"Over the past couple of years, the cell phone has emerged as a sound system, a video game player and a TV screen. Now, it could become the latest outlet for books. Random House, the country's leading trade book publisher, announced Thursday that it had purchased a 'significant minority stake' in VOCEL, a San Diego-based company that describes itself as a provider of 'premium-branded applications for mobile phones.' - Associated Press, via eBookAd.

The TeleRead take: Cellphone books are appearing in South Korea, Japan and Germany--can they catch on here, and will they take time away from reading more traditional books? Can books written to be read in snippets lead to great writing and encourage sustained thought? My own hope is that cellphone will eventually sprout rollout screens so the medium does not influence the message so much. But, hey, if the market is there, who can blame Random House for taking advantage of it?
posted by David Rothman at 9:43 AM | permanent link

Today the toilet overflowed slightly. Thank goodness the Sunday edition of the dead-tree Washington Post was still around when a good mop wasn't handy. I have learned my lesson. While I've cut out the daily edition, the subscription to the Sunday will survive even though 90 percent of it is too irrelevant to me to read.
posted by David Rothman at 8:23 AM | permanent link

"Once upon a time, there lived a giant by the name of Paper Book. For centuries, Paper Book played a crucial role in the development of the world we live in. It was a hero to all, for it was the standard of all enlightenment. Unfortunately, heroes have been known to fall. 'I am the caretaker of excellence,' crooned the mighty giant, its old-world editor’s eyes gleaming appreciatively as it examined itself in the full-length mirror." More at useless-knowledge.com.
posted by David Rothman at 9:57 AM | permanent link

The MobiPocket e-book reader has amassed its share of nice mentions here. That's because I love the interface and features. I totally agree with a faithful TeleBlog reader who prefers the less stringent DRM scheme of eReader, formerly PalmReader. Software for eReader is to appear soon for the Cybook, my favorite machine of the moment, and I'll give it a shot.

Both MobiPocket and eReader, at least the present versions, have a major flaw that the nonproprietary OpenReader will avoid. They lack the sophisticated capabilities needed for the most elaborate scientific, technical and medical books. To get MobiPocket up to shape would be a major effort (same's probably true of eReader).

Just for the here and now

Simply put, Mobipocket is a here-and-now solution but not one for the long run, especially since the format is proprietary. Besides, for reading public domain books, at least on the Cybook, the multiformat uBook is the best software of all. Via tweaks such as degrees of bolding, it lets me get the fonts just right on the Cybook. While Mobipocket is better for navigating within e-books, uBook wins out as my favorite reader, period.

The Tablet PC angle: I'd love to hear from a Tablet PC owner about how uBook does on a tablet compared to MobiPocket. Do you enjoy the character-bolding and other little adjustments as much as I do?

The Mobipocket screenshot: Please note that the dictionary is an optional feature.
posted by David Rothman at 7:37 AM | permanent link

Could Microsoft be planning some surprises in the forthcoming update of the virus-friendly Internet Explorer? Such as RSS capabilities--elaborate but rigged to favor Microsoft-blessed standards or sites? As for adequate security, hey, forget it. After all the previous botches, why should we believe that Microsoft will succeed now?
posted by David Rothman at 7:20 AM | permanent link

"'We haven't done a lot, but we've discussed it as far as strategic planning,' Jon Cawthorne, associate dean in the library and information access center, said. He said the process of digitizing SDSU's library or any library is not terribly complicated or time consuming." - E-books bring libraries into homes, in the Daily Aztec at San Diego State.

The TeleRead take: Yeah, right. No copyright hassles. No need to clean up after OCRs. No Tower of eBabel or challenges reading Adobe-style formats on handhelds. I love Dean Cawthorne's enthusiasm, but he could also benefit from a dollop of realism.

(Spotted via eBookAd.)
posted by David Rothman at 6:59 AM | permanent link

"Is the purpose of copyright law to prevent the creation of really efficient indexes without paying a licensing fee? What part of 'promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts' does this really help?" - One Way the Right of Reproduction Screws Things Up, in The Importance Of...

The TeleRead take: Ernie Miller is right. In a related vein, I've gained new insights into why the United States is so eager to use thuggish trade policies to bully other nations into passing repressive copyright laws. It is a brilliant way to preserve U.S. military supremacy by impeding other countries' technologies along with ours. (Sarcasm alert.)
posted by David Rothman at 6:44 AM | permanent link

OpenOffice 1.1 is a quick-and-dirty way to get e-books in just the font you want to be "printed" to the screen of your Librie via Sony's printer driver. Here's the drill:

(1) Use your regular browser to find the address of an HTML file of the e-book you want.

(2) Within OpenOffice's slow browser, call up the file. You may need to download the file first--it depends on the site.

