E-books and e-publishing - Samuel Vaknin (best historical fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗
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discrete.
The solution is an efficient way to translate computer screens
to printed matter. It is hard to believe, but no such thing
exists. Computer screens are still hostile to offline
printing. In other words: if a user copies information from
the Internet to his Word Processor (or vice versa, for that
matter) - he ends up with a fragmented, garbage-filled and
non-aesthetic document.
Very few site developers try to do something about it - even
fewer succeed.
3. The Internet and the CD-ROMOne of the biggest mistakes of content suppliers is that they
do not mix contents or have a “static-dynamic interaction”.
The Internet can now easily interact with other media
(especially with audio CDs and with CD-ROMs) - even as the
user surfs.
Examples abound:
A shopping catalogue can be distributed on a CD-ROM by mail.
The Internet Site will allow the user to order a product
previously selected from the catalogue, while offline. The
catalogue could also be updated through the site (as is done
with CD-ROM encyclopedias).
The advantages of the CD-ROM are clear: very fast access time
(dozens of times faster than the access to a site using a dial
up connection) and a data storage capacity tens of times
bigger than the average website.
Another example: a CD-ROM can be distributed, containing
hundreds of advertisements. The consumer will select the ad
that he wants to see and will connect to the Internet to view
a relevant video.
He could then also have an interactive chat (or a conference)
with a salesperson, receive information about the company,
about the ad, about the advertising agency which created the
ad - and so on.
CD-ROM based encyclopedias (such as the Britannica, Encarta,
Grolier) already contain hyperlinks which carry the user to
sites selected by an Editorial Board.
But CD-ROMs are probably a doomed medium. This industry chose
to emphasize the wrong things. Storage capacity increased
exponentially and, within a year, desktops with 80 Gb hard
disks will be common. Moreover, the Network Computer - the
stripped down version of the personal computer - will put at
the disposal of the average user terabytes in storage capacity
and the processing power of a supercomputer. What separates
computer users from this utopia is the communication
bandwidth. With the introduction of radio, statellite, ADSL
broadband services, cable modems and compression methods -
video (on demand), audio and data will be available speedily
and plentifully.
The CD-ROM, on the other hand, is not mobile. It requires
installation and the utilization of sophisticated hardware and
software. This is no user friendly push technology. It is
nerd-oriented. As a result, CD-ROMs are not an immediate
medium. There is a long time lapse between the moment they are
purchased and the moment the first data become accessible to
the user. Compare this to a book or a magazine. Data in these
oldest of media is instantly available to the user and allows
for easy and accurate “back” and “forward” functions.
Perhaps the biggest mistake of CD-ROM manufacturers has been
their inability to offer an integrated hardware and software
package. CD-ROMs are not compact. A Walkman is a compact
hardware-cum-software package. It is easily transportable, it
is thin, it contains numerous, user-friendly, sophisticated
functions, it provides immediate access to data. So does the
discman or the MP3-man. This cannot be said of the CD-ROM. By
tying its future to the obsolete concept of standalone,
expensive, inefficient and technologically unreliable personal
computers - CD-ROMs have sentenced themselves to oblivion
(with the possible exception of reference material).
4. On-line Reference LibrariesThese already exist. A visit to the on-line Encyclopaedia
Britannica exemplifies some of the tremendous, mind boggling
possibilities:
Each entry is hyperlinked to sites on the Internet which deal
with the same subject matter. The sites are carefully screened
(though more detailed descriptions of each site should be
available - they could be prepared either by the staff of the
encyclopaedia or by the site owner). Links are available to
data in various forms, including audio and video. Everything
can be copied to the hard disk or to CD-ROMs.
This is a new conception of a knowledge centre - not just an
assortment of material. It is modular, can be added on and
subtracted from. It can be linked to a voice Q&A centre.
Queries by subscribers can be answered by e-mail, by fax,
posted on the site, hard copies can be sent by post. This
“Trivial Pursuit” service could be very popular - there is
considerable appetite for “Just in Time Information”. The
Library of Congress - together with a few other libraries - is
in the process of making just such a service available to the
public (CDRS - Collaborative Digital Reference Service).
5. The Feedback OptionHard to believe, but very few sites encourage their guests to
express an opinion about the site, its contents and its
aesthetics. This indicates an ossified mode of thinking about
the most dynamic mass medium ever created, the only
interactive mass medium yet. Each site must absolutely contain
feedback and rating questionnaires. It has the side benefit of
creating a database of the visitors to the site.
Moreover, each site can easily become a “knowledge centre”.
Let us consider a site dedicated to advertising and marketing:
It can contain feedback questionnaires (what do you think
about the site, suggestions for improvement, mailto and leave
message facilities, etc.)
It can contain rating questionnaires (rate these ads, these TV
or radio shows, these advertising campaigns).
It can allocate some space to clients to create their home
pages in (these home pages could lead to their sites, to other
sites, to other sections of the host site - and, in any case,
will serve as a display of the creative talent of the site
owners). This will give the site owners a picture of the
distribution of the areas of interest of the visitors to the
site.
The site can include statistical, tracking and counter
software.
