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By David Rothman

Tower of Babel“Hey, guys. I can’t be the only Apple user that’s bought a Cybook! Unfortunately, there is no Microsoft ActiveSync that I can find for the Mac platform.” – Novice posting to the Cybook list.

The TeleRead take: Can Microsoft ever figure out whether e-books are valuable in themselves, or just as a way to promote Windows? The Cybook post is yet another example of the mess in e-books, and, yes, the Tower of eBabel does figure here.

Granted, the lack of ActiveSync for the Mac is a generic problem extending to apps beyond e-books, and, granted, there are workarounds such as the use of a memory card. But it isn’t as if the crossplatform issue and the Tower of eBabel mess are entirely separate. You need ActiveSync to get Microsoft Reader going on the Cybook, and, in turn, you need Reader to read books in the Redmond-blessed format. Oh, what a Web of incompatibilities Microsoft has woven by linking an operating sytem and an e-book format! And now the kicker. So far, although its Cybook is a Win CE machine and has been out for many months, Bookeen has yet to be able to get a version of Microsoft Reader for the Cybook. So even if the novice Cybook user owned a PC and could use ActiveSync, he’d still be up the creek if he wanted to read Microsoft Reader books.

Within the e-book standards in general, I do see some positive signs. Over at Adobe, Bill McCoy has called in his personal blog for an MP3 for e-books. Bill’s speaking only for himself, not necessarily Adobe, but I hope that others will listen. And I hope that the corporate Bill will listen to the blogger Bill and be genuinely open to the deployment of a truly universal e-book format without consumer-hostile proprietary gotchas. Meanwhile, within the Interntional Digital Publishing Forum, perhaps a little progress will happen in the near future. If nothing else, keep in mind that IDPF has already said it will be “agnostic” about consumer formats and let the market sort this out. The OpenReader Consortium and OSoft, the builder of the first software app for our format, intend to oblige. OpenReader is actually fulfilling the stated wishes of the IDPF. In that sense we are willing to work side by side.

Finally keep in mind that the IDPF isn’t the be-all and end-all in the e-book industry. OpenReader, for example, may support in some fashion the TEI, Digital Talking Book and DocBook standards, which have evolved quite well without IDPF. Simply put, there’s plenty of room for different organization to pick up the best of each other’s work. IDPF has merely supplied some building blocks for more precise standards, much as W3C has done at times. Since the IDPF has removed itself from the actual consumer-format business, the rest of the industry needs to finish the job.

One other cause for a little optimism: The IDPF recently changed its rules to let ordinary members–most nobably small publishers paying lower membership fees–to enjoy full participation in the decision-making process. I hope the publishers will use this new wrinkle on behalf of open standards. Certainly they’re welcome to consult with OpenReader. We can even arrange to represent them fomally in IDPF-related technical discussions. OpenReader founder Jon Noring has been and continues to work as an invited expert for the IDPF Publication Structure Working Group. While we disagree with some key actions and policies of the IDPF, we’re eager to keep up a dialogue in the quest for a universal consumer format so badly needed by the public and publishers alike.

 
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