(3) Use OpenOffice's font control feature to optimize the font style and size for your needs, and then save to a file. You'll want to experiment. Chances are you won't get it right at first. Same if you're experimenting with the margins.

(4) Transfer the results to the Librie via your print command within OpenOffice--working from the Librie driver, of course.

Remember, Librie files created via printer drivers take up more space than those generated in other ways. So a MemorySitck would be useful. Peter Knowles' booklistgen is a possible solution to the challenge of using the MemoryStick (works for Linux and I'll be testing it for Windows XP after having had problems earlier on my particulr machine).

A memory card costs just a fraction of the price of the Librie. The lowest Librie price now found online, by the way, at least for people outside Japan, is apparently still the $449 from Japan-Direct.

Librie mystery of the moment: I'm on my third set of batteries. Why? Could my 256MB MemoryStick be a power hog, or am I doing something wrong--not out of the question, given Sony's arrogant refusal to have an English-language instruction manual?

Reminder--about the Librie vs. the Cybook: The Librie screen lacks the paper-level contrast I was hoping to enjoy--don't just go by the photos. Not everyone would agree. This is subjective. But I continue to believe that the Cybook, even if it costs $60 more, is a better choice for serious e-book reading at home.

The Cybook dwarfs the Librie, and I wouldn't mind a screen smaller than the present 10 inches, but all in all, it's a far more pleasant reading experience for me. Using the Cybook's bundled software, for example, I can navigate within e-books more easily than on a Librie.

Your needs may differ entirely from mine. One plus of the Librie is Sven's Neuhaus's wiki and Yahoo group. May a good user community for the Cybook spring up soon, especially with a software/firmware upgrade on the way!
posted by David Rothman at 6:02 AM | permanent link

A Tablet PC experiment in a Georgia high school failed to improve students' grades.

What else do you expect? Teachers did not get enough training, for example, and batteries lasted just a few hours.

Anyone for simpler machines optimized for K-12 and with appropriate preparation for teachers, students, librarians and others?

That's part of what the TeleRead proposal is about--a systematic way for this to happen, not just a well-stocked national digital library system.

(Found via TabletPCBuzz.com--where I'd heartily recommend your reading the comments from a teacher and other readers.)
posted by David Rothman at 5:39 AM | permanent link

So why have e-books bombed? Oppressive DRM is Reason #1, says Daniel P. B. Smith. He lives in Massachusetts, has been online since 1983, first posted to Usenet in 1990, and has been reading e-books since 1996.

Dan also offers other reasons, including a dearth of the hottest books; he clearly disagrees in some ways from Kate Saundby. My own belief is that just as in the paper world, we need a healthy mix of genres and major and minor writers--both the Stephen Kings and the Darrell Bains.

With Dan's help, I've adapted his eBook Community list posts conveying his reasons for the continuing underperformance of e-books. The results appear below. - David Rothman

///////////////////////

By DANIEL P. B. SMITH

A newcomer to e-books asked, "What do you think is the single main reason that e-books are beginning to gain in popularity?"

That's the wrong question. Worldwide sales are said to be less than $50 million a year. In the years 2000 to 2002 there was some buzz about e-books, and I occasionally heard people talking about them even if my Rocket wasn't in plain sight. I don't think they're a blip on the average person's radar.

So far e-books have not caught on for the same three reasons that the DiVX and Flexplay failed: (1) over-restrictive digital rights management, (2) greed and (3) lack of content. There is also another reason related to the third--(4) lack of enough best-selling authors.

Reason #1: Over-restrictive DRM

Publishers have not come to grips with the social aspect of book reading.

At least half the pleasure of reading a good book is being able to lend it to someone to discuss. Bookplates go back centuries. My wife has already purchased two books that I had bought for my Rocket eBook, because she didn't know I had them. Even if she had known, she doesn't know how to work the various tricks involved in running my RocketLibrarian software

RocketLibrarian was buggy to begin with and is now very buggy since it is forced to run in Classic mode under my Mac's OS X. Besides, even if she had owned her own Rocket eBook, I wouldn't have been able to lend her any of my books since each book is keyed to each machine.

Reason #2: Greed

I have had at least ten conversations with strangers that went like this:

"Hey, what's that gadget?"

"Oh, it's my eBook. I'm reading 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson."

"How is it?"

"Great, like everything else Bryson has written."

"No, I mean, how's your e-book?"

"I like it. I have it loaded up with eight books for this trip. The screen is very nice and it's very pleasant to read."

"How much do the books cost?"

"About the same as hardbounds if the book's not out in paper yet--about the same as a paperback if it is."

At this point there is a long pause while the stranger's interest level in e-books nosedives to zero, followed perhaps by expressions of incredulity.

