How to volunteer for the OpenReader initiative? It's a snap. You can do any one or any combination of the following:

1. Send us an e-mail expressing your support for the general vision and goals of the OpenReader System. Include your name and/or logo. E-mail jon@openreader.org.

2. Ask others to do the same. Get the word out! Feel free to reproduce this post in your blog or point to it. Also, tell your journalist friends about OpenReader.

3. Offer to participate in an OpenReader technical working group. You should know about e-books but don't have to be a hardcore techie. We want OpenReader to meet the needs of the technical and nontechnical alike.

4. Volunteer to help with writing open source software applications associated with OpenReader such as conversion and authoring tools, and OpenReader "browser" components. Please note that the OpenReader e-book reader is not a true Web browser as you know it.

5. Tell hardware companies, especially makers of handhelds and cellphones, to support and make use of OpenReader, which could help boost sales by making e-books more practical.
posted by David Rothman at 2:45 PM | permanent link

An Idea Whose Time Has Come Back is the headline of a New York Times Book Review article on e-books. It's good to see a major newspaper use words such as "back" even if I'm not sure it fits. Regardless of the growth rates, e-book sales are still less than $40 million a year globally, a fraction of the billions that some analysts were predicting by now.

Missing from Sarah Glazer's article are full explanations of the "Why?" of the pathetic numbers--such as the Tower of eBabel and DRM-based consumer abuse. At the same time Glazer apparently is unaware of the riches of sites like Project Gutenberg and Blackmask, both of which offer many times the number of public domain texts than the less-than-overwhelming collection of the mentioned University of Virginia (at least the university's public area). She also does not tell people about the $100 eBookwise-1150. Worst of all, Glazer does not mention any of the smaller e-book publishers, which account for so much of the growth and which often lack the anti-reader DRM mania of the big houses.

A clueful kid

Glazer does say: "My college-age son is in the contingent that reads e-books almost exclusively from free Web sites because of the greater flexibility offered by their unencrypted books." So why aren't we hearing more about this important "Why" of the pathetic numbers? The Glazer article is the kind of piece that the president of the Open eBook Forum, whose company provides DRM services, must love.

According to the Times, Sarah Glazer "last wrote for the Book Review about the translation of Simone de Beauvoir's 'Second Sex.'" She is new to the e-book scene. Even so, I'm thrilled e-books are once again found worthy of coverage in the Times, and I appreciate her efforts to tell the world about some of the positives. While Glazer's ignorance of major e-book issues is unfortunate, we should be encouraged that a nontechie like her is once again taking an interest in the medium. Let's hope some lasting good comes out of it.

Related: How you can help OpenReader and a Slashdot discussion inspired by my post there.
posted by David Rothman at 2:37 AM | permanent link

For more than 12 years, I've been ranting away on the need for a well-stocked national digital library system that would be well integrated with local schools and libraries. But what if they gave TeleRead, so to speak, and no one came? Or not enough teachers? Because they didn't trust online information for the most arbitrary of reasons? That's why I'm so keen on the I Word--integrated. The wires and boxes just won't suffice by themselves if schools of education and library science don't respond with appropriate courses, or if local institutions don't adjust.

Rochelle in Illinois passes on a little horror story of classroom gothic--about educators who allow "only one Internet source." And guess what? In some cases, that can even include the most authoritative of articles or other first-rate content, just because it arrives via databases accessed through the Net. Love that passion for true information literacy, eh?

When books are duds

All too well, Rochelle knows of the perils of teachers forcing students to rely just on paper resources or keep use of the online kind to a minimum even if it's superior. For one assignment, a daughter's teacher wanted the children to use different resources such as a book, an encyclopedia, an interview, and so on. But what if the only books around are obsolete duds or don't exist period?

This gifted daughter of Rochelle's very likely has the makings of a first-rate video games scriptwriter. But the local library's best book related to the development of games is a six-year-old programming guide. Luckily Mom, a reference desk pro, could steer the girl to goodies online, including a white paper from the International Game Developers Association. Let's just hope that the teacher doesn't punish the daughter for going outside the sacred information-gathering formula.

"Getting IT"

Please note that like Rochelle I'd point out that many teachers are savvy about the use of the Internet and indeed "get IT." Nothing against them or teachers in general. I'm not one myself, but my sister taught in K-12 for many years, and one of my old buddies ended up as head of a local branch of the American Federation of Teachers. No stereotypes, then. Still, just like librarydom, education abounds with its share of Luddites. This will change as Gen Net teachers and librarians replace the tech-hostile variety, but a comprehensive TeleRead-style approach could accelerate progress and enlighten the existing professionals.

