative I haven't tried the Oddpost email service-news aggregator available on the Web. But this $30-a-year service looks interesting, complete with an Outlook-style interface. No, you won't get the the gig of free storage space, just ten megs. Perhaps nirvana would be a mix of the Gmail and Oddpost approaches. The news aggregator in Oddpost, by the way, reminds me that one might well be on the way for Gmail--something that would fit in well with Blogger. Just speculation. But I don't see how Google could overlook the possibilities here. For all I know, Google could even come out with a mix of an email program, blog creator and news aggregator.
posted by David Rothman at 8:04 AM | permanent link

State-created e-textbooks suggested as way to control costs

In a letter to the editor in the San Jose Mercury News, a California man is suggesting that the state of California create textbooks if the usual suspects won't keep prices in check (reg. required). And now what the reader calls "the radical part: "Deliver them in electronic format (Internet or CD)." How frustrating. After all these years, people still feel compelled to use "radical" to describe the obvious.
posted by David Rothman at 7:46 AM | permanent link

Tuesday, April 20, 2004:
Google email: A review and some e-book-related thoughts

One of the first reviews of Google's new Gmail service is online--from Yuval Dror at Haaretz.com, whose work I spotted via Cory Doctorow's blog--and it's mostly positive. Gmail has some interesting quirks such as the use of the word "conversation" in places you'd expect to see "message." But there are some reasons for this. Meanwhile a sample from the review:

Two very impressive elements of Gmail are its Search and Shortcuts options. Search, which aims to allow you to find messages quickly and accurately in a 1,000-MB mailbox, works just like you would expect a Google search engine to work. Type in key words, and you spring in a split second to the desired message.

The shortcuts are nothing short of genius. They make it possible for the user not to have to use the mouse. Hitting the letter C opens up a new Conversation box, hitting O opens a new message.

What about spam? Because our Gmail account is a new one, not enough spam came in by press time to be able to judge how Gmail weeds it out for its customers. Generally speaking, Gmail invites the user to mark messages, in order to train the system to identify what the user considers spam.

The e-book angle: Too bad the industry doesn't have its act together. With a gig of free, ad-supported space, this could be a boon for legalized file-swapping, with provisions for compensation for content-providers. Makes you wonder if Google itself might use the service for e-book distribution. As for the privacy angles, I won't go into them right now except to say that Gmail isn't for the most sensitive of data. Could be just the ticket for keeping up with mailing lists, however.
posted by David Rothman at 3:55 PM | permanent link

'The academic library in 2012'

Marcus ...is the title of an article by James Marcum in the May 2003 D-Lib. Yes, it's a year old, but still of interest. Actually this article is a summary of visions, plural, from various librarians. Sample:

Bill Kennedy, a university Webmaster, envisions similar uses of technology, but he describes the situation in terms of metaphors. No longer a room with a host, the library of 2012 will be experienced as a virtual reality with a "zoom atlas" to whisk the learner to other places, with time travel to jump back into history or forward into the future, and with enacted dialogue to allow "conversations" with people from other times and places.

Interesting, but let's hope there's also a place for e-texts, especially with interbook linking capabilities far more precise than today. Needless to say, e-books could also link to relevant parts of, say, videos. Typically, nothing beats books at giving a good overview of complicated subjects. Alas, in the whole article, the word "book" comes up just a few times.
posted by David Rothman at 9:04 AM | permanent link

Library e-books for cell phones

Smartphone Here's something that OverDrive, the troubled e-book-distributor, is doing right. OD is now playing up the crossplatform Mobipocket format, which, among other things, runs on cell phones. The Cleveland Public Library's Clevenet area is among the beneficiaries of the new offering. Details from Managing Information News--well, actually an OverDrive news release:

Cleveland Public Library was first among a national network of public libraries to add Mobipocket eBooks to their download libraries. With the free Mobipocket Reader software, patrons can download and read titles on Motorola, Samsung, and Nokia Smartphones, virtually all PDAs, and on personal and notebook computers.

"It's surprising how clear and readable eBooks appear on the color screen of my Motorola cell phone," stated...librarian Cynthia Orr. "With my AT&T Wireless account and Motorola Smartphone, I can browse the library website, download eBook titles to the phone and begin to read. Mobipocket software is easy to use and with the phone's built-in media card, I can transfer eBooks to my PDA or PC to finish reading a title. As with Adobe eBooks in PDF, after the lending period expires, the title automatically returns itself to the library ready for the next patron," she added.

Whatever the e-book formats in use separately on cell phones in Korea and Japan, the latest OverDrive efforts suggest that e-books and cell phones may go together far better than the skeptics think.