Reason #3: Lack of content

There has, so far, never been any significant fraction of recent, big-selling books available in eBook form.

In 2001 I went through the 43 books in Oprah's Book Club and found that all but 7--over 80 percent--were available as audio books, but only six--15 percent--were available as e-books.

E-books need to offer access to a very wide range of titles from the same literary world as print books. That's a real sticking point, and nothing significant will happen in e-books until that changes. If I hear about a neat new book on NPR, there has just got to be at least an 80 percent chance that I can buy it in e-book format.

When you can take the fifty favorite print books that are already on your shelf and put them into your e-book machine, and pick a half-dozen of your choice that you've heard reviewed on the radio or read about in a magazine and buy them at a fair price and without unreasonable restrictions and put them in your e-book device, and talk about them with your friends and lend them, e-books will take off.

Put simply, the technology is fine but the publishers have given us absolutely no rational reason to buy an eBook.

Reason #4--related to #3: Not enough best-selling authors

In e-book circles, Charlotte Boyette-Campo is celebrated as a best-selling writer of paranormal romances. But in terms of winning the ordinary reading public over to e-books, the availability of Charlotte Boyette-Campo will not compensate for the absence of Barbara Kingsolver.

No authors published primarily in e-book format are known to the general public.

One member of the eBook Community list gave Darrell Bain and Ms. Boyette-Campo as examples of significant authors published only in e-book format. I performed a quick test. Thanks to my local library, I can do full-text searches of The New York Times, and when I search on "Darrell Bain" and "Charlotte Boyette-Campo" I get no hits, meaning that these writers have apparently never been mentioned in The New York Times, not even once. If I expand the search to include The Boston Globe and The Boston Herald, it seems they haven't heard of them, either.

Yes, I know--The New York Times is a print publication and biased against e-publishing, but if any primarily e-book writer had broken through to a large audience I can't believe the phenomenon wouldn't have rated at least a mention.

Needed: iPoddish pricing

In comparison, it seems like a lot of people I know are buying iPods, even people who don't own Macs and have never bought anything from Apple before. The iPod is a good product, but no better in its own way than a Rocket eBook. The difference is what I mentioned: price, DRM, and content availability.

iPod owners have reasonably priced content--I say that because most popular music CD's are purchased in order to get two or three songs on them. Paying 3 x $0.99 to get three songs you want, versus paying $11.95 for a CD with the three songs you want and nine that have only marginal value to you, is a good value proposition. They have lightweight DRM; you can share your songs with your significant other, burn them to CD, and so forth. And a very big fraction of everything you can buy in your local music store is available.

Notice that all the phony explanations of why eBooks aren't taking off (they don't smell like real books, etc.) apply to iPods just as well. Perhaps people miss the cover art or the CD booklet or the lovely rainbow effect of light reflecting from a shiny CD or the smell of a decaying LP jacket, but it's not stopping them from buying iPods.

The funny thing is that the advantages of an iPod over an analog cassette Walkman are actually very narrow. A Walkman sounds about as good and doesn't weigh that much more.

So what are the compelling iPod advantages? 1) Density--the ability to carry a big part of your entire music collection with you. 2) Transferability--the ability to RIP the CDs you already own and put them "in" your Walkman. 3) Fine-grained purchase; the ability to buy only the songs you actually want. Very wide selection from essentially the same musical world as CDs. 5) Fairness. DRM schemes that are porous (allow burning to CD) and perceived by customers as reasonably fair.

Perhaps independent artists and small producers are starting to find niches that have been opened up, but what opened the market initially is ordinary listeners who want to buy Britney Spears (and The Boston Pops and Wynton Marsalis).

I mean, what you can find at the iTunes Music Store is a very respectable selection of everything. It looks like a half-decent music store, not like the CD section of K-Mart. And, yes, under the umbrella of Britney Spears, small but established niche performers are finding a home. Look! Six albums by my fave, folksinger Arlo Guthrie, and one I don't have on CD yet.

So let's look at e-books. Which of these characteristics apply to e-books, and which of them could apply?

Density: yes, definitely. The biggest reason I got my Rocket eBook was so I could bring eight novels with me on trips, and even have them in my carryon.

Transferability: no. But publishers could achieve this fairly easily in a number of ways. At least some technical books consist of a print copy with _a complete electronic copy in a bound-in CD_. You could have a serialized, self-verifying code number sticker on every book, as they do on software CDs, and buying the book gives you the right to download an electronic version online by typing in the code number. For old books, they could use a combination of weak protection and a small fee. $0.99 cents, and type in the fourth word on the sixth line of page 269, and by clicking here you swear on a stack of e-Bibles that you own the print copy.

