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By David Rothman

dotReaderThe dotReader people have long set their sights on Adobe. But could another major battle be with VitalSource, which, though widely distributed software, focuses on making existing computers fit for e-reading?

VitalSource, in partnership with heavy hitters such as Lenovo/IBM, provides institutions with searchable classics installed on hard drives, among other media. And now I see that dotReader developer OSoft has demonstrated its baby on a FlashDrive. “This gizmo the size of your pinky gives you access to everything from Dickens to YouTube,” Michael Rogers writes in the LJ blog after seeing a dog-and-pony show at this week’s IDPF conference on digital reading.

Invading dotReader territory

Meanwhile, in the other direction, VitalSource is deep into dotReader territory with its own system of shared annotations and highlighting (thanks to John Mayer for the VS-related link).

As interesting as dotReader’s FlashDrive demo is, I can easily envision the more established VitalSource doing something similar if it isn’t already, just as I can see dotReader coming on a FlashDrive with public domain content. I wasn’t at the demo and am not sure if it featured an actual product, especially with preloaded books formally offered. At least as of a few minutes ago, I didn’t find an OSoft press release on the dotReader site mentioning a product, so I don’t know if the FlashDrive was just a concept demo—a come-hither for prospective commercial partners. OSoft already is working with Teachers without Borders on FlashDrive-based distribution of TWB books if past plans panned out; the technical capabilities in the software already exist. But that’s a long way from a major deal with, say, SanDisk.

Meanwhile, just as OSoft has designed its system to do, VitalSource allows purchase of e-books from within the reading system. Yet another overlap.

dotReader worth considering—but keep your eyes open for gotchas

So is dotReader worth considering? OSoft raised ethical questions when it played down OpenReader in favor of its own “standard” after I evangelized for dotReader as the first implementer of OR and even gave the software its name. So beware of proprietary gotchas despite all the talk of openness. Check into details such as the annotations formats and all the business and technical issues related to notes servers.

These days, in fact, OSoft talks about how DigitalPulp Publishing has “adopted the dotReader format and is creating a dotReader version of all their titles” (quite a change from the days when OSoft denied there was a dotReader format). I couldn’t even convince OSoft to display the OR logo on the dotReader home page despite the countless hours I devoted to calling up publishers. Bad vibes if you’re in a field like publishing or libraries and must rely on long-term trust (my real agenda was LibraryCity, which I prefer to be built around durable standards—the reason for my OpenReader activities).

Still, like VitalSource, dotReader might be of interest, just so you know it’s a tad less special than you’d think from the ballyhoo. While the system can be adopted for multiple formats, you don’t have to guess about which format is Number One on OSoft’s list.

VitalSource’s own challenges

If VitalSouce, which boasts of a “patented format,” wants to fight back against dotReader while the rival is still at the garage-startup stage, then it would do well to provide free or low-cost creation tools—ideally making it easy for ordinary users to create their own content, just as MobiPocket does through its conversion capabilities and in other ways.

Sooner or later, I suspect, Mobipocket will do shared notes and annotations—so VitalSource would do well to take action in the creation-tool department. Same as far as the PDA-software market, if VitalSource isn’t developing an app there already. dotReader has shown off a mockup of a Mobipocket-quality PDA interface (disclosure: in my OpenReader incarnation I suggested that OSoft/dotReader head off in a Mobi-territory direction and provided some design ideas for the handheld version).

The other thing VitalSource should do is to look ahead to the time when there is a format standard for real, or it could be in a lot of pain in the future. OSoft, while pushing the dotReader format right, is positioned to do the IDPF’s epub format even though, in my opinion, the company’s real heart is in its dotReader. If nothing else, remember that a universal DRM standard for e-book software doesn’t exist, and OSoft may want to use its own to bind protection-minded publishers to the dotReader format. While the programming side of OSoft genuinely hates DRM, I doubt this will interfere with the business side’s business plans if there are extra bucks to be made.

Detail: Hmm. Where’s version 1 of dotReader? In fairness to OSoft, software schedule are tricky to predict, especially for start-ups. Microsoft, although far from a start-up, is hardly an exemplary model. Still, it would be good for OSoft to update us on the situation here.

(Thanks to Robert Nagle for the LibraryJournal link.)

 
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