The screw that changed the world ...

CBC Ideas had an interesting episode on standards tonight, including how competitors thrive based upon cooperatively developing standards. One example was the shipping container, which reduced shipping costs by 98% and allowed for international trade.

The episode is here: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/201...d-the-world-2/

So how would ebooks benefit from standardization?

[TheSFReader]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

So how would ebooks benefit from standardization?

Greatly ?

Seriously, if Amazon sent its mobi/azw/KF8 formats the way of the Dodo, it would be SO much easier to all.

Sorry, Daydreaming again

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

So how would ebooks benefit from standardization?

"The problem with standards is that there are so many of them."
— Numerous people

Above snark aside, ebooks already have. epub is a marvelous standard...not perfect but still worthy...and will be even better once we standardize its spelling; epub, EPUB, ePub, ePUB. Some unnamed players (actually named above) may hold out hoping for market leverage in so doing but in the end they'll have to come around; bastardizations of standards notwithstanding (ya hear that bill gates!).

[JSWolf]

ePub is spelled ePub with a small e, capitol P, small u and small b. ePub

Anyway, if Amazon was to do away with AZW/Mobi & KF8 in favor of ePub with Adept DRM (if there has to be DRM) then we (the customers) would have a win-win situation.

[Duiker]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

ePub is spelled ePub with a small e, capitol P, small u and small b. ePub

Anyway, if Amazon was to do away with AZW/Mobi & KF8 in favor of ePub with Adept DRM (if there has to be DRM) then we (the customers) would have a win-win situation.

Why in the world would Amazon want its customers to have a win win situation? Doesn't that go against Capitalism completely? Look how well its done for the US economy so far.

Oh. Right.

[crossi]

I don't want to deal with a third party to get access to my books. I want the business that sold me the thing to be responsible if I can't access it. And I want that business to have a real person that I can talk to while they fix the problem as we speak 24/7. And you are worried about Amazon becoming a monopoly? What about Adept? Who are their competitors? How about that problem with Smashwords and PayPal. I don't want a third party involved in my transactions with no other options. What if they decide they aren't going to provide DRM for certain books even for redownloading books you've alread paid for?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Anyway, if Amazon was to do away with AZW/Mobi & KF8 in favor of ePub with Adept DRM (if there has to be DRM) then we (the customers) would have a win-win situation.

Currently I don't have to deal with the crap that is ADE.
Then I would.
Doesn't sound like a win-win to me.

[susan_cassidy]

If Amazon kept their own DRM scheme, it wouldn't make any discernible difference. Their books would still be restricted to Kindle devices and apps.

[howyoudoin]

There's nothing about ADE that spells 'win'.

[HarryT]

We already have a de facto standard: Amazon.

Originally Posted by HarryT

We already have a de facto standard: Amazon.

ePub supporters would beg to disagree. At any rate, the episode was talking about industry wide standards. Some of those standards we take for granted these days (like weights and measures), but I thought that the shipping container was interesting because the benefits were quantifiable and quite dramatic. Incidentally, the creator of shipping containers allowed competitors to use the corner pieces that he had patented just to encourage efficiency: prior to that the cranes at ports had to be fitted for each type of shipping container. After releasing the standard for use by competitors, operations at ports could be made even more efficient.

In a way, publishers could see similar benefits if they standardized upon a format for their publications. At the moment, books have to be prepared according to the standards used by each vendor. On top of that, there is at least some uncertainty among customers created by vendor lock-in. Even people who are not familiar with the details of DRM and ebook gadgetry seem to be aware of that.

[cHex]

I don't see mobi-vs-epub standards as very important; it is trivial to publish an ebook in one or the other or both. One could argue that mobi set a standard that Amazon followed, then epub was created to have an open-source standard, but that just begs for somebody to come along with an even better open-source alternative (or new version of epub.) It will still be trivial to publish all existing e-books to the new format.

The important standards for e-books have long been in place: sentence structure, paragraphs, left-to-right reading, etc.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cHex

I don't see mobi-vs-epub standards as very important; it is trivial to publish an ebook in one or the other or both. One could argue that mobi set a standard that Amazon followed, then epub was created to have an open-source standard, but that just begs for somebody to come along with an even better open-source alternative (or new version of epub.) It will still be trivial to publish all existing e-books to the new format.

The important standards for e-books have long been in place: sentence structure, paragraphs, left-to-right reading, etc.

Actually, unless you can get reader manufacturers to update the firmware to allow this "new" format, the new format won't fly.

[pdurrant]

xkcd.com

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Anyway, if Amazon was to do away with AZW/Mobi & KF8 in favor of ePub with Adept DRM (if there has to be DRM) then we (the customers) would have a win-win situation.

A win-win situation would be to do away with DRM entirely. Then publishers wouldn't pay the Adobe tax ($0.22 on every ADE ebook sale), and readers could move between different ebook readers with ease, and Amazon could adopt ePub.