///////////////////////

So much for Dan's Smith's thoughts. I'm not saying I agree with everything. For example, I believe that the future of e-books in time will be entirely online --let's forget about stickers and whatnot. What's more, to his reasons for the e-book flop, I would add the Tower of eBabel, which actually relates to the pricing issue. After all, format differences jack up publishers' prices and interfere with the efficiencies of the market.

Still, I can easily see why he would place the DRM mess as the number one reason for the failure of e-books--I'd agree with him.

OpenReader, in which I'm involved, will seek to address both the format and DRM questions.

Let's hope that other solutions to the other issues will soon also be at hand. E-books are not about to vanish, but in the near future they are not likely to come close to their potential, either--not unless the industry makes major changes.
posted by David Rothman at 8:46 AM | permanent link

So why isn't an e-book-friendly tablet computer with an extra-sharp screen going for $50 at the local Wal-Mart? Someday that will happen. But don't count on overnight miracles. Here's the lowdown from OpenReader's Jon Noring, moderator of the ebook Community list, in reply to the assertion that hardware people are too greedy. Still on the way in the near future: Daniel Smith's essay on why e-books haven't taken off. - David Rothman

I've been involved with some hardware development activities, including looking at the economics of building an inexpensive yet powerful e-book-optimized portable PC.

After talking to many experts, I know why people must pay big bucks for these cool, high-powered tablet-sized devices.

The reason has little to do with greed or back-room conspiracies, and mostly to do with risk and uncertainty--the need to maximize profits and minimize risk.

Even $300 a tough challenge

Even if a manufacturer threw caution to the wind, it could not sell these high-powered tablets for anywhere close to $50 each. In fact, $300 retail would be a very tough reach for the retail price and probably impossible.

I think $500 retail would also be difficult, but not impossible. Like the example above, this assumes a high-res screen and the same performance level and feature set as the high-power $2,000 tablet computer.

Let's say a Wal-Mart supplier decided to build and sell a gazillion of those machines with the same level of perforance. Suppose the computer company used its clout to squeeze out every last drop of blood from component and parts suppliers, as well as using Linux and open source applications everywhere. And let's also say that Prisoners in Outer Bulgravia put the devices together.

Well, I doubt that even slave labor could drive the price down to less than $200 in manufacturing cost, and that's being very generous. This does not include costs associated with development, tooling, and marketing. Nor does it include any wholesale/retail margin--profit for the company and for retailers.

Hundreds of millions in commitment

To get the manufacturing cost down this low, the Wal-Mart supplier will have to order over a million of them, meaning the company will have to commit hundreds of millions of dollars.

Plus, the company will end up doing a hell of a lot of marketing--more Big Bucks--and hope to sell one million of these gizmos to the general public.

Is the market there for one million of these high-performance devices at $500 a pop?

When we will see the $50 tablet

Now this doesn't mean that we'll never see the $50 tablet computer--in 2005 dollars--that sells for $2,000 today. But a lot of commoditization has to occur for the many components that go into such devices: memory, hard-drives, CPUs, flat screens, and graphics cards.

These are the most expensive components which come to mind that need to further mature (especially in their manufacturing costs) to reach the commodity level. They are getting there, but it won't happen overnight.

What does drive pricing is to maximize profit with minimum risk. Try to sell a widget for $0.00 and you may sell a zillion of them, but make zero--or lose money. Or sell the widget for $1,000,000 and sell zero of them, again yielding zero profit. So the maximum profit occurs somewhere in between the two pricing extremes. And of course the minimum price is a non-zero price because of real-world development, manufacturing and marketing costs.

The ultimate "why" of the $2K price

I believe these $2,000 tablets are being priced today to maximize profit within reasonable risk. What further adds to this is that it is a very competitive market. Anyone who comes out with a much cheaper tablet with the same high-power features and performance will lock up the market. But this has not happened yet. Apparently the marketing factors that would allow much cheaper pricing--notwithstanding the limitations of manufacturing cost described above--are just not there. It is too risky yet for any manufacturer to throw caution to the wind and try to market a zillion of them.

The same sort of analysis also applies to e-book-only hardware devices which may not need the high-power components of the $2,000 tablet device. Only that the price-point is lower.

Among some members of the eBook Community list, however, there still persists a strange view that such devices could be built today at commodity-level pricing, such as $50 for a Cybook-like device. This is fantasy. The reason has nothing to do with greed and everything to do with what is possible to do today.

Like the 200-mile-per-gallon car

We'd all love to see 200-mile-per-gallon automobiles with the same performance as today's cars, but wishing for something does not mean that it is therefore possible. Some things just can't be done at any particular moment in history no matter how much one wishes and hopes.

Now, it's okay to dream for the future, but we are talking about the here and now.

