Reading the Next Book

Slide 1: DLF Reading the Next Book Peter Brantley Sept/Oct 2007

Slide 2: “a book is a machine to think with.” I. A. Richards Principles of Literary Criticism 1924

Slide 3: the book is a social construction — a very successful commodity form that is a physical representation of content that has been remarkably successful for almost all modern-era human cultures

Slide 4: reading, then, is a social product : a combination of a commodity artifact (i.e., the book as a physical object), the way human language works, an understanding of space, quiet.

Slide 5: analog culture is being uplifted to digital ... and so ... what is a “book” is being wholly redefined into a new kind of commodity — and so then also is “reading” being wholly redefined, subtly.

Slide 6: reading [ to oneself ] was once the epitome of a solitary act, but now reading, as a product, is becoming a social act, woven into the network fabric.

Slide 7: the transition is imminent (but implied) by the increasing digitization of text production

Slide 8: books are morphing into digital through two different paths: digital production of the new • • scanning of the old

Slide 9: direct digital production (by publishers) • attractive cost savings over time • but complex, expensive to implement • therefore often a slow transition

Slide 10: scanning printed material : a) externally - Goog, Msft, Ingram (content > external party control) b) internally - publisher initiated (content > internal group control)

Slide 11: access modes are split in Twain: Old: package format (bin w/drm: legacy ebook)  New: network access (reflowable text/html: IDPF epub)

Slide 12: advantage adheres to - text/html + network access

Slide 13: text/html advantages: • native media easier to maintain than binary • user enrichment is straightforward (on/off) • content can be redrawn by the user • easy accessibility = support for blind • device-independent, adaptive re-formatting • text is less demanding of hardware

Slide 14: network advantages print on demand • social - sharing, recommending, rating • • content enhancement (georef, temporal) licensing revenue attractive (vs purchase) • • highly granular usage data aggregation local caching with sync straightforward • constant content updates through push • • greater account storage available

Slide 15: and Google .... ? Google presents page images Text-copy support is limited. GOOG does not currently support “.epub”. (but they could at the very least for PD text) Eventual conflicts with Ingram and Amazon are likely for the future discovery of content.

Slide 16: How do users pay for digital services? “Show me the money!!”

Slide 17: public domain might be free that is a social responsibility > we must make it happen < everyone benefits through access the rest will be paid, somehow

Slide 18: revenue models: advertising-supported - or - expect PPV for individuals licensing for organization/enterprise

Slide 19: what can’t easily generate revenue is the broad class of “orphan works”: • not obviously in public domain • could be in-copyright • probably out of print • rights holder is uncertain

Slide 20: if Google settles with publishers ... for in-copyright, out of print books expect a licensing scheme (voluntary collective licensing) revenue sharing between publishers and Google

Slide 21: library books digitized by Google then resold by Google licensed by libraries

Slide 22: all online models are a mixed blessing particularly for reading!! “Architecture is politics ... ” - Mitch Kapor

Slide 23: PRIVACY

Slide 24: in the digital world privacy does not inherently exist it must be explicitly designed for. & because engineering is expensive user control of information may be the rarest artifact on the network.

Slide 25: if we should not be careful privacy becomes a corporate commodity (not even a public commodity) negotiable for purchase

Slide 26: libraries had protected and still protect in their contracts but agglomeration of information will certainly only increase with time and the power of awareness with it

Slide 27: StreetView capture pictures of people on the street, in shops, in homes is this a privacy violation?

Slide 28: Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2004. Street View \"does not appear to meet the basic requirements of knowledge, consent, and limited collection and use as set out in the legislation.\" – Canadian privacy commissioner, letter to Google, Sept 2007

Slide 29: \"We would launch Street View in Canada in keeping with the principles and requirements of Canadian law ... we'll have to focus on finding ways to make sure that individual's faces are not identifiable in pictures taken in Canada and that license plate numbers are not identifiable in Canada.” -- Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel

Slide 30: the majority of network data collection is invisible to the user. my mobile phone service provider: / knows where I am / who I talk to / when I talk to them / who my friends are

Slide 31: the down s i d e life experience is recorded information use is tracked, advantage adheres to those who insert dams to pool events within the flow of information

Slide 32: accepting loss of privacy with an ability to opt-out yields an enhanced product offering

Slide 33: privacy issue is not dissimilar from copyright Google Book Search Google digitizes copyrighted material provides an innovative useful service and there is an opt-out option

Slide 34: Both are appropriations (without any apology) (with givebacks upon request) that enable useful services.

Slide 35: [Information flow] (on-line) things people >> do >> corporations >> >> governments >> ??

Slide 36: how well, really, do national governments actually control corporations? and what is the relation of people to government?

Slide 37: and therefore the relation of people to their identity people to their privacy people to their rights

Slide 38: as reading becomes a social act embedded within the network

Slide 39: all this is present in how we decide >> together << to shape reading -- with our new books

Slide 40: contact info: email: peter at diglib org thanks!