Office to handle ODF and PDF: Microsoft ePub reader eventually? Maybe even for OLPC laptops?

Pressed by anti-trusters in Europe, Microsoft will add the Open Document Format and PDF support to Microsoft Office.

Regardless of the reasons, that’s a good move for all. Now I hope Microsoft will re-examine its proprietary approach toward e-book formats, act pro-actively, and consider supporting the IDPF’s ePub standard and rejoining the group’s standards initiative.

The OLPC angle

Here’s one idea. As long as Microsoft is now tied in with One Laptop Per Child—which by the way is now talking about a $75 price tag for the next-gen XO, shown here—is it possible the company could build a killer e-book reader app with ePub capabilities?

Such a move would fit in well with OLPC’s education mission and the book-friendly form factor of the planned device and also open up new commercial opportunities for the world’s publishers.

DRM as an OLPC obstacle for Microsoft: Oil to K-12 water

There is the issue of DRM, course: oil to K-12 water. Some flexibility on Micorosoft’s part could go a long way in helping the company be a good partner for OLPC. You never know; some Microsoft people have shown openness in a music context, a sensible ‘tude given the disaster that "protection" has been for consumers.

What’s more, Steve Stone, a former Microsoft e-booker, has been involved with digital watermarking technology, a possible DRM alternative. Suppose that Inflows, Steve’s company could come up with a good way to apply digital watermarking to ePub books, as a replacement for DRM. Encouragingly, Inflows’ site talks about a focus on "the digital video, print publishing and the stock photography market." Print publishing, eh? Just PDFed content or more?

Should Microsoft get around the DRM hangup through Steve’s technology or others, imagine the possibilities. Digital watermarking might even be used with social DRM, one way to remind users in a tactful way that the books in use were not P2P fodder. Significantly, a watermarking approach could be offered with ePub by a variety of companies without the same compatibility questions that beset DRM. So, yes, Adobe could come up with its own watermarking.

Not that all content for OLPC should be watermarked. Just the opposite! I’d hope that the overwhelming majority would be unencumbered. But we need a mix of business models. Wikis and public domain classics are fine but no substitute for commercial books, which the library model could help provide while allowing for fair compensation for content providers. I love the idea of OLPC technology creating a market for local book and newspaper publishers in developing countries.

The bottom line: A genuine Carnegie opportunity

If Bill G truly wants to be Andrew Carnegie II, an enlightened approach toward e-book software and formats and an avoidance of DRM could be one helluva an opportunity, especially if he actually paid for some content via a TeleRead-style approach and encouraged local publishers. Don’t count on anything, but at least the idea is now out there, and it’s rather timely in view of Gates’ backing off from day-to-day work for Microsoft.

Remember, Bill, what William F. Buckley, Jr., wrote about TeleRead: "Andrew Carnegie, if he were alive, would probably buy TeleRead from Mr. Rothman for $1, develop the whole idea at his own expense, and then make a gift of it to the American people." No need even to pay the dollar, though. Care to follow up—not just for the American people but those in developing countries? What a fitting way to honor not just Carnegie’s memory but also WFB’s.

Related: Some important caveats about Microsoft ODF’s plans, from the Register, which reports: "You’ve got a good year before you can save an Office 2007 document using ODF." Also see Gizmodo item on the double-screened successor to the XO.

And a reminder: I want to see both the commercial and open source models for software flourish—to create a wider range of apps than reliance on just one would allow.