Comments on: Keeping your place in the book: Adobe’s Bill McCoy favors open syncing http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:02:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Keith Fahlgren http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1036235 Keith Fahlgren Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:58:52 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1036235 David: The ePub-interop group was formed in response to discussions at TOC in February and isn't a part of the IDPF. The archives there are open and I do hope that we get to a place where input from publishers and readers is useful, but at this point the problem with this and the OPDS work is that we don't have enough (any) working code. I'm sure the coming weeks and months will help to resolve this, but I'm saddened that there aren't more ePub implementers out there/making themselves visible. David: The ePub-interop group was formed in response to discussions at TOC in February and isn’t a part of the IDPF. The archives there are open and I do hope that we get to a place where input from publishers and readers is useful, but at this point the problem with this and the OPDS work is that we don’t have enough (any) working code. I’m sure the coming weeks and months will help to resolve this, but I’m saddened that there aren’t more ePub implementers out there/making themselves visible.

]]> By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035668 David Rothman Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:19:10 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035668 Big thanks for the info, Keith. Any documents you can point to or reproduce? Records of discussions, or are they confidential? I think it would be a big help if ePub-interop got input from small publishers and actual readers. What's the status of this within ePub-interop? Is it a sure-fire thing? Any obstacles cited? Any ETAs for incorporation in ePub or other standards? By when might the sync capabilities actually appear in reader software and firmware? (Just a guess.) I'd hope you would agree with me on the wisdom of a transparent standards-setting process in this case. As you can see, the interest is out there. When I discussed this with Lexycle folks in February, no one mentioned the ePub-interop angle. I'm also surprised that Bill McCoy didn't know about it. I think it would be cool if every few weeks the IDPF sent TeleRead and others a report on its standards work so the public could provide feedback. The TeleBlog and others could reproduce the info in full to aid the process. Thanks! - David Big thanks for the info, Keith. Any documents you can point to or reproduce? Records of discussions, or are they confidential? I think it would be a big help if ePub-interop got input from small publishers and actual readers. What’s the status of this within ePub-interop? Is it a sure-fire thing? Any obstacles cited? Any ETAs for incorporation in ePub or other standards? By when might the sync capabilities actually appear in reader software and firmware? (Just a guess.) I’d hope you would agree with me on the wisdom of a transparent standards-setting process in this case. As you can see, the interest is out there. When I discussed this with Lexycle folks in February, no one mentioned the ePub-interop angle. I’m also surprised that Bill McCoy didn’t know about it. I think it would be cool if every few weeks the IDPF sent TeleRead and others a report on its standards work so the public could provide feedback. The TeleBlog and others could reproduce the info in full to aid the process. Thanks! – David

]]> By: Keith Fahlgren http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035487 Keith Fahlgren Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:53:00 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035487 David: this feature has already been discussed at length on ePub-interop. I don't know why Adobe hasn't joined and contributed there. David: this feature has already been discussed at length on ePub-interop. I don’t know why Adobe hasn’t joined and contributed there.

]]> By: William Donohue http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035462 William Donohue Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:35:53 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035462 Yes, better TOCs and better indexing all around - but I follow my various media feeds across multiple outlets, both mobile and home-based. I find that even with something as simple as Twitter, syncing my client apps as to where I left off reading the stream is an enormous help. Now, if I could share annotated bookmarks with specific individuals, communities of interest, and my own indexing and archiving, *that* would be even more helpful. As to bloat - yes, the formats should allow for these features, and give the user some fine-grained options for turning them on/off (default being OFF). Then we could see whether apps & formats benefit in the marketplace by providing this support. Yes, better TOCs and better indexing all around – but I follow my various media feeds across multiple outlets, both mobile and home-based. I find that even with something as simple as Twitter, syncing my client apps as to where I left off reading the stream is an enormous help. Now, if I could share annotated bookmarks with specific individuals, communities of interest, and my own indexing and archiving, *that* would be even more helpful. As to bloat – yes, the formats should allow for these features, and give the user some fine-grained options for turning them on/off (default being OFF). Then we could see whether apps & formats benefit in the marketplace by providing this support.