///////////////

The TeleRead take: An interesting essay, and I'd agree with Jon. But here's a thought. What if enough libraries, schools and other banded together to help even sellers of a $200-$300 machine make a profit? Suppose the feds did something with a focused procurement program in partnership these institutions? I made a similar point in a Computerworld article in 1992, looking ahead to the future; and I believe that the technology is ready for this to happen--with the $50 price point eventually possible. - David Rothman
posted by David Rothman at 7:02 AM | permanent link

Think that Microsoft DRM sucks, especially when you run out of activation opps? Read the latest horror story in jkOnTheRun. (Spotted via Mike Cane.)
posted by David Rothman at 6:37 PM | permanent link

Nokia is now shipping its new 7710 with Mobipocket included. First markets are Europe and Africa. This is good news for eBooks.com, which has a deal with Nokia. See, didn't we say the reader would most likely be Mobipocket--our favorite among the proprietary readers?
posted by David Rothman at 4:05 PM | permanent link

E-book expert Tom Peters, an academic librarian who also specializes in the library needs of the blind and visually impaired, will discuss "The Future of the Digital Library" this Thursday at 3 p.m. in an audiocast from Innovate Online.

Interviewing him will be James Morrison, the University of North Carolina education professor emeritus who edits Innovate. Also see a text Q&A with Tom on the same topic.

Click here for audiocast details. Registered listeners with the right software can use voice to particpate.
posted by David Rothman at 3:25 PM | permanent link

From Tom Peters, moderator of the Meting of the Minds chatcasts sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Books Center:

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific:

The Meting of the Minds Online Book Discussion Group will be discussing the nonfiction work The Difference that Disability Makes by Rod Michalko. A blind Canadian professor articulates the way society perceives people with handicaps and usually associates impairment with suffering. The author explores why disabled persons are either feared or considered useless, illustrating with anecdotes from his own experience. Some strong language. RC 56208, 2 cassettes. Read by Brian Conn.

You can access the chatcast by using Internet Explorer and going to the following Web address: http://www.tcconference.com/lib/?auditorium&nopass_field=1

iVocalize software will download automatically and not leave any spyware.

To speak your questions, you'll need a microphone. To hear you'll need a soundcard. You can also ask questions by typing.

The chatcasts are open to disabled and nondisabled people alike.
posted by David Rothman at 3:02 PM | permanent link

Prof. John Edwards's UNC-based anti-poverty center isn't the only sign that Edwards will probably run again for president in 2008. Now he again has a campaign-style, PRish blog.

Am I asking for too much to see some heartfelt personal blogging by Edwards himself? Even just once a week? Might this even be a way for Edwards to understand some of the complications of current copyright law--better than he apparently has in the past? Perhaps if Edwards directly posts to the Net and treats bloggers like peers, not just targets for pre-campaign hardsell, he'll respect the online world more.

Understanding the copyright needs of the nonelite

Someday perhaps he'll actually understand the needs of Americans outside the Hollywood elite and take a populist stand against the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Detail: Isn't V-Day supposed to be the day Edwards starts at UNC? No more Prof.-to-Be. He's a part-time professor for real.

Question: Anyone know who's paying for the center? Which private contributors? As I recall, this isn't just UNC money alone.

Reminder: Hey, I'm a lifelong lib Dem and voted for the guy in November. I'd just like him to be a copyriht populist, too, not merely the drug-cost variety. Still baffled why he refused to speak out--even while on the copyright-related Senate Judiciary Committee.

Related: A mini-guide to encourage minorities and low-income folks to blog. This is just the kind of thing that the Edwards poverty center could encourage--with an important twist. Community-initiated blogging networks in the vein of the North Carolia NAACP's could be an important source of feedback from the grassroots for Edwards and his policy advisors. It's silly, silly, silly if Edwards thinks that the current crop of bloggers can really be a source of representative feedback on their own.

How Edwards could do better: With community blogging networks, full of posts from actual working people, an Edwards blog could link to their items and comment on them. They might even feel like linking back to him. Win-win. But first the community-initiated blogging need to exist, and instead of spending a fortune just on advisors, maybe Edwards center should help the NAACP and similar groups do their own thing and get Voices of the People online for real. Needless to say, community-initiated blogging could also be a boon for researchers, who could look for trends. And, oh, I don't think community-initiated blogs--let's call them CIBs--should be just for Edwards and the Democrats. They should be structured to be community resources, not just the partisan variety.
posted by David Rothman at 2:39 PM | permanent link

In explaining why e-books have not caught on so far--nope, they haven't--Daniel Smith lists onerous DRM as a major reason. Read his article here in the next day or so. Others agree with Daniel. Check out an item in LISNews based on a password-protected article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
posted by David Rothman at 2:28 PM | permanent link

Stover at Yale, Owen Johnson's romanticized look at Ivy League life, was hardly the best written novel. But it somewhat influenced the writings of Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and now you can read it for free in electronic form.
posted by David Rothman at 2:08 PM | permanent link

Today I'm awaiting some extra information from two e-book-related contributors--before posting their work.

