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By David Rothman

paulhappyholiday1Merry Christmas to TeleBlog readers who celebrate the holiday. Hey, the TeleBlog goes on. I’m Jewish and someone has to do it, eh? Meanwhile I won’t even think of trying to top the image to the left from TeleBlog contributing editor Paul Biba.

So, gang, looking ahead, what’s your e-book wishlist for ’08? Here are just a few random thoughts from me, nothing more.

1. Further progress against the Tower of eBabel, and I don’t just mean work on core .epub standards and interoperable DRM (if publishers keep insisting on “protection”). Rob Preece, a small publisher, as well as Tamas Simon, an inveterate open source guy, have made clear that they want open source creation and reading tools for the .epub. I agree with these TeleBlog regulars.

Would the IDPF or members, including large publishers, please consider sponsorship of good open source projects? I believe this could help commercial products, which could benefit from the ideas that open source can lead to. The more brains at work on a problem, the faster the e-book world can make progress toward solutions. Besides, as IBM has shown, with its encouragement of open source, giants can make nice bucks off services, not just products. Hello, Adobe? You’ve helped out on an open source .epub validation tool. Now how about nurturing open source creation and reading tools to show further that .epub isn’t tied to you or any other vendor? What better way to distinguish yourself from Microsoft? In the standards area, an annotations standard and more reliable interbook linking are also on my wishlist.

2. A Kindle that can read .epub and—officially—DRMed Mobipocket. The hack to allow DRMed Mobi works OK now. But what about the future? Will Amazon sabotage it? I’d also like the Kindle to have a less library-hostile terms of service agreement. How about it, Amazon? As for other vendors, Sony could help out by carrying through its plan to include .epub on new Readers and allow the PRS-505 to be upgraded. This is to happen via Adobe Digtital Editions. And speaking of Adobe, what about the Cybook and iLiad? Will Adobe allow them to use DE software able to read the current encrypted PDF? Might be one way for the Cybook and iLiad to handle .epub as well. As for Mobipocket, what’s this about talk that it won’t allow licensing of other DRM-capable software on the same machines? If that’s so, then a lump of coal for Mobi for Christmas ’08 unless that changes.

3. More e-book machines with built-in wireless, a triumph of the Kindle. Whether the wireless is WiFi or EVDO, that will still be progress. One of the biggest hassles of e-books for novices is the transfer of books from PCs to e-book readers. It shouldn’t be a problem and actually isn’t with the right software in place for direct copying of files. But that’s how the novices perceive it.

4. Cheaper, faster E Ink machines and further progress toward color. Meanwhile best of luck to the people doing roll-out screens. Imagine them on cellphones. A lot more people on phones than own dedicated e-book readers. Roll-out screens could be more rugged, too. What’s more, they’re progress toward the day when e-book can have flippable pages, just like p-books—so that even old foggies have trouble telling E and P apart.

5. Further progress in digitizing public domain books, especially modern works whose copyrights have expired. I love the oldies. But most readers favor more contemporary books, and we need balance.

6. Improved e-book software for the OLPC’s XO (time for FBReader to be an option!) and an effort to introduce the machine to U.S. schools and libraries in a truly massive way, in line with the original TeleRead vision, dating back to the early 1990s.

OK, those are just starters. Feel free to follow up with your own lists or comments on the above. Meanwhile happy holidays no matter what your faith—Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, you name it! (Same for nonbelievers, too.)

 
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