Digital Book Blog

Lightning Source is one of the most popular on-demand book printing and distribution solutions in the publishing industry. Founded in 1997, and so far they have over 40,000 e-book titles and over 4500 publishers. The company's base is located in Tennessee (LaVergne) and has production facilities in USA and UK. Their average print production is about a million every month. Recently at Graph Expo 2006 in Chicago, Lightning Source made a contract with Oce for purchasing 15 of its VarioStream 9210 back and color capable digital printers. This digital printer along with its Oce PRISMA production software makes a good choice for print on demand. Lightning Source's CEO Kirby Best explained how their entire plant space in Tennessee was occupied, and the need to open a new production facility.

They have been using IBM digital printers for over 9 years, and they switched to Oce for a better quality (halftone dots). Regarding colors, he said, the new plant opening in Pennsylvania will have 10 web-fed color presses and five sheet-fed color presses (all digital of-course). The web press is going to be HP Indigo 3250, with finishing accessories. He added that color books are very difficult for a publisher to produce in short runs cost effectively, and our short-run capability opens tremendous new opportunity for them. The company is currently looking forward towards international expansion. There are many competitors for Lightning Source in the industry, out of which Amazon's BookSurge was a major one. Kirby Best concludes by saying that "No one likes competition, but in some aspects it is wonderful. It keeps us on our toes, and ensures that we continue to develop new ideas, new services, and products". The expansion of Lightning Source clearly explains the more demand for on-demand print books.

Source:
http://members.whattheythink.com/specialreports/070222sherburne.cfm
https://www.lightningsource.com/index.htm

This article was about Wor-Wic Community College, which has gone completely electronic; all of the books have been replaced with desktop computers. This database includes full-text, print and online recourses, academic journals, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets and statistical tables. The only books that are present belong to instructors.

The students using this database are encouraged to use this verse Google or Yahoo because the sources are more legitimate, being reviewed for accuracy. Some may say that online subscriptions can be very pricey to invest in but the people working in this center say that they are much less expensive then the upkeep and organization of printed books. As always there are some problems that come with all of the information that students find to be on the Internet. Some professors find that there are much more likely chance that there will be plagiarized, we are considered the "cut and paste generation." Lucky for professors, not so lucky for students, there are programs that can detect a paper that has plagiarism in it.

Lastly this article includes a guide to evaluating resources on the web:

1) Authority (is there an author, website signed, who is responsible)
2) Purpose (what is the goal of the site, who benefits)
3) Accuracy (does the information match what you already know, documented, bibliography?)
4) Objectivity (present without biases, advertising on page?)

If you use these rules when trying to figure out when information is accurate you will most likely be able to find quality resources on the web.

Check out the article at: http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070226/NEWS01/702260307/1002

John Tillapaugh
Professor Pitkin
Capstone Seminar

Week 10 Summary: Apple and Cisco Settle

Ever since Apple released the iPhone at Macworld, there has been ridiculous media buzz circulating around it. With this comes issues and problems. Due to Apple's big name many have been jumping on the bandwagon crying out, "Copyright Infringement!" Those include Cisco over the trademark "iPhone", LG claiming they blatantly stole the design and look of the interface, and newly "Quantum Research fussing about the touch-screen technology.

However, recently Apple and Cisco have come to terms over the trademark "iPhone." Before Apple released the iPhone, Cisco had the term trademarked and they were supposedly in the works with Apple to come to an agreement with the use, but before they could Apple went ahead and released the iPhone. Cisco thought they were going to wait until they came to an agreement, but they didn't, which somewhat upset them. However, they were able to keep it out of the court system and come to an agreement.

Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the "iPhone" trademark on their products throughout the world. Also, both companies recognize the trademark ownership rights that have been granted, and will let go any pending actions concerning the trademark. In addition, Cisco and Apple will explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications. Both companies, however, said that other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Cisco had been using the trademark for nearly a year before Apple and said it was never about the money, but the principle of the matter.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/biztech/02/23/cisco.apple.ap/index.html
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/02/21/apple.gets.iphone.mark
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/21/apple-and-cisco-settle
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/02/21/apple-and-cisco-settle-over-iphone/

The world's oldest newspaper exists now online only. Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, the world's oldest newspaper will no longer be printed on paper. It will be published online instead. Hans Holm, the chief editor of the paper for 20 years thought it is a cultural disaster. He also said it is sad when you have worked with it for so long and it has been around for so long. Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper was founded in 1645. Olov Vikstrom, the current editor believed that the reading newspaper on the website would attract more readers/consumers.

