Congratulations to Richard Charkin, the CEO of Macmillan, who has quietly started a lively, literate blog.
Among other topics, he’ll be articulating his views on Google and the BookStore digital warehouse project, which, by the way, will be in beta mode next month.
Richard, I love your interest in search standards (“There are certain ways of structuring the data for book searching–and if there is a correct way to do it, we should all be doing it”). How about e-book standards as well?
The high ground
If you really want to take the moral high ground against Google, you might check out OpenReader. So far, Richard, Google has been absolutely impervious to our pleas for a neutral standard. Here’s a chance for publishers to step in–to their considerable advantage; let them, not technological companies, be the true masters of their destiny, just as John Blossom has urged.
Our turbocharged draft-standard builds on the production-level work of the International Digital Publishing Forum. Beyond that, we are eager to take standards matters to an OASIS-style group so e-book standards are truly part of the standards mainstream and don’t just reflect the marketing goals of software conglomerates.
Big news on the way
Next week, by the way, OpenReader’s first commercial implementer, OSoft, will be making a significant announcement of interest to publishers keen on growing revenue. Which publisher isn’t?
Detail: I myself would side with Google in the copyright controversy. Regardless, Google is embarrassingly AWOL in the fight for e-book standards. Morally, in matters dearest to me, I don’t see Google as superior to publishers when you consider the whole picture. All these companies are jockeying for court rulings friendly to their particular business models. If Google wants me to regard the company as doing no evil, then the Dynamic Duo should endorse OpenReader and act accordingly.
Why should Google be involved in e-book standards again?
If there’s a way to structure submitted books for easier searching, that would be good.
My real intererest, of course, remains in a different area–consumer standards for book reading. And I don’t see Google helping the cause. It appears to be more interested in e-book museums, the browser-based approach, as opposed to downloadable files in a universal format.
The OpenReader Consortium site, of course, offers the details of the case for standards.
Thanks,
David