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By David Rothman

Sophie B. HawkinsHere’s an update from Bob Stein at the Institute for the Future of the Book, home to Sophie multimedia software for networked books and other purposes—via the if: book blog:

Someday this week we’ll post an alpha version for people to try out—check here for the announcement. This version won’t have a standalone reader and has lots of bugs, but the file format is solid and you can start making real books with it. Our schedule for future releases is as follows.

  • June — a more robust version of the current feature set
  • August — a special version of Sophie optimized for the OLPC (aka $100 laptop or XO) in time for the launch of the first six million machines
  • September — a beta version of Sophie 1.0 which will include the first pass at a Sophe reader
  • December — release of Sophie 1.0

Moderator’s note: I’m delighted, but not surprised, that the Institute is targeting the OLPC machine, which, growing more powerful, year by year, will only be a more and more suitable platform.

But what’s the picture of the musician doing here? Simple. Her name is Sophie B. Hawkins, her music can be both quirky and gritty, she appears to love multimedia and already has a documentary about her—potential fodder for adaptation into a multimedia networked book. On top of that, Variety says Hawkins “left home at 14 to live with a Nigerian drum artist while studying at Manhattan’s School of Music”—suggesting that Sophie just might appreciate many of the cultures that OLPC intends to help nurture. Perhaps this is too wild a choice for the Institute, but if the Sophie software developers want to play up their baby’s multimedia capabilities for talented people besides the usual suspects from academia, they might well investigate an alliance with Sophie the singer. – David Rothman

Related—also from the Institute: MediaCommons paper up in commentable form.

 
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