Meanwhile I'll keep the focus on blogging. It really has more to do with e-books than many would think. Get people on the Net, one way or another, and the e-book reading will follow in time--ideally with bloggers able to point to favorite titles; in fact, even paragraphs within them.

With a TeleRead-style approach and OpenReaderish tech, books could truly be part of blogdom.

I was tickled to get an email reply back from Jerry L. McClough, with whom I'll be blogrolling. Jerry is the visionary behind that 102-blog network that the North Carolina NAACP is setting up; and he and I will be chatting later this week. While blogging is good for most everyone, it's the poor and minorities who can benefit the most, given the frequent neglect by white journalists

Blogging offers a way to pass on information, empower minorities and the poor of all races, and build a sense of community. Thanks to video and audio, you won't even have to enjoy reading to be able to participate, especially in the future as broadband prices decline.

I'm pro-literacy, of course. But I say, "Get the people online, and the reading may well follow, especially if local libraries, schools and churches can encourage this. They themselves can link in to community blogging networks."

Notice? I said link in--with the community people already having built the networks. No, I'm not saying that library- and newspaper-built networks are bad, just the opposite. But community-created networks may enjoy far more credibility among the poor and members of minorities. By taking the initiative in such a major way, the Carolina project is a landmark in the history of blogging at the state level and perhaps even the national one. Z-z-z-z. I can hear a few techies snoring. People-type things can be real yawners. But trust me--this is significant, perhaps even more so than the Greensboro News-Record's laudable efforts to reach out to bloggers.

Toward mass blogging at the community level

Having done the poverty-beat decades ago at a factory-town daily in the Midwest, I'm thinking of the steps needed to get low-income people blogging in a massive way so the media can know they're alive. Even good newspapers are likely to miss out on important minority stories if community people themselves don't act proactively. Hint to the newsies in Greensboro: Jerry's NAACP blog network is itself a great example of minority news worthy of mention. Is a story for the print editions coming if you haven't done one already?

But what about issue of what's next for Jerry and crew? He is the real expert, but below are my own thoughts from afar--generic ideas that may apply in many places, not just North Carolina. If anyone thinks I am wrong or am missing out on something, just shoot me a line.

Anyway, here's a possible roadmap for getting community people blogging in a major way:

Step #1: Try to build on the existing blogging movement

Minority and the poor can try to build on the existing blog movement and see if there are volunteers willing to help. Type the name of your city and "blog" and see what Google will spew out. Another good one is Vivisimo, with its ability to sort its findings into categories.

No guarantees. Yes, some bloggers may not care enough about the technology as a path to better schools, more jobs, better roads, improved medical care, and other sources of boredom. But it's worth a shot. You never know. Some of the hardest-core geeks may even be past activists, and you just might reawaken the Inner Do-Gooder in them.

Don't give up if the interest isn't there locally. If nothing else, I suspect that the Carolina initiative will establish itself as a role model to follow, and you can piggyback on the lessons learned there--and maybe share your own wisdom.

What's more, keep in mind that blogging isn't the most complicated technology for ordinary person. Free canned solutions are available from the likes of Blogger, and if people want to set up a blog network, all they need to do is designate one blog as Blog Central--a Community Blog picking up items from member blogs.

One of the glories of the NAACP's Carolina initiative, however, is that Jerry took the initiative and created blogs all set to go.

Step #2: Address hardware issues

Try to obtain computers for community people if needed--the digital divide is still alive and well in many places. Any big corporations with cast-off machines that they could give to community groups in return for tax breaks? And how about old machines from universities? Time to check in with, say, the local United Way and see which business are the most community-minded? Also, visit the Web sites of groups listed by Hearts and Minds.

Step #3: Educate folks in use of the hardware and the Net

Show folks how to use the machines and the Internet. Perhaps already-computer-hip young people could earn hardware by tutoring others. This is in line with what some other community projects are doing. The good folks at the Epie Institute are experts in the Time Dollar concept as applied to high tech. Also check out groups such as Computer Mentors, the source of the above Digital Divide graphic, for pointers. Consider, too, participation in the Digitial Divide Network for activists, educators, community organizers and others. Training is a major issue the Network addresses.

Step #4--actually happening with Step #3: Get community people online in an affordable way

Get community people online in an affordable way, ideally with at least some limited video and audio capabilities. Multimedia at 56K is better than none at all. The real solution will be wi-fi or other wireless technologies. What's more, local communities may be able to get advice from One Economy, which may help not just with connectivity but hardware--or at least offer suggestions.