]]> By: Bart http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035448 Bart Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:08:03 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035448 No way, Jack. Automatic syncing is extremely useful. When I'm standing in line somewhere (or going to the bathroom...) instead of checking my email or anything else I now fire up Kindle on the iPhone and continue reading my book. Without auto-syncing, I'd spend half my time trying to find the place in the book that I was in, and then next time I'd open my Kindle I'd have to waste more time then too. The trick is for these things to happen without the user to be aware of the process. You should just open the book and see the exact same position everywhere without anything nagging you or any icons prompting you to wait for the sync to finish... The more devices this happens on, the better. No way, Jack. Automatic syncing is extremely useful. When I’m standing in line somewhere (or going to the bathroom…) instead of checking my email or anything else I now fire up Kindle on the iPhone and continue reading my book. Without auto-syncing, I’d spend half my time trying to find the place in the book that I was in, and then next time I’d open my Kindle I’d have to waste more time then too. The trick is for these things to happen without the user to be aware of the process. You should just open the book and see the exact same position everywhere without anything nagging you or any icons prompting you to wait for the sync to finish… The more devices this happens on, the better.

]]> By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035414 David Rothman Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:30:03 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035414 Hey, Jack, I totally agree with you on the glories of TOCs, and indexes would also be nice, maybe even for novels. As for autosyncing, it could be a default but not the only choice. Thanks, David Hey, Jack, I totally agree with you on the glories of TOCs, and indexes would also be nice, maybe even for novels. As for autosyncing, it could be a default but not the only choice.

Thanks,
David

]]> By: Jack Tingle http://www.teleread.com/drm/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/comment-page-1/#comment-1035413 Jack Tingle Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:26:25 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/10/keeping-your-place-in-the-book-adobes-bill-mccoy-favors-open-syncing-to-make-this-easier/#comment-1035413 Please feel free to bloat up readers with any kind of bizarre feature anyone might want (hardware or software). Just remember to put in the switches for the user to TURN THEM OFF! (You kids, get off my lawn!) Personally, I hate the idea of automatic syncing between devices. I see far too many possibilites for unreliability, failure and mischief to make it worth the tiny benefit. I have no problem with manual syncing, by the way. For me, the closer an eReader works exactly like a giant box of paper books and a ragged little strip of a bookmark, the better. I don't want automatic bookmark syncing. I don't want automated dictionary lookup, though a good dictionary would be nice; I already know how to use one. I don't want hyperlinked games or imbedded 3-D video. I especially don't want Amazon, Google, or whoever to manage my bookshelf for me in the cloud. I'm just here to read. Now, if you could come up with a way for every ebook to have a working table of contents and a complete index, that would be a great advance. Solve the basic problems first. Then you could work on, oh, tables of figures, list of tables, maybe even a list of references or citations. You know, all those useful things well done books have had for a few centuries. Yes, I know some eReaders allow for some of those. I said ALL ebooks, please. "Allow for" is not "have". Regards, Jack Tingle Please feel free to bloat up readers with any kind of bizarre feature anyone might want (hardware or software). Just remember to put in the switches for the user to TURN THEM OFF! (You kids, get off my lawn!)

Personally, I hate the idea of automatic syncing between devices. I see far too many possibilites for unreliability, failure and mischief to make it worth the tiny benefit. I have no problem with manual syncing, by the way.

For me, the closer an eReader works exactly like a giant box of paper books and a ragged little strip of a bookmark, the better.

I don’t want automatic bookmark syncing. I don’t want automated dictionary lookup, though a good dictionary would be nice; I already know how to use one. I don’t want hyperlinked games or imbedded 3-D video. I especially don’t want Amazon, Google, or whoever to manage my bookshelf for me in the cloud. I’m just here to read.

Now, if you could come up with a way for every ebook to have a working table of contents and a complete index, that would be a great advance. Solve the basic problems first.

Then you could work on, oh, tables of figures, list of tables, maybe even a list of references or citations. You know, all those useful things well done books have had for a few centuries. Yes, I know some eReaders allow for some of those. I said ALL ebooks, please. “Allow for” is not “have”.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

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