APNIC, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, is the registry that issues Internet addresses for the booming Asia-Pacific region, and is expected to be the first to run out. Registries in other regions may last just a few months longer.

The article’s writers describe the new address system, IPv6, and its 340 billion billion billion addresses, as the system that will save the Internet from the end of capacity.  It recommends that companies start developing their IPv6 systems before it’s too late to add to IPv4.  It does, however, caution that the IPv6 system will be incompatible with the IPv4 system, creating–what else?–two IP systems running concurrently, and forcing businesses and consumers to straddle the worlds of both IP systems, new and old, at least for a good while.  You thought the Browser wars were a pain.

Actually, browser users probably won’t have to worry: Most ISPs are either planning on rolling out IPv6, or have already experimented with it.  ISP customers may see no difference whatsoever with their web access.  But if you produce a web site, you might want to see what your ISP or IT staff is doing about IPv6, and whether you’ll need to take any steps on your site to accommodate it.

And how does this affect ebooks, you ask?  Well, since every item that connects to the Internet needs its own IP address–including your ebook reading device or cellphone–the switch to the IPv6 system is supposed to allow for unprecedented communications between your many devices and the Internet, including some connections you may not have thought of… but clearly somebody did.

In Japan, for instance, some of the taxis have IPv6 addresses in their windscreen wipers. When taxies turn on their wipers, the cab company knows and can send lots of cabs to the area because it’s raining. “There are so many opportunities for other sorts of business and what you can do in terms of communication,” says (executive director of the Internet Society of Australia, Holly) Raiche.

The suggestion here is that ebook reading devices and cellphones, for example, may be able to contact a book outlet when it knows you’ve finished a book, or looked up an author or phrase, in order to sell you a new book.  Doesn’t sound too bad.  But it also suggests that device might be able to contact the outlet (or… bum bum bummm… someone else) if you copy that ebook and give it to someone else, or post it online.  Hey, at least that would solve the DRM problem…

Of course, these same organizations are talking about using those 340 billion billion billion IP addresses and giving them to every item on a store shelf, every electronic device in your home (even light bulbs and cables), every public piece of infrastructure, adding them to every device on your desk (“Attention: You are out of staples.  I have ordered a box for you.”), etc, etc.  If they do that, how long before we need an IPv8 system and another few billion billion billion billion billion billion addresses?

Bottom line, we should expect ground-breaking changes in our electronic devices… at some point.  Maybe soon.  Maybe not.  Bookmark this spot.

The article, “iPads Could Hinder Teaching, Professors Say,” lays out some plusses about iPads in the classroom… but also some serious negatives.  Some suggest that the older Tablet PCs would be a better choice for classroom use.

Despite the iPad’s popularity—Apple has sold nearly 15 million of them and just came out with the iPad2; and there are dozens of competitors, like the Samsung Galaxy—early studies indicate that these finger-based tablets are passive devices that have limited use in higher education. They are great for viewing media and allow students to share readings. But professors cannot use them to mark up material on the fly and show changes to students in response to their questions, a type of interactivity that has been a major thrust in pedagogy.

The inherent limitations of the iPad’s design, most notably its typing and touch interface, make it too difficult for students to take and annotate notes and material on-the-fly.  Many students trying an iPad in class switch to laptops, even older ones, based on easier input usability, and in the belief that they will save material better.

Despite the input problems, there are other aspects of the iPad design that scholars and students like, such as sharing capabilities.  However, most agree that iPads and other devices are far short of the “killer device” that higher education is waiting for.  And although Apple (and most computer makers) would like to be the device-maker for educators, they are showing little or no inclination to work closely with educators to develop such a device.

I note that there is no mention of adapting the devices for those with disabilities, either at the student or educator end… although students with disabilities often have their own customized equipment, the teachers must be able to interface with that equipment, and most likely the device makers aren’t giving much thought to that.

The full article is on the Chronicle web site.

Glory H from Dubuque, IA; and

Paul Milke from Uxbridge, MA!

E Ink has been notified, and the watches will be winging their way to you guys! Everyone join me in Congratulations to our winners!

