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nicogranada · 07-11-2009, 04:46 PM

This is my first post in the forum, and it has to begin with: thank you!
Finally some reviews in english to spread the word. Now we just need a jetbook forum.

Since the newegg offer a lot of people will be getting this great device. I asked some favors in order to get it bought and sent to Mexico where I live. And I really need to give thanks to all mobiread members to point me in the direction of a great price with open formats capacity. I was really waiting for something exactly like this since I first read about the kindle two years ago.

Devices like this, more and more as prices drop, will give a lot of people in many places the chance to access an infinite bibliography through the internet. I lived in my home country, Paraguay, until 2004, where just a few bookstores offered a brief selection of bestsellers and nothing much besides that. Forget about contemporary good literature, availability of that kind of titles ended in the sixties with magical realism authors or the beat generation; well, until some friend went to Buenos Aires or something. I had a dial-up connection, and inside irc servers like undernet (channells like #bookz, for english texts, and #biblioteca, for spanish ones) I built a good digital library. Finally I could read things like Baricco, Bolaño short stories and others. Some of those books I read on the computer screen, and I loved the texts, but hated the eye strain, the back pain and everything else from the experience; I missed the hammock, the sunlight and the good old little object we call books. I dreamt about a device like this. In such aspect I believe the more widespread e-readers are (like mp3 players), more and more people will access new and fascinating bibliography, otherwise imposible due to space and costs restraints.

Nevertheless, I believe that in this context the economy of publishing will have to adapt, since any information can be shared digitally for free -no barriers are unbreakable, information wants to move by nature, since it does not function in a scarcity environment like material goods-, so reciprocity through a "gift economy" will have to be the new way in which readers and authors/editors exchange words and money. The scenery I want to see is this: the day a book is launched, I will enter the editor or author website, and choose the format I prefer to download, and next to that, while the download is happening, I will be given the chance to enter in a secure way any amount of money I want, knowing the exact information about the percentage shared by the author and his editor. It will be gifts, the book and also the money, exchanged by no obligation whatsoever, but a feeling of reciprocity: the author is giving his work with generosity, so I feel I should give him something back, something I decide according to my own budget possibilities and how much I like the author or the reviews or the previews or anything that lead me there. Now, DRM, static prices, and inconvenience in formats or attitude will just move my finger to click one of my delicious torrent bookmarks. The information will be accessed anyway, so we better build an environment where the exchange is moved by generosity and the inmaterial debt of reciprocity.

Sorry that my first post ever is such a long rant (or full with errors, in any case; english is not my first language whatsoever).

07-11-2009, 04:46 PM	#3
nicogranada Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Mexico City (originally from Paraguay) Device: Waiting for my Jetbook to arrive	This is my first post in the forum, and it has to begin with: thank you! Finally some reviews in english to spread the word. Now we just need a jetbook forum. Since the newegg offer a lot of people will be getting this great device. I asked some favors in order to get it bought and sent to Mexico where I live. And I really need to give thanks to all mobiread members to point me in the direction of a great price with open formats capacity. I was really waiting for something exactly like this since I first read about the kindle two years ago. Devices like this, more and more as prices drop, will give a lot of people in many places the chance to access an infinite bibliography through the internet. I lived in my home country, Paraguay, until 2004, where just a few bookstores offered a brief selection of bestsellers and nothing much besides that. Forget about contemporary good literature, availability of that kind of titles ended in the sixties with magical realism authors or the beat generation; well, until some friend went to Buenos Aires or something. I had a dial-up connection, and inside irc servers like undernet (channells like #bookz, for english texts, and #biblioteca, for spanish ones) I built a good digital library. Finally I could read things like Baricco, Bolaño short stories and others. Some of those books I read on the computer screen, and I loved the texts, but hated the eye strain, the back pain and everything else from the experience; I missed the hammock, the sunlight and the good old little object we call books. I dreamt about a device like this. In such aspect I believe the more widespread e-readers are (like mp3 players), more and more people will access new and fascinating bibliography, otherwise imposible due to space and costs restraints. Nevertheless, I believe that in this context the economy of publishing will have to adapt, since any information can be shared digitally for free -no barriers are unbreakable, information wants to move by nature, since it does not function in a scarcity environment like material goods-, so reciprocity through a "gift economy" will have to be the new way in which readers and authors/editors exchange words and money. The scenery I want to see is this: the day a book is launched, I will enter the editor or author website, and choose the format I prefer to download, and next to that, while the download is happening, I will be given the chance to enter in a secure way any amount of money I want, knowing the exact information about the percentage shared by the author and his editor. It will be gifts, the book and also the money, exchanged by no obligation whatsoever, but a feeling of reciprocity: the author is giving his work with generosity, so I feel I should give him something back, something I decide according to my own budget possibilities and how much I like the author or the reviews or the previews or anything that lead me there. Now, DRM, static prices, and inconvenience in formats or attitude will just move my finger to click one of my delicious torrent bookmarks. The information will be accessed anyway, so we better build an environment where the exchange is moved by generosity and the inmaterial debt of reciprocity. Sorry that my first post ever is such a long rant (or full with errors, in any case; english is not my first language whatsoever).