From: Sandy Thatcher <[log in to unmask]> Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 18:27:06 -0500 The experience with Gutenberg-e makes me skeptical about your prediction under #3, Jim. Will it become so much cheaper to produce these more complex post-book apps than it is today that they can be priced as low as current e-books are and allow publishers to still make their margins? Maybe this will work for some high-end products that have a mass audience, like a Hunger Games app, but I can't see it taking over more specialized niches like scholarly publishing anytime soon. Sandy Thatcher At 6:33 PM -0400 4/8/12, LIBLICENSE wrote: > From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]> > Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 11:02:55 -0400 > > Joe, interesting post. Three thoughts: > > 1. You're quite right that for those of us with a large "installed > base" of practices and books and notes, the present environment is not > yet one that offers suitable working space and tools. The "e-book" > today is a flat sequential thing, inhospitable to notes, hyperlinks, > and comparison of multiple objects at the same time. Lots of things I > still do only with paper. But yes, I read on my iPad all the time. > > 2. But look at the comment on SK from a young scholar responding to > your post by saying essentially "I'm doing fine with e-stuff". I know > others in my very bookish tribe who have converted a ton of existing > books to PDF, shared the work and the product among themselves, and > are quite happily building careers far more paperlessly than I can > imagine. So your point and my first point may reflect facts about us > rather than about ebooks. > > 3. I probably owe this list an updated Amtrak e-book usage report. > But I have the feeling that just in the last few months (see the Pew > report just out) we have entered an unusually volatile period in which > devices and practices and even the nature of cultural objects are > changing rapidly. The PC arrived c. 1983, the graphical browser in > 1993, the ubiquitously networked PC c. 1985 (with Windows 95), and > things have been remarkably stable since -- till now. But the > smartphone and the tablet and the e-reader and their astonishingly > rapid takeup bid fair to create a working and living space very > different from what we've known. Joe, even you and I won't be the > same. > > So here's my question. Will the e-book be obsolete in ten years? I > think it will. Or at least retro. > > What will replace it is the post-book app. Words, graphics, video, > audio, links, "additional features". Some of them will be "movies" > with a bunch of stuff added; some of them "books" with stuff added; > and born-app content that will defy traditional description. Watch > for "record albums" that package songs with music videos *and* > featurettes and games and lyrics -- to get you to buy more and pay > more than just getting "songs" from iTunes. > > It's only because I'm such a stodgy traditionalist that I think it > will take as long as ten years. > > Jim O'Donnell > > > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 4:56 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> >> From: Joseph Esposito <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 08:07:51 -0700 >> >> For a project I have been working on, I have been interviewing a >> number of librarians about the use of ebooks on their campuses. Many >> have reported that faculty are often insisting on maintaining print >> collections. Some speculations about this here: >> >> http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/04/04/e-books-in-the-academy/ >> >> I would be interested to learn what features an ideal academic ebook >> service would have. >> >> Joe Esposito