Because I like it that way.

Thanks,
David

Thanks,
David

Reference to the archive of the now inactive “ebook-history” Yahoo group provides more than enough evidence that Michael Hart (whose PG project never *really* got going until very late 1989, contemporaneous to a couple other text digitization projects that did not reach critical mass) was not the first to think of the idea of digital distribution and reading of book-like content. But of course Michael Hart played a significant role in promoting the idea by actually digitizing content and doggedly promoting the idea (many others digitized content, though, in the mid-1980′s, distributing the texts on various BBS.)

A very strong argument can be made that the invention of the idea of the ebook in the modern sense was by Alan Kay and his Dynabook (1968). A component of the Dynabook idea was that book content would be distributed and read on the Dynabook tablet. There is no doubt that Kay’s idea of the “ebook” virally injected itself into the creative consciousness of the computer community.

More thoughts on the history of the ebook can be given by Bill Janssen, if he wishes to do so. I consider Bill to be the #1 authority on ebook history.

Now regards the spelling of “ebook” (hyphen or not), and its case variants, the “ebook-community” Yahoo group (started in early 1996 as “ebook-list”) uses “ebook”/”eBook”.

An interesting exercise is to do a Google Groups search in the time frame of 1981 to 1992, which mostly covers Usenet. References to “ebook” and “e-book” (and all case variants) start in 1991. There was a company called “EBook Inc.” of San Leandro. No doubt the term “ebook” dates earlier than this, but I have no reference to it. I strongly believe Michael Hart did not originate the term, who didn’t even use it until more recently. The first public use of term “ebook/e-book” may never be determined.

eBook looks like a trademarked product (i.e. iBook) not a generic term. Also, capitalizations inside words drive spelling checkers mad and are a headache for anyone not in the know. It’s the sort of headache Adobe created by having products named InDesign and Photoshop. Look at all the people who type the latter PhotoShop. Make the term eBook, and millions of people will still type it ebook while others will create nonsense by analogy like eMail. Keep it simple and conventional to start with, and you’ll not have those problems.

e-books. I’ve never understood the rationale behind hyphenating single characters at the start of words. Something like “work-study programs” I can see. You have two words that are being joined in a new way. It makes sense to add a separator. But “e” isn’t a word. It’s an abbreviation. If you’re going to abbreviate that radically, you might as well drop the hyphen at the same time. Also, as with hyphens, this special way of doing things is just one more thing to remember. (“Now is it ebook or e-book?”) Finally, over time hyphens tend to go away, so why start with them in the first place?

So I cast my vote is for ebook for much the same reason that I use email rather than e-mail. Do a Google search on email and e-mail to see how much confusion there is in that area. In the long run, the simpler form will win.

And yes, if the term following the “e” were something that created pronunciation difficulties, say “e-elections” for elections held electronically,” I would vote for keeping a hyphen. There, a reason exists. But email or ebook don’t have that rationale. They’re easily pronounced.

This reminds me of a writer, I believe it was Tolkien, who has one of his characters say that it’s better to give kids simple names rather than one so long and complicated you have to shorten it with a nickname.

–Michael W. (Mike) Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle

P.S. And I wouldn’t put much stock in what the NY Times does. I once found myself trapped in a debate among Microsoft editors over “data is” versus “data are.” Those sorts of in-house debates are often dominated by those who like to complicate the world with rules needing enforcement.

Thanks,
David