Such a site can refer to hundreds of useful shareware
applications (which deal with different aspects of advertising
and marketing, for instance). Developers of applications will
be able to use the site to promote their products. Other
practical applications could also be referred to from - or
reside on - the site (browsers, games, search engines).
And all this can be organized in a portal structure (for
instance, by adopting the open software of the Open Directory
Project).
6. Internet Derived CD-ROMSThe Internet is an enormous reservoir of freely available,
public domain, information.
With a minimal investment, this information can be gathered
into coherent, theme oriented, cheap CD-ROMs. Each such CD-ROM
can contain:
Addresses of web sites specific to the subject matter
* The first pages of each of these sites
* Hyperlinks to each of the sites
* A browser
* Access to all the important search engines
* Recommended search strings (it is extremely difficult to
formulate a successful search in the Internet, it takes
expertise. “Ready-made searches” will be a hit in the
future, as the number of sites grows)
* A dictionary of professional terms, a speller and a
thesaurus
* A list of general reference sites
* Shareware specific to the field
7. PublishingThe Internet is the world’s largest “publisher”, by far. It
“publishes” FAQs (Frequent Answers and Questions regarding
almost every technical matter in the world), e-zines
(electronic versions of magazines, not a very profitable
pursuit), the electronic versions of dailies (together with
on-line news and information services), reference and other ebooks, monographs, articles and minutes of discussions
(“threads”), among other types of material.
Publishing an e-zine has a few advantages: it promotes the
sales of the printed edition, it helps to sign on subscribers
and it leads to the sale of advertising space. The electronic
archive function (see next section) saves the need to file
back issues, the space required to do so and the irritating
search for data items.
The future trend is a combined subscription: electronic
(mainly for the archival value and the ability to hyperlink to
additional information) and printed (easier to browse current
issue).
The electronic daily presents other advantages:
It allows for immediate feedback and for flowing, almost real-time, communication between writers and readers. The
electronic version, therefore, acquires a gyroscopic function:
a navigation instrument, always indicating deviations from the
“right” course. The content can be instantly updated and
immediacy has its premium (remember the Lewinsky affair?).
Strangely, this (conventional) field was the first to develop
a “virtual reality” facet. There are virtual “magazine
stalls”. They look exactly like the real thing and the user
can buy a paper using his mouse.
Specialty hand held devices already allow for downloading and
storage of vast quantities of data (up to 4000 print pages).
The user gains access to libraries containing hundreds of
texts, adapted to be downloaded, stored and read by the
specific device. Again, a convergence of standards is to be
expected in this field as well (the final contenders will
probably be Adobe’s PDF against Microsoft’s MS-Reader).
Broadly, e-books are treated either as:
Continuation of print books (p-books) by other means
or as
A whole new publishing universe.
Since p-books are a more convenient medium then e-books - they
will prevail in any straightforward “medium replacement” or
“medium displacement” battle.
In other words, if publishers will persist in the simple and
straightforward conversion of p-books to e-books - then ebooks are doomed. They are simply inferior to the price,
comfort, tactile delights, browseability and scanability of p-books.
But e-books - being digital - open up a vista of hitherto
neglected possibilities. These will only be enhanced and
enriched by the introduction of e-paper and e-ink. Among them:
* Hyperlinks within the e-book and without it - to web
content, reference works, etc.
* Embedded instant shopping and ordering links
* Divergent, user-interactive, decision driven plotlines
* Interaction with other e-books (using a wireless
standard) - collaborative authoring
* Interaction with other e-books - gaming and community
activities
* Automatically or periodically updated content
* Multimedia
* Database, Favourites and History Maintenance (reading
habits, shopping habits, interaction with other readers,
plot related decisions and much more)
* Automatic and embedded audio conversion and translation
capabilities
* Full wireless piconetworking and scatternetworking
capabilities
The technology is still not fully there. Wars rage in both the
wireless and the ebook realms. Platforms compete. Standards
clash. Gurus debate. But convergence is inevitable and with it
the e-book of the future.
8. The Archive FunctionThe Internet is also the world’s biggest cemetery: tens of
thousands of deadbeat sites, still accessible - the “Ghost
Sites” of this electronic frontier.
This, in a way, is collective memory. One of the Internet’s
main functions will be to preserve and transfer knowledge
through time. It is called “memory” in biology - and “archive”
in library science. The history of the Internet is being
documented by search engines (Google) and specialized services
(Alexa) alike.
The Internet as a Collective Brain
Drawing a comparison from the development of a human baby -
the human race has just commenced to develop its neural
system.
The Internet fulfils all the functions of the Nervous System
in the body and is, both functionally and structurally, pretty
similar. It is decentralized, redundant (each part can serve
as functional backup in case of malfunction). It hosts
information which is accessible in a few ways, it contains a
memory function, it is multimodal (multimedia - textual,
visual, audio and animation).
I believe that the comparison is not superficial and that
studying the functions of the brain (from infancy to
adulthood) - amounts to perusing the future of the Net itself.
1. The Collective ComputerTo carry the metaphor of “a collective brain” further, we
would expect the processing of information to take place in
the Internet, rather than inside the end-user’s hardware (the
same way that information is processed in the brain, not in
the eyes). Desktops will receive the results and communicate
with the Net
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