Discussion: eBook Publishing Model proposals

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Liviu_5

Possible but I think you are underestimating the large degree of inertia of society ("conservatism" without the political connotations).

Anyway, it's good to have many choices and the more e-books appear the better from my point of view; so I hope you're right that e-books will have a faster adoption curve than I believe it will be the case

I probably should have mentioned the other factor that will influence e-book adoption:

• The influence of young people who are not affected by the inertia and conservativism of their elders.

Many of the points I mentioned earlier may not sway the older generations. But the kids, being raised in front of computers, have proven to be much more likely to adopt new ideas and new technologies much faster than their elders have. Cellphone texting is a perfect example of their willingness to embrace something that older users largely had to be pushed into.

Again, providing some value-added aspect of e-books (and, I think, e-magazines and e-texts) that the kids will want, they will be much more likely to evaluate their e-book options, embrace one system or another, and run with it as fast as they can. Once they get started, it will be all we elders can do to keep up.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I probably should have mentioned the other factor that will influence e-book adoption:

• The influence of young people who are not affected by the inertia and conservativism of their elders.

Many of the points I mentioned earlier may not sway the older generations. But the kids, being raised in front of computers, have proven to be much more likely to adopt new ideas and new technologies much faster than their elders have.

I think this is correct but it will be at least another generation. My generation (old) is not too conservative to go from p-book to e-book -- after all, I'm using an e-book and recommending it to my peers; instead, we recognize that there is an intimacy that can be reached with a p-book that cannot yet be matched by the e-book. There is also a sense of permanence to a p-book that is not duplicated by an e-book, which both changes the reading experience and provides an anchor in the life experience.

My son (my youngest child at 26) grew up with computers. He has no problem reading, for example, the NY Times online, whereas I want the print version and am averse to reading it online. But he prefers the eperience of reading a p-book to an e-book (although he does read e-books) and prefers to buy a p-book. I've talked with him about the Kindle to discover whether the features of the Kindle matter to him and they do not. He doesn't care about the wireless connectivity, which is its big feature. What he wants is a single standard so he can buy books wherever he
wants, just like he can with p-books, and he wants a reader that better emulates the p-book reading experience. Of course, he is a reader but I wonder what the majority of his generation want as they are not readers.

Anyway, I think we won't begin to see dominance of the e-book until public schools adopt e-books rather than p-books. It will be that generation who learns to read for school and for pleasure on a reader who will finally cause the death of the p-book. Sadly, once again our public schools -- elementary, middle, and high -- hold the key to a major generational attitude change.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Anyway, I think we won't begin to see dominance of the e-book until public schools adopt e-books rather than p-books. It will be that generation who learns to read for school and for pleasure on a reader who will finally cause the death of the p-book. Sadly, once again our public schools -- elementary, middle, and high -- hold the key to a major generational attitude change.

That's a distinct possibility, but I don't think it's the only likely one.

True, the younger generation may not read books as much as we do... but they do read, mostly glossy specialty books and periodicals. A reader that could optimize this experience--say, through high-resolution color displays, automatic download of subscription material, the ability to either save entire books and libraries, or "clip and save" articles and photos as desired, etc--could become the "must-have" device of every kid, and propel them into dedicated readers before the schools have had a chance to implement a reader-based system of their own.

Schools have been slow to react to new technology (such as cellphone use in classes, and classwide computer use), but often prove able to work with it over extended time. That's why I expect the schools to develop a system using dedicated readers, after the kids already have theirs.

Most likely it will be an optional-choice system (i.e., if you have a reader, you can do this thing, and make this easier/save money... or if you don't, continue to do it the old way) that will take advantage of the readers out there, and if done properly, encourage parents to get readers for their children who don't yet have one. Eventually, it will be assumed that all kids have readers, either self-bought or issued by the system in some generic form, and future school systems will base their learning systems on that supposition.

Mind you, this would be a slow process... and probably wouldn't impact the generation that's hitting kindergarten right now... but I think it would happen faster than allowing the school system to push readers on kids and promote their use.