"Wiring up" the schools and libraries by itself isn't enough without the appropriate professional development. With or without TeleRead, local school and library budgets should reflect this.
posted by David Rothman at 10:00 PM | permanent link

If you have kids, you may have heard of the "Unfortunate Events" series by Lemony Snicket. Now let me share some musing on related Unfortunate Events--the lack of legal e-copies of many bestsellers. Mixed in with this issue is a second one, the damage from the DRM Mafia, the Scrooges of e-bookdom.

A friend of mine, an e-book lover, showed off his spiffy new eBookWise-1150 to a bright 12-year-old and his father. The boy's eyes lit up. He obviously wanted the machine under the family Christmas tree. But there was a problem. Just what would he read on the thing? His heart was set on books from "A Series of Unfortunate Events"; but not one legal title was on sale on the Net. It wasn't clear if the villain was the author or the publisher, HarperCollins, which has distributed many other titles in e-form. All the boy knew was that his favorite reading was AWOL in cyberspace.

Coal lumps for Lemony Snicket and HarperCollins

Then my friend had an idea. He called up a Net-hip buddy, who, within 15 minutes or so, had discovered an illegal treasure trove of "Unfortunate Events" books by way of an IRC channel. The likely upshot is that the child will be getting an 1150 for Christmas and will read all the Snicket books he wants. Nary a dollar, however, will reach Lemony Snicket and HarperCollins even though online retailers would love to make this possible.

Imagine the frustrations here. The e-book world has been said to offer many fewer juvenile titles--at least good ones--that the marketplace can consume. And children are potentially among the most avid consumers of e-books, having grown up in front of computer screens. Luddite publishers and clueless writers might say, "Oh, we'll protect our wares by keeping them off the Net." But as the "Unfortunate Events" episode shows, pirates will materialize to meet a need. Spreading around "Unfortunate Events," they lovingly formatted the illegal e-copies--scanned in from paper editions. Who says pirated editions are always inferior?

The best protection: Fair treatment of consumers

A Catch-22 comes to mind. Smaller publishers and non-best-selling authors aren't as maniacal about Digital Rights Management as the big boys; in fact, they often find that DRM actually harms sales by making it harder for readers to discover and enjoy books. And yet the giants of publishing will increasingly find that pirates scan in paper editions anyway. Third World countries are a major source of illegal paper books, and with the new technology, they just might pick up some customers from the States, given the lack of transportation costs. We know how effective regulators are at controlling spam from China and the like; why should pirated e-books be different? Perhaps it's time for the major publishers to forsake Draconian DRM and use a better form of copy protection--low prices and business models, including a library one, which will reduce the incentive for pirates. But even that won't happen if legal e-book editions are not on sale in the first place.

Oh, yes, Luddites could call for the banning of e-book devices--but just how rational would that be? The e-book industry is a most legitimate one. Should it be destroyed just to save certain clueless members of the p-book business? Besides, just what is an e-book device? Should Tablet PCs be illegal as well? Like it or not, e-books aren't about to vanish, and if larger publishers and best-selling writers won't adjust, then small fry will take their place.

OpenReader vs. DRM gouges

Meanwhile stories like the above "Unfortunate Events" are very much on the minds of Jon Noring, me and others in the OpenReader effort. We will work with large and small publishers alike--and retailers and distributors, too--to help them discover the best DRM policy for them. If they want DRM, we will enable them to obtain it in a form less hostile to e-book sales than the present variety. What we won't do is force publishers and others to use DRM or suffer "protection" fees that at times can exceed 15 percent of revenue. Mafia Territory.

Come to think of it, isn't it possible that the DRM-related greed of some software companies is unwittingly contributing to piracy and in certain cases may be accidentally discouraging publishers from arranging for legitimate editions online? The software companies would say, "Oh, our tight DRM is providing publishers with a certain comfort level, so they can confidently publish e-books." But could it really be that they've instead gotten certain publishers to think, "All e-books must wear pricey DRM corsets. And if we can't turn a profit from a DRMed edition, why bother?"

Adobe as a pirate's friend--and retailer's enemy

Just consider the math, if you believe it's a snap to sell expensively DRMed books and make a good buck. Books are a low-margin business, and even a five-percent DRM tax is disastrous. This isn't even to mention the outrageous entry fees that Adobe and the like are charging small retailers directly or indirectly, reducing the number of sales outlets. Meanwhile isn't it ironic that pirates are using Adobe software to spread illicit copies--without any DRM fees having to be paid, and without readers having to suffer the horrors of Adobe's Draconian copy-protection? Not nirvana for honest readers and legitimate retailers.

