"By end of the year, half of the potential world market will have a working cell phone, while the majority of the world will still never have made a land line phone call. It is going to be a similar story with paper books vs. eBooks." - Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart. Related: Project Gutenberg---its history and purpose---gets a nice writeup in Red Hat Magainze. Something to show friends?...

Of possible interest to TeleBlog readers: --"Simple tutorial" to make an epub books---with free tools (site). Cool! This is a great example of why we need a standard e-book format---to lower the barriers of entry. So what do people think of the tutorial? Any suggestions for Aaron, the author? --New Blog Printing Technology: SharedBook Introduces Blog2Print Widget (press release). Add a button to your side, and visitors can use it to whip up a book with your posts, and, yes, you'll get paid. The service is just for Blogger right now, but presumably WordPress will come in time. Shudder, is anyone interested...

[poll=28] This information will provide useful information about how to make the TeleRead reading experience more enjoyable. Also free free to make suggestions---on anything ranging from layout to content---in the comment book below. ...

[poll=27] Related: Google news roundup on iPhone....

What if paper books could contain links that, when followed, let you find out definitions of words or other extras? You'd have a "networked book in print," as Ben Vershbow of if:book has called the new invention. Despite the interesting ergonomics of the blueBook developed by Manolis Kelaidis in the U.K., I agree with Ben's skepticism. "By the time e-paper is a practical reality," he asks, "will attachment to print have definitively ebbed?" Update, 4:26 p.m.: While skeptical, Ben has just added, in a post to a mailing list, that "I couldn't agree more that Manolis' work is beautiful, and more...

Web 2.0 is the target of Andrew Keen, a Silicon Valley business man, who, in the tradition of Michael Gorman, argues that the many-to-many interactive approach is undermining venerable institutions like the Encyclopedia Britannica. So, gang, what do you think? Keen (inevitable book here, inevitable blog here, inevitable blogospheric outcry written up here) isn't entirely wrong, as I see it---given the amount of dreck online. A TeleRead-style approach, a well-stocked national digital library system, could greatly expand the supply of vetted books and other material while allowing for fair compensation for writers and others. Yes, the amateur alternative has its flaws...

"It appears publishers have no favorites among the current spread of eBook formats. 'It's true---publishers do not have a favorite or a preference at this point,' Steve Potash, CEO of Overdrive and president of the International Digital Publishing Forum, told TechNewsWorld. 'The field is wide open, and Adobe is well-positioned to seize the market.'" - The Next Chapter for eBooks, in E-Commerce Times. The TeleRead take: I'd hope that the Potash quote is a bit out of context, or that Steve meant to make clearer the distinction between formats and reading software. He's president of the IDPF, right? And hasn't Adobe...

E-book fans love "free." Public domain books and other freebies are probably more popular than the commercial variety of e-books. Free public libraries could give timely, commercial e-books a big boost, and e-retailers could benefit, too---once people are accustomed to e-reading. But among librarians and users, e-books are a risible bust, causing more than a few library geeks to roll their eyes. When I visited the Alexandria, VA, public library recently, a reference desk staffer didn't even know that her library system has e-books available via NetLibrary. So I wasn't surprised to read the following headline in Library Journal's Academic Newswire:...

So exactly when will ETI's e-book prototype or a similar device reach the market---perhaps under a brand name of a partner company? Garth Conboy, ETI president, mentions no deals or shipping dates. He says of the gimzo pictured here: "That device is really a prototype reader with our software on it. For productization, the mechanical design would certainly want to be brought in line with the firmware. It's not yet." The TeleBlog take: I guess that means no ETI-related reader this summer. But when it comes, it should be of interest, given ETI's focus on hardware and software ergonomics....

1. On a 1-10 scale for standards matters, how important is it for the IDPF specs to include interoperable DRM? 2. Same on the issue of reliable interbook linking? 3. Same in regard to specs for shared annotations and highlighting. 4. How can e-books address digital divide issues? How important is this to you? 5. Same for disability issues. Could the current IDPF standards be improved to address them? And in what ways? 6. How happy are you with the current IDPF, and in what ways, if any, could it be improved? Should there be more emphasis, compared to the present, on e-publications beyond e-books?...

Let's start with a DearAuthor.com reader's comments on selections at local Wal-Marts: "I'm in a small rural town. The book/magazine section here is one side of a single aisle. From the front of the store it goes like this: magazines, African-American romance/fiction; large section of Christian fiction and Bibles; category romances; best sellers; then on the endcap at the end of the aisle are children's books and two shelves at the very bottom of the endcap for westerns and men's fiction. "That's it, and that's all the books sold in town, no indie bookstores or even a chain store here---and we're the...

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