Yo, Jenny! The Cleveland item and the others must make you feel well vindicated.

About Mobipocket and DRM: I wasted half an hour over the weekend dealing with Mobipocket's DRM-related hassles. I'm high on Mobipocket despite the proprietary format and proprietary DRM, not because of them. Many readers would just give up.

More than a detail: It's endlessly frustrating to me how OverDrive, which can excel in areas such as library Web sites, can be so abusive in its treatment of small publishers and others. This company could be a real asset to the e-book industry if it reformed itself and made its business practices fairer and more efficient. All the more reason for OD head Steve Potash to step down as president of the Open eBook Forum and devote more time to his company and a shift to more appropriate business models and away from expensive proprietary DRM. An OeBF-promoted Universal Consumer Format with a DRM Lite option would make this possible. But because of the most blatant conflict of interest, namely OverDrive's DRM connections, Steve so far won't let this happen at OeBF.
posted by David Rothman at 6:57 AM | permanent link

The case for DRM standards in e-books and elsewhere

An item in one of my favorite group blogs, Copyfight, criticizes "the logical incoherence of universal DRM." In fact, some say that incompatibility is the goal of DRM. Not necessarily so. Publishers, Hollywood studios and other content providers are among the hardest-hit victims of DRM incompatibilities.

Within the e-book industry, a top HarperCollins executive has deplored the format wars--which, of course, will go on eternally without DRM standards at the consumer level. Like it or not, some major publishers won't release books without DRM; hence, the need for standards.

DRM Lite

One way around the incompatibilities of today's DRM could be an easy-to-join consortium of hardware and software makers, with perhaps a database to handle the issue of "discreet encrypted units" being "sent to masses of consumers. I hate today's DRM. But the white hats will just forfeit ground to the DRM Mafia if we don't come up with an economical, easy-to-use alternative that respects fair use. DRM Lite, as I've called it, would be gentle and keep honest users honest, without content-providers expecting full protection, which isn't possible even in the paper world.

Such efforts would be worth it. Without any DRM, online public libraries would have a tougher time of it. Collection of revenue from legalized file-swapping would be harder, too. Imagine the potential of spreading around e-books with both open and unlocked-on-payment files. I'd rather that everything be DRM-free--in fact, free period. But the white hats should not take an absolutist stand on this, lest they play into the hands of the DRM fanatics among Carly F's Hollywood buddies.

Related: DRM heads to your desktop, a story carried by CNET and the New York Times.
posted by David Rothman at 5:59 AM | permanent link

Beware of hardware makers hopping into bed with Hollywood

Earlier we told how Intel plans to infest handhelds and phones with DRM-tainted CPUs. Now HP says it'll team up "with Warner Bros. and DreamWorks to enhance creation, distribution and consumption of digital content." Good news not for consumers. You can bet that the deal increases the chances of oppressive DRM being among the "enhancements" we'll enjoy.
posted by David Rothman at 5:31 AM | permanent link

Sunday, April 18, 2004:
E-books to be in orbit--aboard International Space Station

Edward Michael Fincke, a U.S. astronaut headed for the International Space Station, will be using "a handheld computer and rely on ground control to beam up e-books and music files to keep him occupied during down time," according to the Pittsburg Tribune-Review. Hmm. Not enough space for a secure digital memory card? Inevitable question: So what's the brand of the handheld and the e-book reading software, and, in the best Tang tradition, will we be seeing endorsements someday?
posted by David Rothman at 7:39 PM | permanent link

More libraries than McDonald's hamburger joints in U.S.--but don't get smug about it

Let's all celebrate National Library Week. The word is that the U.S. contains more libraries than McDonald's joints. Would you believe, 116,618 if you include all kinds of libraries? But let's not get smug. If a library lacks the right book, you may need to go through the interlibrary loan bureaucracy. Besides, you may have trouble discovering the book's existence in the first place. No matter how many neighborhood libraries we have--and I'm in favor of plenty--we need a well-stocked national digital library system to help stretch libraries' resources! Related: ALA's page on library funding.
posted by David Rothman at 4:41 PM | permanent link

E-book maven Jon Noring to discuss universal format and other topics on May 20 eBookWorm program

Jon Noring, moderator of the eBook Community list, internationally known for his advocacy of a Universal Consumer Format, will be on the May 20 eBookWorm voice chat show at 3 p.m. CST.

Jon has been around e-books since the early '90s and sees standards as a logical way to help make digital books more accessible to the blind and others with special needs. Among his other titles, he is an invited expert to the Open eBook Forum and is now the acting vice chair of its Publication Structure Working Group. He also runs Project Gramophone, which seeks to enrich the Net with free music in such genres as classical jazz. In addition, he owns Blue Glass Publishing, a way for him to keep up with the nuts and bolts of e-book publishing.

