The E-book:
Today and Tomorrow
Hope N. Tillman, Babson College
Walt Howe, Delphi Forums
Monday, November 5, 2001
Topics to be covered
• e-book hardware
• e-book software
• converting
• e-publishers and booksellers
• digital textbooks
• library community products
• standards
• rights management
• copyright/security issues
• future trends
Hardware - November 2001
Dedicated ebook devices
RCA REB1100 and REB1200
Rocket and Softbook (no longer made)
Cybook goReader
MyFriend
Tablet computers that can be used to read
ebooks
AlphaBook HPW-630ETR (ePlate)
Microsoft tablet pc (still concept)
Qbe Original & Vivo Sharp RW-A230
Voyager by Monec Web Pad
WebPad WebPAD
WebTablet Xerox Gyricon E-Ink
Example: RCA REB1200
Example: Microsoft Tablet PC
(concept)
E-Paper
Xerox Gyricon
E-Ink
Hardware - November 2001
Handheld/Pocket
Aero 1550 IPAQ H3600 Cassiopeia E-115, EM-500
Datamyte 4000
eBookMan by Franklin HP Jornada Hiebook
Palm SIMpad
TouchPC Voyager Visor
Phone
SAGEM WA 3050 a full dual-band GSM phone
Hardware – Nov. 2000
Softbook Reader from Softbook Press (Gemstar)
Rocket e-Book from NuvoMedia (Gemstar)
RCA REB1100 and REB1200 (Thomson
Multimedia)
Palm Pilot/ Windows CE devices, incl.
Handspring Visor
Pocket PC Devices: Hewlett-Packard's Jornada
545
EB Dedicated Reader
Glassbook Reader Device
Software Readers
For Palm OS
Adobe Acrobat
Aportis
Iambic
Isilo
MobiPocket
Palm Reader
Primer PDF
Qvadis Express
Software Readers
For Franklin OS- Franklin
OEB
Echyon Reader
Flip Browser
PC
Ebrary Info Tools
HieBook Reader
Microsoft Reader
MobiPocket
NetLibrary
TK3
Adobe
Windows CE
MobiPocket
Software Readers -specialized
Bookwormie – multilingual (different character
sets)
BrailleNote
Smart Reader – math/sci/engineering
SVG Viewer
TK3 Reader – multimedia
WAX - for KM projects
Display features
Typeface
Linked table of contents
Linked index
Search
Bookmarking
Annotations and Highlighter
Dictionary
Scrolling
Converting
The following are a sample of what is currently
available as converters and publishers:
Acrobat 5.0 and Capture
Activ E-Book Compiler
Memoware (iSolo) – see their conversion table
Microsoft Reader add-in for Microsoft Word
Overdrive
Rocket Writer
X-it (Quark to XML)
Example: Rocket Writer
Publishers
Publishers are looking at variety of choices to
make their products available electronically
while protecting their rights
See (Barnes & Noble), Powells, GemStar and
(NetLibrary) list of publishers
McGraw-Hill
Random House
Simon & Schuster
Time Warner
Vanity Publishers
Minimal barriers to entry into publishing ebooks
1st Books
BiblioBytes
Book Locker
Buy Books on the Web
FatBrain – Mighty Words (eMatter)
NightKitchen
Online Originals
Spirit Virtual Books
TK3 by Night Kitchen
Universal Publishers
Xlibris
Lightning Source
http://www.lightningsource.com
Lightning Source Inc., a subsidiary of
Ingram Industries Inc. is "The Digital
Content Connection"SM
Print-on-demand
Vanity publishing
The Morphing of Book Sellers
(Vanity Publishing Plus)
Alex Catalog of Etexts
http://www.infomotions.com/alex
BookonWeb - http://www.bookonweb.com/
(Contentville) – closed this month
Fictionwise – http://www.fictionwise.com
KnowBetter.com – http://www.knowbetter.com
The Library Place (informata.com)
eBooks on Demand
There are minimal barriers to entry into
publishing electronic books as opposed to
becoming a print publisher
Mightywords http://www.mightywords.com
St. Barthelemy Press
http://www.stbarthelemypress.com/
Audio eBooks
Audible
http://www.audible.com
Digital Textbooks (K-12 and
beyond)
Digital textbooks, offer a learning environment for a
new generation of students by combining the
strength of great academic content with the exciting
capabilities of the personal computer and the
Internet! Digital textbooks encourage integration,
creative exploration, and active investigation
Wizeup – http://www.wizeup.com
Addison-Wesley – http://www.aw.com
Metatext - http://www.metatext.com
Thomson eLearning (http://www.archipelago.com/)
Jones Knowledge.com http://www.jonesknowledge.com
Blackboard, etc. http://www.blackboard.com
Sampling Textbook Publishing
Web sites for supplementary materials,
workbooks, exercises, case studies, exams,
teachers manuals, prefaces, and bibliographies
Easy updating
A few players
Addison Wesley – statistics
http://www.aw.com/stats/
http://www.awlonline.com/triola
Allyn & Bacon/Longman (Pearson)
http://vig.abacon.com/
Southwestern Publishing http://www.swcollege.com/
Thomson Learning http://www.thomsonlearning.com/
Companies Focusing on
Library Community
Going to the publisher world and
converting output to digital format those
things that began life as print
NetLibrary http://www.netlibrary.com
Questia http://www.questia.com
Ebrary http://www.ebrary.com
MeansBusiness
http://www.meansbusiness.com
Open eBook Forum
http://www.openebook.org/
OEBPS (open ebook publication structure) is a
nonproprietary, open format.
