02:07 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Nick Bogaty, Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), has just informed me that the IDPF's Open eBook Publication Structure (OEBPS) Working Group has released two working draft specifications:

* The Open Publication Structure (OPS) 2.0 (internal working draft v0.7)
* The Open Packaging Format (OPF) 2.0 (internal working draft v0.7) for public distribution and review as IDPF informational documents.

Nick indicated that the team would appreciate feedback from our more technical readers. The IDPF strongly encourages feedback from potential users, developers and others, whether IDPF members or not, for the sake of improving interoperability and quality of IDPF work. The Working Group requests that comments to the specifications be made before Wednesday, January 31st in order to facilitate revision of the specifications.

Feedback on the draft specifications should be made at http://www.idpf.org/forums under "OPS/OPF 2.0 Public Drafts & Related Documents". All IDPF specification documents may be found at http://www.idpf.org/specs.htm.

Related Stories:
The fight for a reflowable e-document standard
Industry adopts new e-book standards

And finally, for those who are interested to learn more, here is some additional (detailed) information to get you on your way...

Document Summary

The OPS 2.0 and OPF 2.0 specifications are successors to OEBPS 1.2 which was released as an official IDPF specification in August 2002. The OPS specification describes a standard for representing the content of electronic publications. The OPF specification defines the mechanism by which the various components of an OPS publication are tied together and provides additional structure and semantics to the electronic publication. OPS/OPF will increase the viability and adoption of the previous OEBPS standard as both a cross-reading system interchange and production format as well as a final publication delivery format.

Both OPF and OPS are aligned with the OEBPS Container Format (OCF) specification which defines the standard mechanism by which all components of an electronic publication may be packaged together into a single archive for transmission, delivery and archival purposes. The OCF specification was released as an official IDPF specification on October 27th, 2006.

The OPS/OCF documents were submitted to the IDPF Board of Directors as an Informational Document as defined by the IDPF’s Policies and Procedures, section 4.6.1. While Informational Documents do not have an official specification status in the organization, the Working Group felt it important that IDPF members and the public have the opportunity to review the draft specification in order to obtain feedback on the current state of the proposal as well as to alert IDPF members that a proposal is forthcoming in order to allocate appropriate resources for a proper review. The document is expected to be submitted to the official IDPF output process in Q1 2007 which consists of Board of Director, public, intellectual property and membership review and a final membership vote.

This document was approved for submission by the Working Group on Thursday, December 14th and approved for release by the IDPF Board of Directors as an Informational Document on Friday, December 22nd.

Additional documents that may prove useful as an introduction

* Working Group Charter: http://www.idpf.org/idpf_groups/oebpswg.htm
* Specification Requirements: http://www.idpf.org/doc_library/info...quirements.htm
* IDPF member presentations on OPS, OPF & OCF: http://www.idpf.org/events/presentations.htm

Document Output Procedure

The OPS/OPF 2.0 documents are currently informational documents. All public comments made on the specification will be considered by the Working Group and, if appropriate, edits to the working drafts will be made. The Working Group expects to submit a final draft specification to the IDPF official output process in Q1 2007.

11:10 AM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

Have you been writing a book and wondering if you want to choose a Creative Commons license for it? It's your work of art and precious baby, so you want to choose the right license terms to protect yourself, but also get it out to your readers in a fair manner. Or maybe it's photos or music or other types of artistic work?

If you have no idea how to get started, or how to think about the Creative Commons licensing alternatives, there's a nice resource at Digital Inspiration which provides the basics at a high level. It's a great introduction for the licensing, and includes some sample real-life scenarios to help cut through the confusion.

Now all you have to do is finish that book!

10:50 AM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Announcements

We are absolutely delighted to announce that MobileRead has been chosen as the winner of two coveted Palm Addict Reader Awards for 2006: "Best Mobile Technology Blog" and "Best Palm Blog of the Year." To receive these awards is a great honor, especially with the great number of wonderful sites out there that cover mobile technology.

Palm Addict is, of course, the grandfather of Palm web sites. The site continues its successful ways to this day, and even celebrates its 8th birthday this month.

We say a heartfelt thanks to Sammy McLoughlin, the rest of the Palm Addict's staff, and to all the great Palm Addict readers who all together make it the place to go for a friendly and comprehensive look at all things Palm. If you have a Palm device, be sure to go and check them out.