The watch contest did well! Most interestingly, I’ve gotten some very interesting responses for the write-in portion of the contest, asking what people would like to see in the sequel to Verdant Skies. I plan to respond to many of those write-ins, just to acknowledge them, or possibly to discuss their ideas. And I can assure you that some of them are well within the concept of Verdant Skies that they can be used to some extent. I may just ask my readers to give me ideas for all my future books!

A promotional flyer is now available for those who’d like to help support Read an E-Book Week.  The flyer, a letter-sized JPEG that reads well in color or B/W, can be downloaded and either emailed to others, or printed out and posted at your favorite book-reading hangout… a library, a Starbucks, a bookstore, a bistro, anyplace with a bulletin board (this is a non-profit cause… some BBs don’t allow commercial material).

The flyer can be seen in full size, and downloaded, from my website.  (And while you’re there, consider entering the contest for an E-Ink watch!)

• Purchase a book from my site. You can also purchase a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc, but you’ll have to email me a copy of your online purchase receipt (because the retailers don’t tell me who purchases my books, just that they’ve been purchased).
• Send me an email answering this question: “What would I like to see in the upcoming sequel to Verdant Skies?” (Since the book isn’t finished yet, you never know what might end up in there!)

On Saturday, March 12, I’ll take two random names from the list of purchasers and emailers, announce their names, and send them each a watch!

www.SteveJordanBooks.com, and its author, have undergone an evolution.  Both have moved to www.RightBrane.com/StevenLyleJordan.

As you may have noticed, I am now using my full name, Steven Lyle Jordan, to brand my site and my books, and to avoid being confused with the million-and-six other Steve Jordans out there (more than a few of which are also writers!). This rebranding also extends to the books themselves, which are being rereleased on the new site with all-new covers, and some revised material to flesh out some of the stories. Presently, Verdant Skies and the first of the Kestral Voyages, renamed My Life, After Berserker, are available on the site, as well as most of my original free content. The rest of the original content will be reintroduced as it is repackaged.

I felt the need to do a full redo of the site and content, after numerous discussions with ebook enthusiasts left me wondering about my place in the market at such a volatile and uncertain time for ebooks… my introspection forced me to take my old site down for a time. But after a few months, I “came to my senses,” developed a new battle plan, and got back to work for my customers.

The new site is the beginning of my new approach to displaying and marketing my ebooks, but I have not changed the basic tenets of my sales model: Multiple formats of quality ebooks, at low prices, with No DRM.

Stop by the new site when you get a chance, and keep track of my progress on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/stevenlylejordan).

A recent law journal essay referenced on this site examined Digital Rights Management and its impact on the e-book industry.

DRM, the essay said, is counter to the precepts of open-source development in computer hardware and software, thereby hindering innovation and slowing technological progress in the e-book industry.

The implicit assumption is that open-source is good for innovation in the computer industry in general, and especially in the e-book industry. But is it? Has open source been a positive influence on e-book development? Or has open source itself hindered the progress of e-books, DRM notwithstanding?

Open source’s impact

The development of the computer industry in general has been spearheaded by open-source development. Open platforms do inspire innovation; and in the computer industry, that innovation has given us multiple programming languages, multiple operating systems, parallel applications by major corporations and individual programmers, and a horde of independent programmers and debuggers, free to work on any aspect of computing that interests them.

In the e-book industry, lack of commitment by the major players, i.e. the publishing industry, has resulted in open source believers attempting to take the reins in their own hands. This has similarly resulted in more e-book formats, e-book reading software and DRM-type security systems than can be reliably counted, and as those programmers have changed their focuses and moved on to new projects over the years, many of these formats have gone orphaned, leaving many customers with unsupported e-books and e-book reading applications.

The problems with orphaned e-books and software have resulted in a significant number of early-adopters abandoning e-books, for fear of losing money and purchased products down the line. Even before DRM had driven e-book enthusiasts away, orphaned formats had already done the damage of making users and publishers alike leery of the industry in general.

In contrast, the electronic music industry started down a similar path, but veered off quickly: At the time that different open source formats were being experimented with, a single format (MP3) was developed and quickly adopted by the majority of music listeners for its combination of portable size, ease of recording and sound quality. Once MP3 was locked in as the default music format, companies were free to develop compatible business models as enthusiasts were free to create their own music. Less time and money was wasted on other formats that would eventually die off and leave users hanging. Innovation became in fact more directed and focused, and resulted in a viable industry and financial model in a relatively short time.

