Reading Reinvented

I realize thats a pretty bold headline. How many times has someone proclaimed that reading has been reinvented by product X or platform Y? Too many to count, Im sure.

So what makes things different this time? Thats up to you to decide, of course, but I believe the approach Semi-Linear is taking with their Citia iPad app is game-changing.

In the past Ive tried to articulate a vision for what I called ‘layered content’ (see here and here, for example). An important attribute of layered content is that the reader can quickly dip in and out of it, only drilling down as deep as they want. Even though theyd both be utilizing the same content base, two different people with two different needs could easily accomplish their reading objectives by only accessing the depths they prefer. Speed is another critical aspect of layered content. If the material is properly structured it should enable a reader to consume it much faster than they could consume a traditional books content.

I believe Citia is delivering on this vision…and then some.

Their first product is a reconstitution of Kevin Kellys What Technology Wants. Its initially available only as an iOS app but my fingers are crossed the Semi-Linear team will quickly get this on the Android platform. Ill warn you that the initial release has been a bit buggy for me. I suspect a quick point release is in the works though and Id like to think it will address the issues Ive run into. If youd prefer to wait on that, let me mention a few quotes from the product as well as Semi-Linear CEO Linda Holliday that capture the essence of the problems Citia is aiming to solve:

‘…we have dozens, maybe hundreds of books waiting to be read.’ — Yes! Not only do I have way too many ebooks queued up, waiting for me to get to, Ive got five times as many samples of ebooks Ive downloaded and would like to read.

‘…we believe some of the world’s best ideas are overlooked because we’re too busy to find them.’ — Ah, the discoverability problem. Its only going to get worse, folks. Citia has a terrific sharing feature thats unlike anything youve seen before. You can quickly and easily share the most granular piece of a product via email, Twitter or Facebook.

‘…ebooks are like putting radio on television.’ — This is similar to what Ive been saying about how the current state of ebooks is like early TV, where most shows were nothing more than radio programs in front of a camera. The point is that 99.99% of ebooks today are nothing more than quick-and-dirty ports of print to ebook. Weve got to go digital-first in our product development if were going to break free of the shackles of print.

‘…ebooks should be able to adjust for prior knowledge.’ — I love this point. IOW, as I read, my reading app learns to customize my future reading experience. Dont force me to read the same thing over and over if Ive already consumed it. This will be an important feature of dynamic ebooks in the future.

‘I have new media habits but old media tastes.’ — This was a great quote by Linda in the AllThingsD video embedded below. Im in the same boat. Ive bought into the gadgets and platforms of today but I still like reading longer-form content from yesterday. Citia lets you bring these two worlds together.

If a picture is worth a thousand words a video must be worth a million. Rather than me trying to describe what Citia is and what it can do, I encourage you to watch the video below where Linda demonstrates it for the AllThingsD team.