Why? I’m pretty sure I’m tracking all the Kindle-related blogs and message boards, and I’m just not seeing any significant up-tick in postings, traffic or buzz. Although the Kindle has been back in stock and shipping for at least a couple of weeks now, I’m seeing roughly the same number of weekly posts/comments on the Kindle Forum and Kindle Korner as there were when it was out of stock.

You’d think the pent-up demand for the device would have caused a surge on these forums but that doesn’t appear to be the case. New Kindle-related blogs aren’t exactly crawling out of the woodwork either. There was a flurry of new ones back in December and January but I couldn’t tell you the last time I discovered a new one, and I tend to search for them every week!

Finally, there’s my old pal, Google Trends. According to this chart, Sony’s Reader is still getting more Google searches than Amazon’s Kindle, but the latter has closed the gap a bit on the former, perhaps attributable to the Kindle being back in stock.

And the same’s true with Wikipedia. Generally, not always, entries on popular topics are more reliable than those on more arcane ones. Just be careful about entries which could draw a steady stream of partisan edits.

Such thoughts came to me while I was reading a Wikipedia-related column from Paul Gilster, an author, blogger and contributor to the Raleigh News  & Observer, who pointed out the popularity-reliability correlation. Originally he was a Wikipedia skeptic, but he has since come around around—while, appropriately, warning that you still need to be wary. Paul also suggests going to the source sites mentioned in citations.

At the same time, as the author of Centauri Dreams, a blog on deep space, Paul points to the value of Wikipedia for keeping up to date on arcane scientific subject—on which it can be more timely than, say, the Britannica.

Related: Free subscriptions and widgets for bloggers—from Encyclopedia Britannica.

A. Job preservation is Job Number One. The head of RIAA’s tech unit “made a list of the 22 ways to sell music, and 20 of them still require DRM.” 

Q. So what else are the RIAA and the rest of Washington doing to shaft the consumer?

A. Aggravating Cyber Prohibition, of course—or at least trying to, via a new bill.

DRM Alternatives—in an e-book/library context: Library books you can KEEP forever—and other ideas to help public libraries survive the digital era. No, libraries and e-bookstores can’t get rid of DRM overnight. But they can significantly reduce e-books’ reliance on this sales and lit toxin.

Related: Older adults and e-books—and how E could be the new ‘large print’  and E-books as the new large ‘print’: An eye doctor speaks out. In the first piece, librarian Isabelle Fetherston noted that “large-print books tend to be too heavy and unwieldy for many older people with arthritis to hold.”

Library image: CC-licensed photo from Michael K. Pate showing large-print collection from Laurens County, S.C., library.

No, I don’t know if the information was e-book related. But you get the point. I’m just happy the Archive prevailed.

Related: Will the FBI monitor your e-book reading on the Kindle and other machines SOMEDAY? Or help censor you?

“Selected invitees will have the opportunity to hear Nicholas Negroponte give a “State of the State” address on the One Laptop per Child project to date and the evolution of the XO laptop. In addition, attendees will be privy to a discussion on the product roadmap for the XO along with the exclusive unveiling of the next generation of the XO.

“Nicholas and newly named OLPC President Chuck Kane will also be joined in the discussion by OLPC team members and government officials who have been on the ground in developing countries as thousands of XO laptops have been deployed and implemented into school systems. They will provide updates from countries including Peru, Uruguay and Haiti.”

Now I don’t know about you, but there is one phrase in all that which makes my pulse quicken: “the exclusive unveiling of the next generation of the XO.” Now what could that next generation be?

• A production level Windows XO?
• Maybe a Diamondville XO laptop?
• Or go crazy an show Sugar on the Classmate!

No matter what Nicholas Negroponte unveils, it will be the press event of the week for OLPC, and I’m quite sad I didn’t get an invite and will not be crashing the party.

Not that I will feel left out. I’m sure you have your own ideas on what Nicholas should be doing - just read the suggestions of what others would do if they could be Negroponte for a day. Better yet, give me your thoughts on what the “next generation XO” could be…

If you go by a report based on stats from 75 academic, public and special libraries, it is. But, yes, spending is still growing rapidly. Just not as fast. Sorry, I don’t have the stats.