Now, as major corporations try to finally take charge in the literature industry, and publishers try to insert themselves into an aspect of their own industry that almost passed them by, the confusing variety of open-source-created e-book formats, conversion programs and DRM blockers (mostly made available so people could convert from one open-source format to another), has created the “Tower of e-Babel” that has brought e-book development to an embarrassingly slow crawl. Developer’s resources are spread too thin, players are afraid to innovate for fear of becoming orphaned in a churning market, and interested parties are afraid to invest. In this case, open-source has been a clear and severe hindrance to the development of e-books.

Result

Following this logic, it would be understandable to say DRM has not hurt e-books as much as open source development itself has. Badly-executed DRM systems can hardly be said to be good for the industry… but because of  adverse effects on customers, not for stifling of innovation. The overwhelming stifling of e-book innovation is being caused by an unfocused, foggy, misdirected, every-man-for-himself open source melee. The e-book industry needs to end the churn and refine its direction and focus, in order to progress properly and efficiently.

The present efforts in the e-book industry are managing to whittle down the formats to a standardized few: Mobipocket, through Amazon; eReader, through Barnes & Noble; and OEB (ePub), developed as a standard format by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) and supported by Adobe, Sony and many other reading device and software manufacturers. As formats dwindle, players and potential players will gain optimism for the more stable market and feel more empowered to buy, invest and innovate. Said innovation will likely happen through licensed channels and more formal agreements, not the intention of open source; but it is more likely to be carried out by more capable individuals and organizations, and result in more rigorous and effective innovation.

Speculation

Suppose the whittling down of formats had happened years ago, early in e-books’ development as it did in digital music? Going by the development of digital music as a guide, today we would probably have a few dozen different reading applications, some of which would be created by corporations, and some by open-source programmers, capable of running the one or two major formats that would be dominant in the industry, with a variety of optional tools and controls to allow individual users to customize their viewing experience. They would be available for every operating system, on computers large and small. All of these applications would be able to read the same DRM’d e-books, largely eliminating the need to crack DRM for most consumers. But there would still be a number of open-source DRM cracking tools, some of which might even be built into the open-source reading applications, allowing consumers to transfer their e-books to other personal devices and/or storage options.

This is the direction the e-book industry should have progressed; and would have, if open-source efforts had not so badly fractionalized the industry early-on. As we bring our range of e-book formats down, undoing the damage caused by open-source fractionalization, we can expect to see exactly this sort of development to happen, as it did to the digital music industry, and we will end up with a healthy e-book industry.

This claim is not, in fact, an effort to support DRM or unworkable security systems in e-books. Rather, it is an effort to point the accusing finger in the proper direction: DRM has not been the real damaging factor in the e-book industry; the open-source movement itself has been the real cause of hindered innovation and slow development.

This book sheds light on a perfect storm of publishers, corporations, professionals, amateurs, dogmas, movements and beliefs, all of which worked either unintentionally or deliberately to forestall the coming of the e-book for over two decades. And it details which of these elements is still going strong and continuing to hold back e-books. At last, you’ll learn how badly e-books have had the cards stacked against them, and why.

This is a book on interpretations and personal observations of the e-book industry, from years of walking parallel with the industry before actually becoming a part of it.

Steve Jordan is a pioneer, he is blazing a trail across the digital landscape with his successful E-publishing venture, Steve Jordan books. So well known is he becoming that the New York Times recently interviewed him for a feature looking at the biggest revolution in books since the invention of the printing press. His web-site not only features his own work but offers a detailed look into the entire digital publishing industry. Find Steve’s website HERE and sit back and enjoy our chat with this 21st century man.

Steve Jordan, a self-published science fiction novelist, has to make lots of decisions. Although most of them involve plot points, narrative arcs and character development, Mr. Jordan has the added burden of deciding how to deliver the stories he creates to his online audience. …

“I’m already selling six different formats on my Web site,” Mr. Jordan said. “If they have a particular format they prefer, they can usually get it from me.”