Step #5: Set up your Community Blog--the one that you want the world at large to read, not just members

This wrap-up blog will pick up the best and most informative posts from other blogs. At the start, many of the posts there will be tips for bloggers--both tech- and writing-related. Do your Blog Central even before the teaching effort begins. Link from it to detailed guides for new local bloggers. The guides can be in both multimedia and text.

Also, try to get video and audio going on the Community Blog as soon as possible. Jerry already seems to be headed in that direction via some video and audio on his personal blog.

In thinking multimedia, don't neglect the possibilties of podcasting--which will be just grow and grow as broadband makes downloading easier. You can hear podcasts on desktops, not just iPods.

Step #6: Blogging 101

Teach folks how to blog and generate items of use to themselves and the mainstream media. Most posts will be for fellow users--for example, sports-, school-, hobby or church-related items. But some posts may be for wider audiences on such issues as road repair. Or how about an item bragging about someone's unusual achievements--for example, a great grandmother earning her college degree?

In the case of the more computer- and media-hip people, try to help them get going for video and audio. Others will follow.

Also, as early as possible, teach the concept of RSS--using easy software or online services like Yahoo's online aggregator, or maybe Bloglines. Encourage people to use RSS not just for blogging but for keeping up with the news media, and the same time encourage local newspapers to create detailed RSS feeds, especially of local news. Some RSS feeds might even be organized by ZIP codes, with detailed, super-localized information transmitted that would be missing from the print versions. Perhaps the best bloggers could even turn into correspondents for the papers.

Needless to say, RSS feeds should also be a wonderful way for schools, libraries and other institutions to hook into the community-initiated blogging networks. Blog Centrals could use RSS to pick up highlights from local institutions. What's more, library systems could offer Yahoo-style aggregation pages that picked up posts from local networks.

The used-car lot concept will apply. So often, car dealers actually find that they'll do better with their competition at hand--one-stop shopping and all that. The same concept applies here. If community people go online to read community blogs, they will be more likely to read blogs from newspapers, libraries, schools and the rest--especially if these community institutions take pains to carry local items from and of interest to the poor and members of minority. Along the way, everything should keep thinking multimedia, not just text--since the latter can former can lead to interest in the latter.

Step #7: Set up a feedback operation

Provide community bloggers with constructive feedback--nurturing, not just critiquing!--to improve the quality of their efforts. Hone their news sense. Encourage good grammar and good spelling and try to find volunteers to help. But worry less about New York Times-level English and more about accuracy and relevance.

The positive feedback can appear in your Community Blog--maybe even with monthly prizes for the best post in various categories. Negative feedback aimed at individuals should be limited to email, and it should be written in positive ways with the targets' self-esteem in mind.

Step #8: Educate folks in the ways of the media

Teach neighborhood people how to communicate directly to the press and say: "Look, you might as well write about this since it's all over town." Make it clear to the press that you expect positive coverage of achievements, not the usual crime-and-poverty coverage. No certainties. Just give it a try. Not everyone will do the PR routine. But the people behind the Community Blog can educate others for when the time comes to speak to the press, which generally would rather hear a story from its direct source rather than an official spokesman.

Step #9: Aim for structured empowerment

By all means, use the blog network for empowerment--not just on the usual education issues and other civic-related ones, but also on high-tech matters of state and local interest. Use the blogging community to lobby for free and low-cost wi-fi efforts and against efforts by telecom companies to resist this movement. At the same time be willing to work with telephone and cable companies that do seem reasonable.

Let's hope this post can find the right audience--please feel free to reproduce it without permission. Few Afro-American faces were seen among the bloggers at the valuable conference in Chapel Hill. May future conferences in North Carolina and elsewhere be different!

Related: Lifting some of the fog from blogs, a Hartford Courant article that the Charlotte Observer picked up, perhaps in part to atone for an Observer columnist's recent atrocity. This article may vanish soon; so read it now.

Update, 8:04 p.m., Feb. 14: Jerry modestly writes in: "David, I owe all the thanks to the true visionaries, who are Tara Sue Clark and Ross Myers of policlicks.com and Choices of Democracy. They have been working on this for the last three years. Google Tara Sue and take a look at the history... We are working with the VFW also. You must meet these guys. They're awesome." True. Check out Ed Cone's mention of Tara Sue and Ross and the North Carolina VFW. The VFW down there says that all of its 225 posts have given blogs. Great! Another example in progress of a community-initiated blog network!
posted by David Rothman at 9:19 AM | permanent link

North Carolina has 102 NAACP-related blogs ready to go, even if almost no one seems to be posting to them yet. No surprise. This statewide project by affiliates of the leading civil rights group seems to be just starting. It could well be a model for chapters in other states, a way for blogging to reach farther beyond techies and the well-off. Even homeless people have done blogs, but the Carolina initiative shows that the technology is now entering the mainstream despite attacks in the news media.