See Friends of the Albany Public Library blog and  Primary Research group site (scroll down).

One of the main barriers to library use of e-books is that patrons don’t know as much about E as about P. I suspect that DRM and eBabel complexities are major factors here.

I’ve voiced concerns about the ePub format before, but I’ve been working with it for over a year and want to make it more accessible to independent, open-source Web developers and tech-savvy Web readers. I think free tools like this, and hopefully open source libraries to accompany them, will do a lot for the ePub format.

Try the converter—and share feedback

So please, create some ePubs. Readers, convert some of your favorite HTML editions to ePub and let me know how it goes. Authors, if you feel overwhelmed about how to get your work into the ePub format, use this tool to generate boilerplates. Web developers, if you’re curious about the internal XML workings of the format, rename your epub with a .zip extension and open the files up in your favorite text editor. Ask yourself how the format could be improved for Web browsers and let the IDPF know what you think. And finally, share what you build.

Moderator: That’s an unofficial ePub logo. Hello, IDPF? When will you do an official one? Meanwhile I’d encourage people to try out Aaron’s ePub converter, as he suggestions—and share feedback in our comment area, not just privately. - D.R.

But what about big book-publishers? Even when they think E, too many of them still mess up on the details of the niche approach. For example, they promote their general URLs rather than directing people to in-house niche sites for baseball fans or origami enthusiasts. Small publishers, especially the specialized ones, can actually outperform the big boys in many cases.

Clueful comments from a major industry guru

With the above in mind, I nodded as I read some recent speeches by Mike Shatzkin, a  publishing guru who has pounded the table for both e-books and  the need for a niche approach. “Every book should be an e-book,” he said, “and just about every book should be loaded for print-on-demand. POD is not just for end of life; for many books, it can be critical during mid-life.” Right now, it would appear that Hachette is the only major publisher releasing all titles in E—partly, I myself suspect, because it’s standardized on ePUB as a distribution format and can enjoy its economies.

I also liked Mike’s interest in the elderly as a market for POD, although I wish he’d really played up pure-E for them as the best approach to take, despite the need for format choices.

Free wisdom from Mike

Via the PersonaNonData blog of Michael Cairnes, another outspoken consultant and also the ex-president of R.R. Bowker, I ran across links to the Shatzkin speeches. Even with some repetition among them, they’re well worth a read, whether you’re a big publisher who needs shaking up, or a small, niche-hip guy or gal who would enjoy a little vindication, or a writer pondering whether to self-publish or go the traditional route:

• End of general trade publishing (completely retold), Jan. 22, 2008—delivered for Random House’s Digital Day
• Publishing in the Digital Age panel remarks, March 10, 2008, for the Book Business Conference and Expo.
• The digital state of play in the U.S., April 16, for U.K. publishers at the London Book Fair.
• The Future for Publishers and Booksellers, May 7, for Danish publishers and booksellers in Copenhagen.

Another good point Mike makes: The fact that use of e-books within the industry—for sales reps “carrying” around many manuscripts, for example—will help led to general use of e-books.

On dedicated e-devices and formats: “When research I did…demonstrated pretty convincingly that most e-books sold in the US are not read on devices, but are Adobe files that are most likely read on PCs,” Mike said, “I was surprised. Only about a third of sales are of Palm, Mobi, or Microsoft dot lit formats that we’d expect to be read on a handheld. The emergence of the Kindle and the vitality of Sony Reader may change that balance soon, but that’s what it has been.”

A related aside: I’ve queried a Sony PR rep for the latest on Adobe Digital Editions for the Sony Reader—just when will we see it available? Digital Editions is to let people read DRMed PDFs, not just Sony’s proprietary BBeB format. Let’s hope that ePub is also still on tap.

Detail: Unlike Mike, I continue to believe that cellphones will matter far, far more as e-readers than will Kindle-style devices, and I also wish he’d pay more attention to the eBabel crisis and the damage that the DRM mess has done to the book industry. But, hey, he’s entitled. Furthermore, I agree with him that the Kindle has done e-books a service in encouraging more publishers to digitize. It’s just that the real action, as I see it, will be on cellphones as they improve and rollout E Ink displays become common. Wireless, as an easy way for people to get books, can in effect be built in.

Image: CC licensed from Kapungo.