Plan is for companies developing tools to convert
proprietary formats into OEB
Subset of HTML tags
Leverage the current installed base of data in html, tools,
creation tools, etc.
Cascading style sheet subset
Use Dublin core
A goal is XML validity (desired, not required)
Common Coding Standards
.OEB/.HTML/.XML – open
.PDF – Adobe
.LIT – Microsoft
.PDB – Palm
.RB - Rocket/REB
.TXT – ASCII, text
.TK3 – Night Kitchen
Standards:
Digital Rights Management
XrML – open
http://www.xrml.org
InterTrust – http://www.intertrust.com
Reciprocal – http://www.reciprocal.com
Rights Market –
http://www.rightsmarket.com
Digital Rights Management Issues
Restructuring of ownership relationships
between readers and publishers
Migration issues
Will ownership be backwardly compatible? -
-migrate to next reader?
Change in expectation about a book’s
persistence
Impact on Publishers
Standards: Security/
Copyright Protection
EBX – of the Book Industry Study Group
(BISG) met with the Open eBook Forum
(12/2000) and plans to combine as a focal
point for standards activities related to
electronic publishing.
http://www.ebxwg.org
Intellectual Property Issues
Ebook devices as a intellectual property
control system Viewing platforms and IP
control systems
Ebook devices today as closed intellectual
property control systems
Content locked into digital books –can’t
share with other people
Issues with privacy
Genres which fled print early or
developed online persona
Encyclopedias, many dictionaries
Databases in print, i.e. Science Citation Index
Redesigned content portals: MeansBusiness
http://www.meansbusiness.com
Primary sources for American history: Making
of America
Scholarly web sites – Perseus site at Tufts,
Romantic Circles work
The Making of America
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/
The Tufts Perseus Project
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/
Devices versus Computers
Devices/appliances can be substitutable for
books
Some products can accommodate to ebook
devices while others need the full power of
desktop computing
Nonlinear work does not do well on today’s devices
Devices/appliances and computers are
converging
Portable Library rather than
Portable Book?
What will be impact of much larger,
cheaper storage space?
Storage will get cheaper – will have object
that holds entire library, not just 10-20 books
What happens when the content of
resources more valuable than device?
What about portability to the next
generation?
Where will the future take us?
Where will the potential of print on demand
lead?
Will anything ever be out of print?
What will electronic paper/ink be used for:
replace, create new or live along side?
What about standards?
What about wireless?
What about convergence?
Library Use of
E-Books
Chris Rippel - Online notes for e-book preconference at Kansas
Triconference 2000
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/central/ebooks/libraries.html
See individual web sites:
Babson College http://www.babson.edu/library/
North Carolina State University
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/colmgmt/ebooks/
Charlotte and Mecklenberg County
http://www.plcmc.lib.nc.us/rocketebook/
Worthington Ohio
http://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/noflash/ebooks/
Springfield-Greenfield County Library District
http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/ebooks/ebooks.htm
References
Hawkins, Donald T. Electronic Books. Online: part 1,
July/August 2000, and part 2, September/October 2000
Lynch, Clifford. Electrifying the Book, Library
Journal Supplement Net Connect: part 1, October 15,
1999, and part 2, January 2000
Ohler, Jason. Taming the Technological Beast: The
Case of the E-Book. The Futurist, January-February
2001, pp. 16-21
Randolph, Susan E. Are e-books in Your Future?
Information Outlook, February 2001, pp. 22-28.
Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community:
Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993
Web Sites
http://www.knowbetter.com
They publish the weekly E-book
Informer that alerts to new titles
available for the most popular ebook
formats
http://www.planetebook.com
Contacts
Hope Tillman
Babson College
Horn Library
Babson Park MA 02457
Hope@hopetillman.com
http://www.hopetillman.com
Walt Howe
Delphi Forums
6 Saw Mill Brook Way
Woburn MA 01801
Walt@walthowe.com
http://www.walthowe.com
You will find this presentation at:
http://www.walthowe.com/ebooklinks.html