I wonder, however, if companies such as Adobe really care. The e-book business is minor change for a huge outfit like Adobe, which won't even let you read DRMed Adobe books on a Pocket PC even though handhelds and tablets are the best machines for recreational reading. Sometimes I wonder if Adobe is in cahoots with Luddites to try to kill the e-book business by associating the technology with piracy. Presumably it is not. But the effect of Draconian DRM--and Adobe is one of the very worst offenders, along with Microsoft--is the same. A series of unfortunate events.

Related: A petition to get Potter books online.
posted by David Rothman at 9:12 AM | permanent link

Correction: Yes, I meant to say 1150, not 2150 in an earlier version of this post. Blame it on the Martians.
posted by David Rothman at 7:20 AM | permanent link

The Optimist's Daughter, the Eudora Welty novel, will be discussed at 7 p.m. CST on Dec. 20 in an audio chatcast sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center. Tom Peters, moderator of the discussion, part of the Meting of the Minds series, describes Daughter as a "short, deceptively simple novel." Although the presentation is primarily for the visually impaired, anyone can participate. Hey, Eudora is much more than an e-mail program (actually the mail client was named with the title of a Welty work in mind). All you need is a PC with a sound card and speaker or headphones. The chat software downloads instantly and does not include spyware. For information on the Web address of the discussion, email Tom Peters.
posted by David Rothman at 9:34 AM | permanent link

From Tom Peters:

Please join me online on Monday, December 13, beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 3:00 Central, 2:00 Mountain, and 1:00 Pacific for an online Interview with Ron Zevy of Tumbleweed Press. Tumbleweed Press is involved in several ebook and digital audio book initiatives, including Tumble Books for kids, TumbleReadables, large print ebooks for all ages, and Tumble Talking Books, digital audio books for adults.

To access the online room, go here and click on the event name.

This online interview is sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center and is part of OPAL, a group of libraries collaborating to provide a rich array of online public programs.

This promises to be an interesting, informative interview. If you have questions, please contact me.
posted by David Rothman at 8:51 AM | permanent link

PDF is toxic to e-books. It makes them an ugly afterthought. Adobe created PDF not to help the e-book business but rather for other purposes such as reproduction of business documents.

Tempted by the number of people with Adobe-loaded computers, some e-book publishers have succumbed to the idea of simply going with a popular format. In most cases, however, such as for recreational reading, PDF is pathetic compared to more modern, better-looking alternatives such as PDA-friendly Mobipocket.

Below, edited, is part of a thoughtful post that NetWorker wrote for the eBook Community list. - David Rothman

I remain convinced that the large number of electronic documents in PDF format is not a result of any inherent superiority of the format, but rather the fact that if you prepare a print document using Acrobat as a desktop publishing tool you essentially have a free electronic version in the PDF file. Seeing as how up until now there is little profit in selling an electronic version of a printed document, it also makes sense to satisfy the desire for an electronic version at the lowest cost possible.

Miserliness favored over readable format

I know that this was the explicit reasoning of at least two of the small companies I have worked for when deciding to issue product documentation in PDF format. And I have seen no evidence to suggest that the prevalence of PDF documents in the marketplace exists for those electronic documents which have no print counterpart.

Unfortunately, this decision leads to a great deal of consumer disatisfaction, to the general view that "e-books will never catch on," and the feeling that "I can't stand to read on my computer monitor."

Vs. HTML and other alternatives

Despite the raw numbers of PDF documents, I have never heard any consumer say, "Boy, I sure wish this HTML (or eReader) file were available in PDF!"

Thus, for the sake of expedience, small print publishers have been poisoning public perception of the benefits of e-books...

PDF is a page layout format, as opposed to a document definition format. I have a 20" Trinitron monitor at 1600x1200 resolution, a 13" laptop at 1024x768 resolution and a 2.5"x3.25" PocketPC at 240x320 resolution. Is it unreasonable to expect a single file that can be adequately displayed on all these devices? And is it reasonable to expect publishers to produce dozens of PDF files each optimized for the physical characteristics of every display device, together with the permutations of font sizes that different people need?

Inflexible page layout paradigm

I am an unabashed detractor of the PDF format, but not because I don't believe that some people like and even prefer them, but because I don't think that they satisfy the majority of consumers' needs and desires. I haven't seen a single PDF document that couldn't be satisfactorily encoded in XHTML+CSS and avoiding the inflexibility of a page layout paradigm.
posted by David Rothman at 5:22 AM | permanent link

The eBook Community list has been buzzing with talk about the hassles of converting PDF files to run on machines such as the much-welcomed eBookwise-1150.