07:00 AM by Alexander Turcic in Miscellaneous | Week in Review

If you've been too busy to check out MobileRead this week, check out our usual roundup:

E-book Devices, Future E-Book Devices
New Sharp color e-book reader with 4.3" screen
An odd take on digital-enabled books

E-books, Elsewhere on the Net
The Shepherd's Prayer:Free Christmas novel and audiobook
Free eReader e-books Dec 18-21
Top 10 publishers in America

E-books, News
What does it mean to be a bestselling book? Nothing, actually.

Mobile Devices, General Talk
How to build Linux 2.6 kernels

Mobile Devices, Handhelds and Smartphones
Rumors of an amazing new HTC Athena Win Mobile 5 smartphone

Mobile Devices, Others
NEC to release waterproof laptop next month

10:42 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | Deals and Resources (No...

Michael Hyatt, the President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, has provided a list of the top ten trade publishers in America. One might think that this is commonly available information, but he says of his new monthly list, "As far as I know, we are the only publisher in world who has this information." Their numbers were collected over the last few months and are "a proprietary database made up of various point-of-sale databases."

Here's the top 10 publishers and their shares:

1) Random House (17.2%)
2) HarperCollins* (13.3%)
3) Simon & Schuster (9.2%)
4) Penguin (8.7%)
5) Hachette (5.9%)
6) Thomas Nelson (4.8%)
7) St. Martin’s (3.2%)
8) Tyndale (1.9%)
9) John Wiley & Sons (1.7%)
10) Scholastic (1.6%)
Total Top Ten: 67.5%

*Includes Zondervan

Thomas Nelson Publishers is the largest Christian publishing company, and so they also compiled a separate list aimed at the top ten Christian publishers. That list is also available at Michael Hyatt's blog, which also has other interesting articles such as this post on how top sellers remain at the top for shorter durations than in previous decades.

07:33 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

It's been a long time since I saw a new smartphone that got me excited. And I've been waiting for a decent Win Mobile VGA smartphone for along time. But the new HTC Athena rumors are enough to make any gadget lover drool.

Judie over at GearDiary has collected some great information about the rumored device, including pictures and specs. While it's unsubstantiated, it's pretty exciting. Here's the bottom line goodness:

* 5″ VGA 640×480 screen (Woot!)
* Detachable keyboard
* GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS
* Bluetooth 2.0
* Wifi b/g
* 624 MHz CPU
* 8 GB drive
* 3 megapixel camera with flash
* GPS
* 2200 mAh battery
* G-Sensor
* VGA out
* Stereo speakers
* miniSD

The keyboard is multi-functional as keyboard, stand or cover. It's partly clear plastic, so when used as a cover, you can still see part of the screen. It is kept in place with magnets.

As long as we're dreaming, I'd love to see next generation smartphones have specs like these as a baseline. But it's unclear whether this will ever come to market, or simply remain a rumor. And if it does come to market, will it be >$2,000?

And, finally, let me reiterate in case you didn't notice... it's still just a rumored device!

07:10 PM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

NEC will be releasing a waterproof laptop computer next month. Waterproof and weatherproof. IntelliAdmin has a translation of the NEC Japanese site, but here are some of the highlights:

* Withstands 20 degree weather
* Can handle drops from one foot off the ground
* Waterproof
* Dustproof
* Lightweight
* Priced at 300,000 Yen or $2,700 dollars

Like so many devices from Japan, we may not see it in the U.S. or other parts of the world. And why did they bring out such a laptop? "Simply, the personal computer for the outside has become monopoly." Can't argue with that! But how about a waterproof e-ink reader for those who like to read books in the tub?

From IntelliAdmin.

05:13 PM by Bob Russell in E-Book General | News

A new digital book technology called TUI (Touch User Interface) is meant to allow "a reader to press the pictures and words on the regular printed ink and paper page and retrieve digital content or launch communication applications like email, IM, and VOIP from a digital appliance like a computer. This technology, in essence, turns the printed material into a remote control to digital content."

So the idea is that with a TUI-enabled book attached to some sort of computing device, you essentially enable it by allowing users to touch links to additional content. I'm not sure if this is just in a virtual book on a computer screen, or if it's actually added to a physical book, but I suppose it could have a place in some niche markets like for catalogs.

Read more at Coolest Gadgets.

Via Palm Addicts.