OEB (epub) logo created by Steve Jordan

For quite some time now, fans of the Open E-book format, OEB, or ePub, have been begging to see some serious branding and marketing of the OEB format in public and commercial circles. It is the feeling of many that pushing the brand out there will get more people in-line with ePub, which is already on the way to becoming an international e-book format standard.

However, no branding, promotion or logos have been forthcoming from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), creators of ePub. This has left many of us OEB fans seeking ways of contributing to the effort of branding ePub, and being the design-minded person that I am, I have been toying with a brand logo for the OEB format for a while now. My work has finally resulted in a logo which I will start using on SteveJordanBooks.com, wherever the ePub format is offered.

The two main elements are the clearly iconic book pages, and the circle which partially encloses the book. The circle also happens to emulate an “O”, for “open,” the first word in the official format name of Open E-book, or OEB. However, the circle also iconically (albeit abstractly) represents a portal or container, enclosing or encapsulating what is inside… the electronic “container” for the book. The book page clearly extends itself from the container, suggesting availability and readability from the container. And finally, the container itself is “open” at the top, suggesting an open and unencumbered container which holds the book.

This logo is designed to have a truly international scope by avoiding letters or words common to any particular language… it is iconic, designed to be recognizable to anyone from any culture. Although some may wish to see the acronym “ePub” somewhere in the logo, it is not an absolute necessity for a logo’s purposes… in addition, the phrase “ePub” does not directly translate into a recognizable series of words in a language other than English, so it should not be used in an international application.

The design is intentionally timeless, neither presenting a futuristic or “electronic” look, nor an ancient look harkening back to leatherbound tomes. It could as easily have been designed a decade from now, or redesigned from a century-old logo. This also leaves the design open to reinterpretation in the future, while still maintaining its essential elements and form.

This logo is identifiable in its rendered two colors, or in a black silouhette, making it easily transferable to iconic use on solid surfaces (such as stamping), and it is clear at any size, making it useful for major or background branding applications. It can even be reproduced in a rough fashion, even quickly hand-drawn, and still be recognizable to others. All of this makes the logo easy to use in any medium, in any application, in any culture or language.

This logo is intended either to be the prototype of the OEB logo, or a device used to inspire others to create a logo. The intention is a final logo that will be acceptable to the public, commercial and business entities, the bookselling industry, and the IDPF. If, by that definition, the logo I have presented here is considered successful and desirable, I would grant its use as a worldwide symbol, abandoning all demands to rights or restrictions to the design. If, however, it is superceded by a logo of some other person’s design, which is in turn acceptable to all parties, I would retain the rights to this logo, to use as I see fit elsewhere. I invite comment (on this site or directly to me at SteveJordanBooks.com), debate, recommendation or endorsement of this logo by any and all interested parties.

The author at rest.

The e-book market of 2009 has had one overriding concern throughout the industry: Can customers read this book? The issue isn’t one of literacy, availability or accessibility… it is one of format. Specifically, a question of the many, many e-book formats competing for dominance in the industry.

When e-books first appeared, it seemed there was almost a format for every e-book. Individuals created their own idea of the ideal e-book format, and custom-crafted readers to translate those formats. New devices, capable of reading e-books, soon had new e-book reading applications designed for them, and new formats optimized for those new devices. After about twenty years, many formats have fallen by the wayside, while certain formats have become overridingly popular in particular regions, or with particular subjects and genres. But the present result is almost a dozen commonly-used e-book formats, none of which can claim real dominance over the others.

As the world of dedicated e-book readers has developed, hardware makers have generally chosen an e-book format to support early on, and optimized their device for that format. A few of them read multiple formats, but until recently, that was the exception, not the rule. Also, until recently, the most popular readers read only one of the more popular formats, and a few of the lesser-known formats. For instance, Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader reads versions of the Mobipocket PRC or Mobi format, and the Sony Reader Digital Book reads the LRF format… but neither of these popular devices reads the other’s format.

This has led to a schism in the industry, pitting consumers’ desire for a particular device against the availability of e-books in the particular format read by that device. Potential readers are forced to choose one e-book market or the other, and often have to forego certain books that are only available in the other market. This fractioning of the industry from the consumer’s point of view has only added to the plodding growth of the e-book market.

