University of Illinois awarded grant for open source textbooks

The University of Illinois has received a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to create an open-source textbook to be used by students on its three campuses. The textbook will also be shared with community colleges in the state and other universities across the nation. Rather than providing less restrictive licenses to current material, University of Illinois faculty members will create the textbook—the subject of which has not been decided. Once made, the textbook will be available online for free, and a print version will be available for a reasonable price. Faculty at the university hope that this is the first of many open-access books.

A news post from UI Springfield has a short video about the project.

Charles Evans, University of Illinois associate Vice President for academic affairs states, “The idea behind open-source textbooks is to allow students to go to a website and download customized material for their course. The material is made up of a mix of resources already available on the web and resources provided by faculty. The real benefit of open source materials is it allows faculty to customize their courses and actually produce a better teaching-learning experience for students."

According to Ray Schroeder, director of the University of Illinois Springfield, online textbooks are nothing new to many instructors at UIS, “Schroeder estimates that about 15 to 20 percent of courses currently offer open-source resources.”

A recent article from The Chronicle takes a look at this topic and also discusses the grant that was awarded to the Florida Distance Learning Consortium to research the barriers to entry of adopting open-source textbooks.

Kindle Editions: Audio and Video added to e-books

In a recent press release, Amazon announced that it will now offer enhanced e-books with video and audio clips called Kindle Editions. The new e-books are available through the Kindle app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPad Touch. These enhanced e-books maintain the same price as most other e-books available through Amazon and there are about a dozen available so far. Some examples of the clips include video cooking instructions and audio recordings of famous speeches, alongside relevant text in their respective books, but they do cause the e-book to take up a substantial amount of space—approximately half of a gigabyte. Interestingly, these enhanced books cannot be used on current Kindle hardware.

In the press release, Dorothy Nicholls, director, Amazon Kindle commented, “This is just the beginning—we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps."

Music in the cloud

There are many correlations that can be drawn between the turbulent past of the music business and the future of e-Books, and publishers and other components of the e-Book industry have worked hard not to fall prey to the same mistakes that plagued music. It is interesting and potentially beneficial to take into account not only the past but also the current trends and the future of the music industry.

An article from the New Yorker takes a look into online music in the cloud—specifically at some online radio services such as Pandora, MOG, and Spotify.

According to Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, “Of the twenty hours a week that an average American spends listening to music, only three of it is stuff you own. The rest is radio.” When it comes to music, we are already accustomed to accessing it and we do not necessarily own a copy of all the music that we want to listen to. In the future, we may become more accustomed to accessing e-books in the same way.

Amazon and B&N drop e-reader prices as Apple reports record sales

Earlier this week, both Amazon and Barnes & Noble announced price reductions for their e-reader devices just as Apple reported that it has sold three million iPads in three months.

A few analysts have commented on the news:

From The New York Times: “It was obvious that the price of stand-alone e-readers had to come down,” said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, citing the threat by Apple and other tablet makers. “We just never thought it was going to happen this rapidly.”

From Businessweek: “Their sales have obviously been impacted by the iPad,” said Charlie Wolf, a senior analyst at Needham & Co. in New York. “These price cuts are almost an act of desperation.”

Reinventing the bookstore business model

Recently there was an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal and another from Laura Dawson of LJNDawson that discussed the future for bookstores and how the digital revolution is forcing them to reinvent their business models. Dawson says, “Possibly a third of bookstores in the US will close when Borders is finished with its death spiral and Barnes & Noble and successful independents have picked up what business makes sense in those locations.” When the stores close, customers will quickly become accustomed to ordering books online and the instant gratification associated with e-book purchases. Dawson refers to this as “leapfrogging” and says it will start in rural and suburban areas and once the convenience of immediate delivery of digital books is realized, it will only be a matter of time before stores have to transform the in-store experience and offer more than just books.

According to the WSJ article, stores such as Indigo Books & Music Inc. in Canada and Barnes & Noble are already working on this. Leonard Riggio, chairman of B & N, says that over the next three to four years B&N stores will begin to sell a variety of merchandise and will serve as a showcase for digital products which will create a much more diverse retail store.

