Sony campaign: Man will live in a store window, reading for 30 days

[Alexander Turcic]

Added: Some additional information about the idea behind this campaign.

Those gagging for some hot Sony Reader action will be pleased to know that Sony is going to stage a 30-day-long "read-in" event at Manhattan electronics retailer Datavision from October 1st to October 30th.

For 30 days, around the clock, 24/7, a man will live in a retail storefront window reading his way through as many pages as he possibly can.

Sony's "Man in the Window" will be David Farrow, a world-renowned speed reader and has held the Guinness Book of World Record's title for memorization twice over, having overcome his own challenges with both dyslexia and ADD.

Farrow will read his way through the 30 days from a Sony Digital Reader, and for every page he turns, Sony will donate one eBook classics library, consisting of 100 titles, to a U.S. school, with the goal of donating 150,000 libraries, or 15 million books.

The starting date of this event is perhaps not a coincidence, considering that on October 2nd, Sony is planning to open a new chapter on digital reading, also happening in NYC.

PS: Geardiary has a photo of the storefront window. Also, the first 100 schools that activate their accounts will also receive education packs of five Sony Readers each to get them started.

[DixieGal]

How may I apply for this job?

[daffy4u]

I ran across this story last night and the thing that struck me was the give-away.

What good are Sony eBook classics going to do a school unless they are providing readers as well? And what's the big deal about giving something away that can be had for free anyway?

[Slite]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I ran across this story last night and the thing that struck me was the give-away.

What good are Sony eBook classics going to do a school unless they are providing readers as well? And what's the big deal about giving something away that can be had for free anyway?

Most likely people arent aware of the fact that it doesnt cost Sony anything to give those away, so it's a good publicity stunt I guess.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Slite

Most likely people arent aware of the fact that it doesnt cost Sony anything to give those away, so it's a good publicity stunt I guess.

Good stunt for now but what if there is a backlash from the schools. "Hey, this company gave us something we can't use. Thanks a lot!"

[vivaldirules]

Two questions:

- I assume the guy doesn't have to stay awake for the entire 30 days, does he?

- Sony will donate 100 classics to one school for each page turned? Big deal. We could make that about 2000 classics (each in LRF format) for 1000 schools per page turned and it wouldn't cost anyone a dime.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

How may I apply for this job?

You only have to hold the record for being the fastest reader in the world. Simple really, only one requirement.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

- Sony will donate 100 classics to one school for each page turned? Big deal. We could make that about 2000 classics (each in LRF format) for 1000 schools per page turned and it wouldn't cost anyone a dime.

I still don't see how giving ebooks to a school (no matter what format) is helpful if they don't have anything to read them on. The schools that could benefit the most probably don't even have computers to read them on. They need to give away a few readers or a computer to each school as well.

[DixieGal]

I still wish it were me. But you know my warped sense of humor. I'd be doing charades with passersby with "novel" as the category, eating junk food and getting cheese curl cheese on everything, and then it would devolve quickly to mooning the "normals" and making funny faces against the storefront glass.

But I'd sure like the opportunity to read for 30 days. (Or was it hours? Not worth the trouble of re-reading the article, I'm feeling lazy today. But not Scottish, so at least we can be grateful for something.)

[jljones]

I expect they really wanted David Blaine hanging upside down reading from a PRS505.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

What good are Sony eBook classics going to do a school unless they are providing readers as well? And what's the big deal about giving something away that can be had for free anyway?

I was going to post the exact same question.

BOb

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I was going to post the exact same question.

BOb

Well, of course the ebooks are useless unless the schools buy Readers. I think that is most certainly the point - Sony hopes to entice some schools to buy into their hardware. We should watch and see how successful they are (any bets?)

[kacir]

How many people read this thread?
It looks like we have "slashdoted" the original article at
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/09/28/...ader-marathon/

[TadW]

Originally Posted by kacir

How many people read this thread?
It looks like we have "slashdoted" the original article at
http://www.geardiary.com/2008/09/28/...ader-marathon/

Works fine here.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

Well, of course the ebooks are useless unless the schools buy Readers. I think that is most certainly the point - Sony hopes to entice some schools to buy into their hardware. We should watch and see how successful they are (any bets?)

No, my point isn't that the ebook files are usless... but that they are freely obtainable. So, basically Sony is giving each school a 25¢ cd.

BOb