Harvard Medical School and the Kindle

[daffy4u]

This from a blog post on Life as a Healthcare CIO

Select Quotes:

We've recently implemented Kindle support for all our 20,000 educational resources at HMS.

HMS is the first Medical School to offer such a green alternative to all of their compatible resources to be downloaded directly to an eBook.

We're rolling this out by giving a few students free Kindles to pilot the new Mycourses functionality.

I'll report back how it goes. Since we spend $50,000 a year on paper for printing course documents, I hope it is successful!

[RickyMaveety]

Interesting post. One or two really moronic comments posted there (one idiot wants to know what their "plan is when Amazon or Sprint raise their prices" while they aren't looking (regarding the Whispernet connection).

Good lord!! As if the Kindle were intended to be primarily an internet browser. Give me a freakin' break. You know, I've had my Kindle for close to four months now, and I have probably used the Whispernet a total of about 2 hours in all that time. Once the novelty of being able to see something on the net wore off (took about two weeks), all I use it for now is to download books (generally when I'm in a regular bookstore and checking out what's available in hardback).

The only thing that makes me wonder about the post is that the author states they will be using the Kindle to view PDFs. I really love my Kindle, but I'll be the first to admit it is NOT the preferred device for reading in the PDF format.

Well .... interesting article anyway.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Interesting post. One or two really moronic comments posted there (one idiot wants to know what their "plan is when Amazon or Sprint raise their prices" while they aren't looking (regarding the Whispernet connection).

Good lord!! As if the Kindle were intended to be primarily an internet browser. Give me a freakin' break. You know, I've had my Kindle for close to four months now, and I have probably used the Whispernet a total of about 2 hours in all that time. Once the novelty of being able to see something on the net wore off (took about two weeks), all I use it for now is to download books (generally when I'm in a regular bookstore and checking out what's available in hardback).

The only thing that makes me wonder about the post is that the author states they will be using the Kindle to view PDFs. I really love my Kindle, but I'll be the first to admit it is NOT the preferred device for reading in the PDF format.

Well .... interesting article anyway.

As for the goofball who posted about the future Whispernet pricing, he/she obviously missed the "download to your computer part".

I'm assuming ( ) that the PDF docs are mostly text since they are also offering an MS Word version.

The non-Whispernet downloads along with PDF and Word docs, opens all this information to be used on many other e-ink devices as well devices like the iPhone or Palms. As long as there is a way to covert documents, it won't matter what is used to read them.

It's a good thing.

Edit: Now that I've had a good night's sleep, I realize that Word documents don't have to be mostly text (I use table and images in Word nearly on a daily basis). Now I think that someone would have played with a Kindle before starting this pilot program and has an idea of it's strength's and weaknesses and would create content accordingly.

[myral]

It's about time someone decided to use the e-ink technology in education. I'm eagerly anticipating the moment when I won't have to lug around tons of textbooks that I use as a high school teacher. Not to mention the hope that my kids will be able to avoid scoliosis from their school-bags. Although, realistically speaking, this might well happen at the time of my grandchildren, if the current rate of computer-literacy in the Greek educational system is anything to go by.

[PsyDocJoanne]

I agree with myral...it's high time we see something like this to get the ball rolling. I wish it had been Sony instead of Amazon, but at least it's a step in the right direction. I'm taking five classes this semester, which all require huge texts with lots of illustrations and diagrams. How it would simplify things to have them available on my reader!

I do think the possibility exists that Amazon may at some point ask Kindle owners to pony up a monthly fee for Whispernet access. I guess I would have an objection to that, just on principle. But if I were a student, the money I'd hope to be saving on textbooks (and the strain I'd save my back) would probably make the $5-$10 per month worth it...thinking like a college or graduate student, I'd just make it my biz to have two less Starbuck's lattes each month

[Alisa]

I doubt it would be a monthly fee. Most people, from what I can tell, don't use the internet connectivity that much aside from the services that Amazon has promised will always remain free: retrieving purchased content, store browsing and Wikipedia. Having to pay an extra $5-$10 for something they don't use would be a deal breaker for a lot of people just on principle. It would certainly dissuade a lot of potential customers. I think it more likely that it will be metered usage, maybe a set allowance of free time (above the promised free services) and then pay per mb after that. That would allow them to target customers that are using their network for things that don't profit them without penalizing the rest of us that are making them money. With a large institution like a university, they may even come up with a special deal.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

I do think the possibility exists that Amazon may at some point ask Kindle owners to pony up a monthly fee for Whispernet access. I guess I would have an objection to that, just on principle.

They will not charge for shopping in the store and wireless delivery... they have always said that... the price of that is built into the ebooks you. They also said they will not charge for Wikipedia access.

However, they said they may at a later date charge for the basic web access... I think it depends on what the usage is... we will have to wait and see. That means you may have to pay to d/l from feedbooks/mobileread using Whispernet. Not worth it to me, I will just use my PC since I pay for internet access already.

BOb

[PsyDocJoanne]

I agree that they're unlikely to hit Kindle owners with a fee specifically to access and download from Amazon's ebook catalog...but I think usages outside of that and Wikipedia are likely to be subject to a charge in the future.

And generally speaking, I think college kids are likely to use the access for other things...there are already a ton of message board posts out there encouraging Kindle users to use Whispernet for all kinds of things, like gmail.

I think Amazon should have considered limiting internet access to just Amazon.com, right from the get go. This way, there would be no (or fewer) unhappy campers later.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

I agree that they're unlikely to hit Kindle owners with a fee specifically to access and download from Amazon's ebook catalog...but I think usages outside of that and Wikipedia are likely to be subject to a charge in the future.

I would have no problem with that. They could charge the time as-you-go when you use it... or let you buy time up front for cheaper packages. If they started that today I would still be happy.

BOb

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

I think Amazon should have considered limiting internet access to just Amazon.com, right from the get go. This way, there would be no (or fewer) unhappy campers later.

Perhaps, But it might be that Amazon is trying to see how many people actually try to use the Wispernet for other stuff, and keep on using it after the initial glow dies down.

If enough people use it, and they see what the people are using it for, they could always try to monetise those services.

Low cost Market Research Anyone ??

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by PsyDocJoanne

I agree that they're unlikely to hit Kindle owners with a fee specifically to access and download from Amazon's ebook catalog...but I think usages outside of that and Wikipedia are likely to be subject to a charge in the future.

And generally speaking, I think college kids are likely to use the access for other things...there are already a ton of message board posts out there encouraging Kindle users to use Whispernet for all kinds of things, like gmail.

I think Amazon should have considered limiting internet access to just Amazon.com, right from the get go. This way, there would be no (or fewer) unhappy campers later.

Maybe, for myself I've found that gmail access is a lot faster on my cell phone, so the only time I use my internet access on my Kindle is to download books. I would estimate that my usage now is about 10 minutes a month.

I used it a lot for the first two weeks or so, but really, that was more of a "gee whiz" experience. The Kindle simply is not built to be a good web browsing device, and I didn't buy it for that reason. Anyone who did would have to be completely out of their tiny minds. The thing it was made to do (and which it does beautifully) is to read eformat books.