Technorati Tags: Mike Shatzkin,pubishing,book-pubishing,Michael Cairnes,PersonaNonData

So what would a rich man’s version of the XO-1 be like?

Vye’s stylish Mini-v S41, weighing just 2.75 pound and featuring a screen about the same size as the XO-1’s, just might qualify as such as machine. Price is $1,499—actually $300 less than the listed one for Apple’s MacBook Air—from Dynamism. Vye’s company motto is “Living life to the full,” a cheery line appearing on the home page with a beach scene.

As long as OLPC’s less in love with Linux…

The Vye Mini runs Vista Premium, a distinct negative for Linux fans. But, heck, we keep hearing that the XO-1 people are destined for XPdom, at least as an option on new machines.

Back to the Mini. There’s the expected trackpad. Plus, you get a seven-inch touch screen with at least an adequate res of 1024 x 600 pixels as well as built-in WiFi and an Intel Intel A110 800 MHz chip cruising at 800Mhz.

A bit skimpy in the RAM Department

RAM, alas, is a mere 1G, with just 2G max ($179 for the upgrade), a way to keep you in touch with your eco-budgeted buddies. But at least storage is 80G and presumably you can read your Project Gutenberg DVDs with a Super Multi drive. Oh, and the keyboard is said in the  New York Times to be “standard,” whatever that means.

Dynamism is now accepting “preorders.”

Also sold by Dynamism: The ASUS  Eee PC  900: “8.9″ WSVGA, 2.18 lbs, 12GB Solid State or 20gb HD, WiFi, Webcam.” Cost: $550 with your choice of Linux or XP. Shipping is said to be set for mid-May.

Note: I’ve lightened up the photos so the details will be more visible.

The TeleRead take:  Go here for downloads to address Reader and Acrobat 7 and 8 problems if you haven’t already.

Question: Do you think open source readers are better or worse from a security perspective than the usual commercial products are? And might Adobe’s security problems be one reason why the IDPF should encourage the creation and development of open-source ePUB readers—whose tires can be kicked from the start, to at least reduce the possibility of surprises later on? I want to see both open source and commercial models (in this case, Adobe’s ePUB-compatible Digital Editions) thrive.

Update, 2:03 p.m.: John Dowell at Adobe offered a helpful, unofficial response to the CW article.

Perhaps in some respects, if you rely on a desktop computer rather than a little PDA or a dedicated E Ink reader such as a Kindle, Sony or iLiad.

“Reading online on a desktop computer for 10 minutes produces the same load on the environment as reading an e-book for half an hour, and reading online for 30 minutes has the same overall effect as reading a print newspaper.”

So says Would you like that book in paper or plastic?—an article in Environmental Science & Technology—in summing up some recent research.

E-book angle

Now, what are the implications for people (1) reading the newspaper online longer than half an hour on a desktop or (2) reading an entire book? Check out ES&T.

Oh, the variables to consider, and I don’t just mean disposal of old computers or whether you use an LCD or cathode ray tube monitor! Remember, many people like to leave their desktops on constantly to download podcasts or for other reasons, such as avoidance of boot-up delays. If so, that would reduce the extra eco-strain from actual reading—since the equipment would have been humming away regardless. Then again, some might say: “Does your desktop really need to be on all the time?” Power saving tips, welcomed! Your thoughts on power management and the rest, in an e-book context?

• Excellent battery life
• Doesn’t seem to include DRM
• Tech support seems high-quality
• Transfer of reading material from one person to another seems error-free

(Thanks, Anne Gentle)

Then download a just-announced fix (password protected). I’ll also be curious to see if the new firmware lets you read DRM-protected library books in Mobipocket format.

More new wrinkles on the way

A full list of improvements–thanks, Bookeen!—appears ahead. Plus, future goodes are coming: a “new directory view,” “improved Mobipocket, PDF, HTML & TXT support,” “new user interface features” and “user interface translations.” I’m rooting for the ability to switch buttons around, so the raised button in the middle of the diamond can move me a page ahead.

Also of interest to hardware fans: The official availability of the Sony Reader in Canada, although you can get only the silver model.

OK, now here’s the information on the Cybook fix:

The first Cybook Gen3 firmware upgrade is now available [version 1.1, build 685].