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Old 08-25-2009, 02:52 PM   #1
rahlquist
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Social networking?

Ok yall may want to shoot me for suggesting it but this is something I haven't seen anything on.

Of course it will take an e-reader capable of input and wifi or some other form of connectivity... But wouldn't it be smart for the manufs to start trying to bring social networking into play here? Think of all the virtual book clubs etc that could be created. I am betting that if they aren't already working on it wont be long before it comes and the company who capitalizes first will take another chunk of the market.

What do you think?
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Old 08-25-2009, 03:08 PM   #2
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There are already many books clubs, including online ones. What would be benefit to h/w manufacturers be? People interested in book clubs probably already belong to one. I don't think having the device access a book club online is going to sell devices. The online access costs money.
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Old 08-25-2009, 03:42 PM   #3
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The group over at Teleread are quite taken with the idea that ebooks need a community component, which seems to be the ability to annotate, share your annotations, and discuss your comments and those of the rest of the community, all from within the book and in real time. Frankly, their repeated focus on this expectation was one of the reasons I stopped following that blog.

The ability of the internet to connect geographically dispersed people with common interests is great, MobileRead being a perfect example. All things in moderation, however. Occasional solitude is a good thing, and reading is one of the great solitary activities -- speaking for myself, alone, of course.

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Old 08-25-2009, 04:19 PM   #4
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I am going to go with the keep the ebook reader as simple as possible. Part of the beauty of an ebook reader is that it is designed and optimized to do one thing well, read books. Logical extensions like being able to procure books through the ebook reader make a lot of sense as well... but only so long as they don't compromise the reader's primary function.

Lets be honest, meaningful discussion of ebooks generally requires more than a status update on your facebook or twiiter feed. Discussion forums like this are a far better choice... of course they also much easier to use with a full keyboard than with the limited input options on even devices like the Kindle.

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Old 08-25-2009, 04:41 PM   #5
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I don't think it's a horrible idea to be connected when you want to be... and if your reader has web access, you've got that connectivity. If I were a manufacturer, I would make sure my device had internet access regardless: Not only for community interaction, but in order to go online and buy the e-books in the first place.

I'd also make sure you could disconnect when you didn't want the distractions.

I do think that, other than providing connectivity, the manufacturers should stay out of the activity itself. Their expertise is the hardware, and they should stay with that, and let the websites and users dictate what they want to do.
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Old 08-25-2009, 05:37 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by susan_cassidy View Post
The online access costs money.
Agree with your points, except this one since the online access wouldn't be just for the networking.

For instance, I'm hooked on Kindle and would never by an eReader that I couldn't by books and download samples too etc. without having to hook up to a computer.

Also, barring my K1 dying, I probably wouldn't upgrade until there was a good multifunction tablet type device out that was a good reader and had full internet and e-mail capabilities.

So online access is a very worthy feature IMO--aside from the networking stuff that I'm not personally interested in.

But I like multi function devices when it comes to portable things like that as I hate lugging around multiple things. My Kindle stays on the night stand for the most part as I generally only read before sleeping and don't want to lug it around win my briefcase with all the other crap I carry to work etc.
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Old 08-25-2009, 06:50 PM   #7
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I like the 505 because it's very good for reading books - I don't care so much about connectivity. The ability to buy books from the device is handy, but it's not the be-all and end-all. As far as I'm concerned the biggest thing about the new Sony with wireless is that it allows a defense against the "But it doesn't have wireless" crowd.
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Old 08-25-2009, 09:15 PM   #8
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actually sounds like a good idea to me.

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