College stores must also begin preparing for this change. While many stores already offer a variety of merchandise, new product lines will become even more significant in the coming years. But more importantly, college stores need to offer students the opportunity to purchase print books and digital books through the store website. Students are already very accustomed to shopping online and this trend will continue in the coming years.

Traditional bookstores and digital booksellers – everyone can win

An article from Fortune, by Michael Edwards, the CEO of Borders, provides an interesting and optimistic perspective on the future of the traditional bookstore. Although Borders has recently been struggling—which many critics attribute to its lacking digital side of business—Edwards states that “there's no reason traditional bookstores and digital booksellers can't co-exist; for all their common ground, each offers a substantially different value proposition.” From his perspective, there is room for everyone to win.

Edwards goes on to state that, as the world becomes increasingly digitalized, the experience of paper books is accentuated, as the idea of reading words on paper becomes more appealing than looking at another screen. He also argues that bookstores have always been and will continue to be a social gathering place, and there are many options to add other aspects and activities that will appeal to and improve the experience of store goers—a platform on which digital-only providers cannot stand.

“The onus is on booksellers to prove their continued relevance in the digital age. If they continue to innovate in the services and experiences they offer and the ways they engage the community, consumers will continue to make bookstores a vital part of their lives. If they fail to adapt to changing market conditions and consumer needs, they'll deserve the empty aisles -- and cash registers -- that result.”

The end of netbooks?

With the booming success of Apple’s iPad, many people have predicted the beginning of the end for netbooks and other mini-notebooks. A recent article from InformationWeek presents this same idea, rationalizing that the birth of the tablet computer will be the end of these other products.

“The last quarter of 2007 heralded the birth of the mini-note PC (netbook)," John F. Jacobs, director of notebook research at DisplaySearch, said in a statement released Tuesday. "Q1’10 signaled the birth of the slate PC, and possibly by extension, the beginning of the end of the mini-note PC.”

With new devices being announced and unveiled every day, we will have to wait to see how the industry progresses in order to determine the accuracy of these predictions; in the mean time, many intriguing devices continue to be released—some even incorporating ideas from both the notebook and the tablet. In a recent press release, Toshiba unveiled the Libretto W100, a dual, touch-screen, hybrid PC—a mix between a tablet and a notebook—in addition to two other new products. This device, which has two 7-inch multitouch screens, will be the first dual-screened device to run on Windows 7, and it will double as an e-reader. An article from Wired goes into more detail about the device.

What books can become

A recent article on Forbes challenges publishers to learn from Film and Music and to “re-imagine what books can become.” The article cites publishers’ lack of willingness to fully embrace e-Books, going on to provide potential ideas that publishers could instead pursue that compliment the nature of e-Books without bringing an end to their paper counterparts.

Publishers can add more value to paper books by combining the purchase of the physical copy with a complimentary e-Book. This could be a digital copy of the hard-copy book, or other works could be promoted by adding an excerpt or full copy to the purchased book.

Another suggestion is to utilize the capabilities and versatilities of the e-Reader platform and software. Examples include adding author commentary, background information, images, videos, and embedded content that the reader may enjoy. The act of reading could easily be transitioned into something more interactive and even social, where users could communicate and interact with other individuals reading through the same book, creating networks and a system of casual book clubs.

“Instead of trying to understand eBooks within the space of the old paper-and-binding universe, we should examine the media that survived the first wave of the distribution revolution: movies and music.”

The author challenges publishers to “unite our old ideas of reading alone in quiet rooms with the vast potential created by new technology.”

Google Editions versus DRM

One of our interns, Nic, has been researching DRM and the issues surrounding it. Here is another one of his posts:

As we have mentioned in the past few posts, DRM is currently a major issue in the ebook industry, with many proponents pushing for different models with the aspiration of balancing between the publisher’s protection from piracy and the consumer’s experience and desires. Currently, there is very little interoperability between e-reading devices, which is problematic and somewhat disorienting for the consumer. Buyers want the freedom to read their e-books on other devices; this is especially a concern due to there being so many different e-readers currently on the market, so many companies working on producing the next generation round of devices, and the indeterminable question of which products will consumers want to be using in the future.