I hope to catch up with Jerry L. McClough at some point for more information. Way to go, Jerry. Congratulations also to your statewide president, Melvin "Skip" Alston, shown above. Just what can people outside Carolina do to help? In this era of Skype and Packet8, all kinds of things are possible even if you can't round up enough assistance locally. Maybe your blogging network can even organize in time against Hollywood-bought copyright laws as poverty-promoters, a pesky topic neglected by the mass media. Just one of many issues to cover, but an important one, as the Eyes on the Prize mess shows. The more money paid to studios and rich heirs, the less for the poverty fights of schools and libraries. Too bad the media and even "populist" Democrats like John Edwards are essentially tolerant of Washington's multibillion-dollar copyright giveaways such as the Sonny Copyright Term Extension Act.

Blogs as info sources for journalists and researchers

From what I hear, incidentally, through an MP3 from audioactivism.org, Afro-Americans are not entirely happy with something else in the media realm--the Greensboro paper's coverage of their communities. Maybe John Edwards' much-ballyhooed poverty center can help correct this--by arranging for blog training in local communities. Newspapers can assist, too. In fact, that excellent suggestion was already made at a Greensboro blogging conference by, I think, Dave Winer himself if I heard correctly. Good idea. It's far better than the Alpha Blogger's notion of a blog-based economy for an area hit by massive layoffs in the textile industry.

Blogging is a potential enabler for activism, education and businesses--not a source of mass employment, especially for the poor of all races--and the NAACP's activities could be a great example.

The NAACP and the Chapel Hill conference crowd

In fact, what if the NAACP effort were to be a theme of the next Chapel Hill blogging conference? Talk about blogging as a way to help give a voice to the voiceless--including maybe even a voice in the literal sense! TeleRead already has a lively audio blog from David Fauxcheux, a blind librarian, to whom AudioBlogger currently links based on the quality of his commentaries and book reviews.

For journalists and policymakers alike, grassroots bloggers undoubtedly will have plenty to say in all media. Let's just hope that the Edwards wonks will read, listen and watch via the Net--and also invite community-level activists to Chapel Hill and keep in touch with them in other ways.

OK--so I'm venturing somewhat into the territory I planned to cover via a Net-related to-do list for the Edwards center. So be it.
posted by David Rothman at 5:54 AM | permanent link

Last year TeleRead carried the item Free hate site gets Rank #1 for word 'Jew' on Google--while Anne Frank's Diary is verboten for free use. I wondered if anything had changed, which would be nice with Passover coming up. No such luck, alas. I do not want Google to rig the rating system. Still, it would be great if the good guys won Rank #1 via a campaign to link the word Jew to a Wikipedia entry, which at least has resulted in a #2 rank on Google. There. I just did it and feel better already. Anyone care to follow? Of course, as noted last year, it would also help to have the Frank book and similar material on the Net for free--just like the bigots' site.
posted by David Rothman at 3:17 AM | permanent link

More will appear here on the Edwards poverty center in North Carolina and the use of the Net to make community connections. Ideally the center's wonks will not be as clueless and arrogant as both the Edwards and Kerry campaigns were at times. Not sure about the timing of the list of recs for the center. But this is still on the TeleRead to-do list. I just want more time for reflection, and there are some e-book-related items I want to run first, including Daniel Smith's pleas for more e-content from best-selling writers--the kind mentioned on NPR. I'll also be sharing a U.K.-based writer's list of tips for e-book authors in dealing with publishers, including the recently mentioned Writers Exchange Publishers.

Meanwhile, speaking of Carolina and blogging and the related conference, let's not pick just on those who see blogging as a panacea. A blog-based economy can't replace textile jobs. But really, is blogging as nefarious as a semi-coherent Charlotte Observer column would have you believe? Observer staffer John McBride wrote a beaut headined Will blogs liberate us or just bog us down? (password required). Just what qualifies McBride to knock blogging? It's more of a social thing than a technical thing. Who cares if his column identifies him as an applications analyst with Microsoft training? Maybe he also holds a Ph.D. in sociology, but from afar, this guy strikes me as totally clueless about the possibilities of the Net's many-to-many mode. Read a rebuttal from Anonymoses, aka David Beckwith, spotted via Ed Cone's blog.

Related: Anonymous finally got his wish, from David Hoggard, as well as coverage of the blogger's conference in Chapel Hill from the Barber Shop Blog, Science and Politics and others. You can also hear Dave Winer--the blog-based economy guy--via an MP3 from a Greenboro blogging conference recorded by audioactivism.org. Actually I think he did a pretty good Phil Donahue routine in drawing the audience out.
posted by David Rothman at 1:37 AM | permanent link