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What kind of e-book format should OLPC laptop project use?
July 30, 2006 | 1:51 am
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By David Rothman
The OLPC laptop, set to go into production next year, could have a major influence on the evolution of the e-book industry in many developing countries.
But will the reading software and format be up to the job? The latest talk is of of a Wiki-capable approach. Also see format specs and possibilities.
So what do you think? And what if OLPC goes with a special format? Would it serve the kids or actually isolate them from commercial content and even jack up costs for readers and publishers while diminishing the number of books available? And how about the DRM issue? Big publishers insist on DRM–which raises the issue of interactivity, and which DRM systems could support it. Sould the laptop actually include more than one e-book reader?
(More info via eBookCommunity List.)
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Comments:
I don’t think the OLPC should support any DRM. Not just because DRM is evil and bad and a deliberate crippling of an unborn platform; but because in a country where you have to survive on 1 US$ a day, you’re not going to pay 500 US$ a year on educational tools. Getting OLPC used to the DRM drug is planning to kill the platform.
There is something very odd about the development of educational software and books that no-one has been able to explain to me; although a lot, if not most educational material seems to be authored by actual educators, it is then shipped off to middlemen (publishers) who get to mark up these materials as they see fit. The educators then doff their author’s jackets and don their teacher’s coats, and complain about the cost of educational materials.
What’s up with that? Any teachers reading this that can shed some light?
As for the OLPC; what the best format would be probably depends on the sort of use that is going to be made of it. Any word on that yet?
BTW, really interesting wording on this Engadget headline: “Microsoft demos “FonePlus” OLPC killer”. Boo! Microsoft hates developing countries! At least, that’s what the headline suggests.
BTW, Ututo.org has a gallery of photos of Ututo Linux running on OLPC mobos. Mostly applications to showcase how productivity apps look on a small screen. (Bad, as one might expect.) Also for those who get off on ciruit board porn, photos of the mother boards themselves.
Other formats OLPC will support:
- text
- html
- jpeg picturebooks
- rtf? (via AbiWord, perhaps?)
- flash books? (if the browser has a flash plug-in?)
- mp3 audiobooks? (I haven’t seen anything about the OLPC’s sound capabilities, but a device for schoolkids would benefit from audio – helps with teaching reading, for example)
- opendocument texts? (there is an extension for firefox that will read odt files)
- tiddlywikis? (interactive, readable in browsers, but they tend to be large)
- pdf? (all it would need is a browser plug-in)
- treepad-style outlined books? (there’s a linux version of treepad, and a Gnome workalike)
bottom line: there should be plenty of open, freely-available formats available from the start. And since Negroponte won’t even launch the thing until he has firm orders for 5 million devices, within a year there will be additional ebook formats, supported with open-source tools. This is the wonder of FOSS.
David writes:
I think you’re misinterpreting that link I sent out on the ebook-community mailing list. That’s a screenshot mockup embedded in their development Wiki page, it’s not a shot of a Wiki-capable approach.
If you read the ebook pages of the OLPC Wiki, you see that they are indeed planning on starting out with a different kind of ebook reader, a page-image oriented system called evince. (I pointed this out several weeks ago on the ebook-community list.) From the site: you should be aware that the designers have chosen to include Evince along with the basic HTML/XML capability of the browser. One would hope that this includes both the DJVU and PDF capabilities of Evince however DJVU probably provides the most value-add. Smart move, in my opinion.
Thanks for clarification re your post and the Wiki.
In any event, my main point still stands: we’re not talking about the most mainstream approaches.
As for PDF reading within a different reader, Evince, that would be better than no mainstream format—but then you might have the common PDF problems with small screens. I hope the kids don’t have to do too much left-to-right scrolling. We’ll see.
Then there’s the issue of encryption, which big publishers prefer to use. It could be that the OLPC people don’t want to mess with it, in which case that would limit the choice of reading. Best solution, of course, would be no DRM in the mainsteam
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on formats.
David
All responses according to UTUTO XS for OLPC
- rtf? (via AbiWord, perhaps?)
Yes.
- flash books? (if the browser has a flash plug-in?)
Yes.
- mp3 audiobooks? (I haven’t seen anything about the OLPC’s sound capabilities, but a device for schoolkids would benefit from audio – helps with teaching reading, for example)
OLPC use cs5535 Geode companion cip with AC97 compatible sound card.
- opendocument texts? (there is an extension for firefox that will read odt files)
Using Abiword-Plugins
- tiddlywikis? (interactive, readable in browsers, but they tend to be large)
Or Gobby, collaborative editor
- pdf? (all it would need is a browser plug-in)
Evince and gpdf or xpdf
Daniel
UTUTO Project