A recent article from FutureBook makes the bold claim that, thanks to its upcoming Google Editions, Google may have already won the eBook war due to circumventing these issues. The article draws comparisons to the music industry, and it goes on to predict a trend towards device agnostic reading. Books purchased through Google Editions are stored in the cloud, allowing users to access their books through any device capable of connecting to the internet, and, due to this, Google will be in a great position to seize market share in the industry if other companies continue with their DRM policies of limited-to-no device interoperability,

“The industry needs to grow digitally to last, and we need to start thinking uncomfortable thoughts about how we help readers access books in the way they want before companies like Google lock up the market.”

USB Typewriter for iPad

Here is an interesting innovation that repurposes an old device. As you can see in the video, a manual typewriter can be used as the keyboard for an iPad or any other device with a USB port. The design is distributed under a Creative Commons license so users can buy a kit and make one, or send the creator their own personal typewriters for customization.

Thought for the day

In a blog posting on Seth Godin’s website he says, “I saw a two-year old kid (in diapers, in a stroller), using an iPod Touch today. Not just looking at it, but browsing menus and interacting. This is a revolution, guys.”

Access to free wi-fi and content at Starbucks locations

Beginning July 1, Starbucks will offer free wi-fi access in all of its U.S. stores. In addition, beginning this fall, consumers will be able to access free content from The Wall Street Journal and other exclusive material.

Mobile Learning

With mobile learning taking off thanks to many improvements within the industry and next generation portable technology, it is on the brink of exploding into the mainstream. With this in mind, Upside Learning, which focuses on Learning Solutions, has put together a slideshow with descriptions of and links to the top 50 Mobile Learning Resources. This list ranges from Apple Education, to individual e-books, blogs, papers, and other resources, all of which would help interested parties keep up-to-date and stay informed about the mobile learning industry.

Gentler Digital Rights Management

A recently formed IEEE Working Group (P1817) will be looking to change the way DRM affects users of e-books and other digital media. DRM currently prevents users from having real control over their ‘digital property,’ as it prevents individuals from sharing digital products, in addition to other limitations imposed by the provider.

The goal of this IEEE working group is to return control of digital property to the consumer by establishing standards such that “consumers may enjoy all of the digital conveniences and ownership privileges of the movies, music, books, games, and other digital products that they purchase, while honoring copyright and respecting the rights of authors and artists to profit from their creative works.”

A recent Ars Technia article delves deeper into this subject. The intent is to make digital property more similar to physical property with respect to product ownership. As we stated in one of our recent blog posts, the nature of DRM and licensing at this time effectively cause e-book buyers to pay for the right to access digital media for as long as the provider is willing to allow access. As we saw in July last year, when Amazon recalled two books by forcibly deleting them from their customers’ Kindles, the rights of the consumer at this point are somewhat ambiguous. One goal of the P1817 working group is to ensure that product ownership is perpetual, allowing owners of digital personal property to be free of restrictions on private use or sharing.

“The 'digital personal property' idea involves two major pieces: a title folder and a playkey. The title folder contains the content in question. It's encrypted, and it can be copied and passed around freely. To access the content inside, however, you'll need the playkey, which is delivered to the buyer of a digital media file and lives within a 'tamper-protected circuit' inside some device (computer, cell phone, router) or online at a playkey bank account."

The playkey cannot be moved or copied, but an e-book or other digital property can be shared with a friend by linking them the playkey along with a copy of the product. Users need to be careful, though, because just as with physical property, "controlling the playkey means that you control the media, and you truly own it.” Read here for more information on the process.

P1817’s first meeting is on July 14, and interested parties are invited to join and participate.

Futuristic Designs: Achievable Today

An article from ITBusiness.ca gives some insight on the potential future of laptop, netbook, and e-reader designs. “The 12 innovative notebook designs here -- some actual working computers, others wooden mockups or CAD drawings -- are for the most part producible within the next two years,” and a surprising number of these seemingly futuristic concept designs could be produced today, without the use of any new technology.

Included in the article are intriguing concepts such as:

The Prime, a folding laptop that is incredibly versatile. It can be compressed into a thin, 13” notebook for travel, opened completely with a 26” screen, or kept somewhere in between by leaving some screens closed.

