BBC: Is it time to embrace the e-book?

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Think about this: If every parent in the country had signed petitions demanding e-book versions of textbooks, or they would not be purchased by their school systems (thanks to appropriate lobbying of their PTA branches), I think the text publishers would have taken significant steps to provide e-books (and probably the readers) by now.

Steve, I'd like to see it, I really would. Think of the waste space in schools for lockers, for example, as well as the ergonomics for the kids. But unless you can figure out how to convince the textbook buying boards of California, Texas, and New York to buy e-book, and ebook only, I don't see how we can get the publisher's attention. (Remember, at high school (and lower), books are bought by the state, not the individual or even the school district.)

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

...unless you can figure out how to convince the textbook buying boards of California, Texas, and New York to buy e-book, and ebook only, I don't see how we can get the publisher's attention. ...

Ah, but what about the romance of offering to carry a girl you fancy's books for her?

How is a bashful youth going to commence a courtship, hopefully leading to a life of bliss, if he doesn't have that feeble opening gambit to set him on his way?

'Can I carry your 4 oz. ebook reader for you?' just doesn't cut it .

[RickyMaveety]

Interesting quote from the article stating (about pbooks) "They are cheap to mass produce, contain a huge amount of easily accessible data and all you need to use them is a small amount of light."

Problem is, a single book doesn't contain a "huge amount" of easily accessible data. A library does. And, I think that's the point the article misses completely, the ability to carry around thousands of books (if you want) in a small device that still allows you to comfortably access them.

I can easily see the day when all of the case reporters and code books will be available in a ebook format. Searchable ... and you wouldn't even need to be connected to Westlaw or Lexis in order to search them. That's every legal practitioner's dream ... being able to take an entire law library with you in your briefcase or backpack.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Interesting quote from the article stating (about pbooks) "They are cheap to mass produce, contain a huge amount of easily accessible data and all you need to use them is a small amount of light."

Cheap to mass-produce? Only because no one is tracking the costs of the environmental cleanup required at the pulping plants...

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

That's every legal practitioner's dream ... being able to take an entire law library with you in your briefcase or backpack.

Let's get them together with the PTA, then.