Quote:
Originally Posted by Freeshadow
therein you are right, there is no official "virtual page definition" for e-books so you can only go by part-> chapter ->>paragraph, etc.
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Good point. Very good point indeed.
This means the core problem is in fact file format-based and a solution means, essentially, starting from scratch.
So, to get a proper academic-focused ebook reader we would need a proper XML schema that can directly reference arbitrary passages (or words) plus a standard citation process as a first step. The closest current formats come to this is internal hyperlinks, whereas what is required are links that would lead across multiple volumes or (absent the source material) pop up a quote and enough attribution to make source acquisition viable.
And that's for starters.
The metadata would also need addressing to conform to accepted academic standards and to allow for adhoc reader-based database searches. A metadata embedded search index might be a good start. This alone would increase hardware requirements into PC territory and possiby beyond if we want snappy response to arbitrary queries.
I'm thinking that the current ebook/reader model may not be appropriate for a full academic reader at all. The needs seem to me to argue for a cloud-based service and a high function local client, instead.
I guess we do NOT have the technology nor are we even faintly close to "THE BOOK".
Interesting. Very interesting.
PS I haven't checked recently; anybody know how Berners-Lee is doing with his semantic web efforts? That might lead to a proper academic reader. Someday.