I've joined the chorus, pointing this out as an example of the damage from the format wars--which actually may be winding down in time, given the brand names coming out quietly for OpenReader. An end of hostilities would be logical enough. After all, the OpenReader consumer standard will simply be built around an existing production one from the Open eBook Forum. The OpenReader Consortium is keen on realizing the excellent vision forsaken by the Forum itself because of the short-term interests of Adobe and other powerful software companies.

The sniper in the format jungle

Enter Lee Fyock, once a PalmReader guy and still a defender of costly proprietary formats. I've got to admire this guy's tenacity. He's a little like those Japanese soldiers from World War II, ready to hang out in the jungles for a few decades. Like most things on the Net, e-book formats will become standardized if past patterns apply. Peace will prevail in time. Today I drive a 1988 Honda.

Even after the format war dies, however, old Lee may well be busy sniping away. Yesterday, in his super-literal mode, Lee wrote: "The hassle of converting PDF to other formats is the hassle of converting any end-format into something it wasn't designed for." Um, Lee, is that really the true issue here? Isn't "designed for" a rather irrelevant phrase when we're looking at this from the perspective of the typical reader of e-books? People don't give a squat about the intent of Adobe and other proprietary format zealots; they just want to be able to read their books conveniently on different devices, especially just-purchased machines or future ones. When it comes to buying the same book, "Once is enough."

Grasping for a comparison

Poor Lee, however, won't stop defending the indefensible. He says: "David's statement is something like saying that trying to convert a jet engine for use in a Honda Civic is the fault of the transportation industry not standardizing on engine types. Or something like that--someone lend me a good simile."

As a Honda owner, I'm delighted to oblige. To use a more helpful comparison--a metaphor far more meaningful to e-book readers than "What's it designed for?"--I don't have to buy Honda-compatible gasoline or drive on Honda-blessed roads. A 1988 Civic DX can still run well on freshly paved superhighways and on many brands of gasoline refined in 2004. Why should e-books be any different?

My hardware-software combo should be the car, and the e-books should be the gasoline or, if you prefer, the highway. Thank goodness that Adobe, Microsoft and eReader don't control Detroit, Tokyo or the U.S. highway system. Otherwise Route 95 might be usable only for recent-model Chevrolets gulping up Exxon gasoline, and as a 1988 Honda owner favoring no-name brands of gas, I'd be SOL. Just where would be automobile industry be with this arrangement?

Publishers paying the price

No wonder the e-book industry is so pathetic with annual global revenues of less than $40 million a year--a smidgen of the billions once predicted. While hardly a panacea, OpenReader will help reduce the pain of format-dazed consumers and lower the costs of publishers.

In our efforts to wind down format wars, we're far past "30 seconds over Tokyo," but we'll welcome still more names to join the familiar logos already on our side--a list that we'll be releasing in the near future. It's easy to help out the OpenReader Consortium, whether you're a small guy or an industry giant. Just e-mail Jon Noring with a cc to me. No financial commitment. You're just saying you're sick and tired of so much money being unduly siphoned from the publishing world to Microsoft, Adobe and the rest. Oh, and if you're a shareholder in any of those companies, don't shed a tear. They'll do fine. Remember, there's no law saying that Microsoft or Adobe can't push their pet e-book readers using the OpenReader format. Only, now they'll have to compete over such trifles as usability, rather than locking us into their formats.

Detail: My white Civic is a 1988 model rather than a '91. Otherwise it's more or less like the one pictured above.
posted by David Rothman at 8:05 AM | permanent link

Stuck in a 1995 time warp, Project Gutenberg's site layout screamed disdain for modern Web aesthetics.

Now, however, after just-made changes, the site is at least in the 21st century. You can even choose the appearance from one of six skins.

Flaws still remain such as in the default color scheme and the choice and arrangement of home page links in various skins. Not all the options work in the aging and somewhat quirky Internet Explorer, just in more modern browsers such as Firefox.

Overdue but welcome

Even so, this is a welcome and long overdue improvement. Furthermore, through the miracles of style sheets, it should be easier than before to do major site tweaks.

Way to go, Gutenberg.

Details: On top of everything else, the Gutenberg site is a model of accessibility for the disabled.

Those faint red lines: Just noticed 'em in the screen shot. They're from my spell checker, not PG.

Also from the Glitch Department: Yep, that should have been "disdain" in the first sentence and I've fixed it. Thanks to Neologize for the catch.
posted by David Rothman at 11:08 AM | permanent link