Asus Airo Origami, which consists of four independently moving parts: the keyboard, the display, the wrist support, and the base. It has a raised keyboard to increase airflow and a very thin, triangular design.

Qualcomm’s Multi-Fold features three touch screen panes that are hinged together and can be configured in several different orientations.

The XO-3, a minimalist tablet from One Laptop Per Child, which will feature a 100% unbreakable, flexible plastic screen.

The Skiff Reader, a thin, tablet e-reader that has a large, flexible touch-screen which can bend into a U without being harmed. It also has an expected battery life of one week! Interestingly, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which among other things owns Fox News and Wall Street Journal, acquired Skiff earlier this week.

Sony’s flexible, color OLED display, a 4.1 inch display that is limber enough to be wrapped around a pencil. A video demo is available here.

The very impressive design concept called Rolltop, which can be unfurled from its cylindrical stand and configured as a flat, 17” flexible tablet or folded into a 13” laptop. Here is a video demo.



Some other flexible displays that are in the works include those that are being developed by HP and Arizona State University, Plastic Logic, and PARC.

e-book file conversion

This summer we have a couple interns working with us who will be contributing to the blog. We hope it provides a fresh new perspective and some new views on content. Here is another of their contributions -- one from the tech file:

A recent article at How-To Geek walks through the process of converting PDF eBooks into ePub format, using Calibre, which is an interesting program that allows users to organize their eBooks and to transform them into pretty much any format. It also supports many format conversions, including MOBI, which is used by Kindles.

“Calibre is program to manage your e-book collection. It acts as an e-library and also allows for format conversion, news feeds to e-book conversion, as well as e-book reader sync features and an integrated e-book viewer.”

Converting from PDF makes eBooks much easier to read on smaller, mobile devices, on which the PDF format forces readers to zoom in and move around the page in order to see everything. If the PDF contains text, rather than only scanned images, this conversion will instead make the book reformat to fill the screen of your device. Additionally, the many file conversions supported by Calibre allow users to read non-copy-protected eBooks on various devices and e-readers that do not support every format.

DRM and content ownership

As e-readers and e-books become increasingly popular and pervasive, the rights surrounding e-books and issues of DRM are at the forefront of industry concerns. An article from Mainstreet.com takes a look at digital books, noting that “for the most part there is no real distinction between an e-book and a piece of software. When you buy either, what you are really paying for is a license to use the product, not to own it.” The interesting title for this article is "Do we own the e-books we buy?" An interesting phrase choice, as most of the options for students to buy digital textbooks fit this concept of paying for a use license for a period of time -- more like a digital rental than a digital purchase.

Publishers and e-book sellers rely on DRM software to prevent piracy, and it is used by all major e-book readers with the exception of the iPad.

“Amazon took a big step and allowed publishers to decide whether they wanted a particular book to use DRM. While this is definitely a step toward allowing consumers more control over the books they buy, Nieman Lab points out that most publishers will likely choose DRM for fear of piracy.”

With Google Editions expected to be launched later this summer, which will not be focused on proprietary devices and software, and with publishers pushing for a standardized e-book format, perhaps DRM restrictions will be at least somewhat reduced in the not-too-distant future.

E-book Sales Chart

Epublishers Weekly has created an interesting chart using e-book sales data from IDPF. IDPF posts a chart on their website which shows sales by quarter and Epublishers Weekly has reworked the chart to show the data on an annual basis. The annual format makes it is easy to see why 2010 will likely be a record year for e-book sales.

Note: IDPF’s figures represent the 12 to 15 trade book publishers who have been willing to supply their data to IDPF.

Opposing Voices in Digital Publishing video

The Teleread blog recently posted a video from Tyndale House Publishers, that features puppets acting out opposing view points on digital publishing topics. The video is humorous but also shows that no one really knows what is going to happen in the industry and how to accommodate the different needs of authors, publishers, consumers, bookstore owners, etc.

Video demo of Kno Tablet

Last week we talked about the new Kno Tablet that was unveiled at the All Things Digital Conference. Here is a video demo that shows some of the impressive capabilities.

Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.