Talking book expert to be eBookWorm's June guest

In June, the guest will be Michael Moodie, Deputy Director of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped within the Library of Congress. Prominent in the world of talking books, he has played a role in standards development, among other activities. Increasingly, books for the blind and other reading-disabled people will be available on microchips and via the Net rather than simply on audio tapes.

Roosevelt discussion and other book shows coming up

Also scheduled, at 7 p.m. CST, are discussions of a Theodore Roosevelt biography (April 20), a Louise Erdrich novel (May 19) and a book on '70s culture (June 17).

To enjoy the voice chat shows at the designated times: Go here, enter your name in a box and hit enter, after which a little software applet will download on your computer. The eBookWorm shows and related programs will be free to all--disabled and nondisabled--and you needn't register in advance. Questions? Contact eBookWorm moderator Tom Peters or Lori Bell.
posted by David Rothman at 12:34 PM | permanent link

Yes, e-books can go on those phone/PDA combos in Korea--and be swappable as well

"If an electronic book is saved from the Internet, the PDA phone turns into an e-book. Multimedia files, such as pictures, video clips, and electronic books can be saved on a memory card and exchanged with other PCs." - Donga.com.

The TeleRead take: I'm still not clear about the kind of assistance mentioned in recent news stories about the Korean efforts, although it seems to be a govenment-authorized variety from the private sector. Whatever the case, this is good news for the e-book world, or at least the Asian part of it.
posted by David Rothman at 12:21 PM | permanent link

Diagnosing Ivan Ilych: Yet another reason to care about literature--online and offline

Rita Charon How often has your doctor been less interested in hearing your story than in covering his posterior by asking the standard questions?

Part of this isn't the doctor's fault. Time is limited. But is it just possible that your physician could be more effective with better listening skills? And couldn't a basic understanding of story-telling help?

Indeed it might, if you go by the theories of Rita Charon, discussed in a Columbia University video and in The Writing Cure in the New York Times today. Charon, an internist with a lit Ph.D., is an advocate of "narrative medicine." As defined in the Times:

Narrative medicine imports terms from literature to describe the doctor-patient relationship. In describing his backache, Charon said, [a patient] was actually telling an ''illness narrative,'' which can be interpreted just like a literary text: by examining the presentation of character, the structure of the tale and the plot of the disease. Regardless of the outcome--the diagnosis or treatment (which Charon did not relate)--what is central is the telling and receiving of the tale. Narrative medicine appears to answer a central paradox. Unlike other fields--like literature--medicine really is always getting better. Yet despite its ever-increasing efficacy, nearly half of patients seek out alternative care, and both patients and physicians voice increasing dissatisfaction with the practice of mainstream medicine.

While the Times article focuses on those techniques in a medical context, perhaps they can also be used in other fields--even technical ones. Isn't it possible that nerds might be more responsive to the needs of the cosmos if they could use a similar approach and listen better? Same for consultants in any fields.

No panaceas here, of course. The Times says most of the students in Dr. Charion's class at Columbia University, for example, were just plain bored when they stumbled through The Death of Ivan Ilych. Furthermore the Times notes the love of music among key Nazis. But with the right books for different kinds of students, imagine the possibilities here.

The TeleRead angle

This is just one argument for trying to give all K-12 students--regardless of their possible future jobs--an appreciation of literature and narrative techniques to begn with. A love of the great Russian novelists or Charles Dickens? Hardly a given. Depends on the student. I myself hated Dickens in school but have rediscovered him through the Net. Furthermore, I suspect that, with a choice of the right Dickens works, I would have learned to enjoy him much earlier. A TeleRead-style national digital library system--offering access not only to many thousands of classics but also to explanatory material, including multimedia--would have helped.

Even now I am not a scholar of literature, just a recreational reader with favorite authors. But as both a writer and a human, I've benefited from the riches of public domain on the Net--the very essentials that the greedsters of Hollywood, D.C., want to take away in their lust for expanded and eternal copyright. Imagine if Sonny Bono were repealed and we had a system to put thousands of modern novelists on the Net with fair compensation for writers and publishers.

Speaking of story telling: If you want a convenient guide to great myths across the ages, one of the most venerable is Bulfinch's Mythology--available for free at Bulfinch.org and other sites. PDA owners would do well to try Blackmask, GutenTalk and manybooks.net, all offering it in different formats.
posted by David Rothman at 10:14 AM | permanent link

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