Many in the industry have decided that the way to solve this problem is to adopt a universal e-book format that everyone will use. Presently, the ePub format created by the IDPF is the odds-on favorite for becoming the de-facto standard format for all users. It is argued that every reader should be able to read e-pub files, making all e-books available for every device.

This sounds laudable, but it has one problem: There are already thousands of e-books out there, in different functional formats; it would be a lot of work to go back, collect all of those existing e-books, and convert them to another format; and not every interested party will have the interest, or the resources, to do that. In the real world, we would be left with a vast number of unconverted books that would not be readable on these e-pub optimized devices.

We can look to another, similar industry for inspiration. The home computer industry got off to a slow start, mainly because of a lack of standardization among hardware, operating systems and file formats. But when computers began to standardize with popular operating systems and common programs, the industry finally began to take off and thrive. This is exactly what the e-book industry needs to thrive, as well: Standardization. But as we already have a large legacy of existing e-books, and a hardware industry that is still in flux, the logical solution is to provide standardization in the still-developing hardware.

That’s why a better solution is to include multiple conversion engines for every possible format on every e-book reading device. A device that is capable of reading a dozen formats is infinitely more useful than a device that can only read one or two formats, and it provides continued access to those e-books that will never see conversion. Such a device-wielding consumer can buy e-books from any market, if they know their device is sure to be able to read it.

Presently e-book device sellers are too concerned with trying to lock customers into specific formats, and in so doing, prevent the homogenization that the industry needs to move forward… this is the wrong way to go. Offering devices that read many formats, reformat them for optimized display, and offer other features such as attractive designs or intuitive, efficient controls, will be more likely to attract customers and make sales. This would also be the best way to encourage real design innovation by manufacturers, beyond today’s simple manipulation of package coloring and button bezels.

There is presently a large infrastructure of professional and amateur programmers capable of designing format conversion algorithms for various e-book formats. Different conversion engines may reformat text differently, and consumers would presumably have a choice of which conversion engine they prefer: The Adobe engine does a better PDF format on device X, but device Y also has the Powell Mobipocket engine, and I like the look of Powell-formatted e-books. Some of these engines might be licensed to specific devices, or perhaps other engines could be loaded by the consumer onto the device of choice.

However individual engines were distributed, the end result would be a consumer that could choose their reading device for its looks, cost, features, etc, and be sure that they could read any e-book out there, regardless of its format. The fractioning of the industry would be erased in one motion, and the potential for e-books to spread would be more easily realized.

Tom Peters, a trained academic librarian, will interview me for  Online Programming for All Libraries and also accept questions from others. Anyone can participate. See a quick description of the book (obsolete date listed) and how-to details for the chat.

The latest Scandals review is from Brad’s Reader.

If you’d like to mention your own book in the comments section of this post, be my guest. Links welcome, including purchasing info. All I ask is that the book be suitable for public libraries here in the States. Meanwhile, I’ll remind people of SF writings by Steve Jordan, a regular TeleRead contributor. His latest book is The Lens, shown here.

And speaking of Solomons: You can download PDF freebies of Japan in a Nutshell, Coney Island, How to Make the Most of a Flying Saucer Experience and The Book of King Solomon and How to Find Lost Objects, by a Harvard grad who uses Prof. Solomon as a pen name.

MobileRead’s policy is not to publish pictures of its members—to ensure their privacy—so I haven’t included any other pictures here. Kaz won an autographed copy of David’s book The Solomon Scandals and Nate won a CD from Steve Jordan with his latest SF book.

It was great fun to put some faces to the names I’ve been reading all these years.

E-books are in a unique position of being able to stand at the forefront of the Digital Revolution, alongside digital music and other media. All digital media, in fact, share similar issues that must overcome the painful transition from scarce commodity to abundant commodity. But if those issues are overcome, they will be applicable to most other products of the Digital Revolution, smoothing the transition to other products, and aiding the development of whole new concepts of what a digital-era commodity is.

The state of our world, after the full adoption of the Digital Revolution, will likely be as unrecognizable to those of us alive today as the Industrial Revolution would have been to the farmers of the fifteenth century. The commerce of literature could also evolve into something we can barely understand today. But considering the value the world can derive, from a Digital Revolution poised to spread knowledge, entertainment and enlightenment around the world, who would we be to stand in its way?