It's a little disturbing to see the major newspaper gave up printing on paper to publish exclusively online. If the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar newspaper can do this, then all other popular newspaper companies would do the same in the future.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/05/oldest.newspaper.ap/index.html

In this article David Rothman talks about a social site with book sharing services for sharing on phones and where the readers can comment, vote on the most popular titles and more. However, this certain site was caught with two copyrighted copies of a full text best seller and a full text novel. He then talks about how free copyrighted e-books are great, IF they help promote the paper titles. He also says that the "e-bookers" should respect the authors and publishers who use conventional methods and they should respect their intellectual property rights. According to the article, the site owners to could make the case that the problem is with the uploaders, not the site owners themselves. However, Rothman sees this as a site that is looking to be taken out by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. On a final note, Rothman makes a quick memo to publishers. He says, "The tougher you make DRM and the fewer best-sellers you get into e-book format, the more piracy you'll see. Meanwhile remember the limits of DRM. It can't protect against scans of paper books." I think this is a powerful and very true statement.

The article "Study: Consumers won't pay $500 for iPhone" summarizes research results about the iPhone. There were 379 people surveyed and the majority of them had shopped for an iPod. Twenty-six percent of those surveyed said they would purchase an iPhone and only 1% of those who would purchase it would pay the proposed $500 for the iPhone. If the price dropped to between $200 and $299, forty-two percent of those who would purchase an iPhone would more likely purchase it in that price range. Of those who would purchase an iPhone, 60% said they would switch to Cingular in order to get the iPhone and the service.

The article discusses the markets of the iPhone and the Blackberry. There are two different markets for the different handsets, and each have their own niche, so there most likely won't be a competition between the different handsets, but more and more consumers are looking for a smart phone.

There is a debate between researchers on what the iPhone will actually retail for. Apple has been known to say a price that is much higher than it is when it is actually releases, like the Apple TV was expected to cost $399 but when released actually cost $299. The phone may start around $500 because early adopters will pay that, but it will most likely drop $100 to $200 shortly after release.

Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_devices&articleId=9011688&taxonomyId=75

For people who love to read books and want to have a large collection of books, they would love the LibraryThing service. LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. They can access their catalog from anywhere including on their mobile phone. For those who are interested in LibraryThing, there is a free account that allows them to store up to two hundred books in their private database. Paid accounts will allow them to catalog any number of books they want.

LibraryThing is a full-powered cataloging application. It searches the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and more than sixty world library. This service also has a recommendations site and a discussion board. This is where people suggest whether the book is good or not. It is also where all the readers get together and give feedback about the books. This is an excellent way to get reviews on the books.

Sources:
http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=5996#more-5996
http://www.librarything.com/about.php

The article on the Bookseller Association's blog posted on February 18, 2007 deals with digital rights management and is titled "Piracy on the Digital Highway." The author states that "all media seems under siege by the pirates in the digital arena." Therefore, is it such a good idea to get rid of DRM as Steve Jobs mentioned last week? The movie industry feels threatened, as the music industry does. The author suggests that it is only a matter of time before protections of copyrighted materials are removed and an open access arena is opened on the internet.

How pirates gain control over the movie and music media so freely and distribute it is explained: "Today we have Pirate Bay, a multi media version of the original file sharing Naptser. The site is as big as USA Today and its 1.5 million visitors and growing. It uses file sharing BitTorrent software and Envisional, a UK company that tracks illegal downloading for Hollywood studios estimates that 4 million surfers in North America and Europe use Bit Torrent on a daily basis. The technology is so efficient that the BBC has adopted it for distributing its programme archive."

The movie industry is taking more steps in protecting DVDs than the music industry is with CDs. There is more effort put into protecting DVDs from being copied easily, but it is done and even the new Blu-Ray or HD DVDs have flaws that allow copying of the disc content.

"The Sunday Times, in an article on piracy stated that recent Treasury report on Intellectual Property concluded that DRM constraints and over protection actually encourages innovation and the next big thing that consumers seek... Maybe just as with the pop pirates of the 1960's the digital pirates of today will force a significant change in the market."

The book publishing industry is contemplating whether to go head first into DRM and digital file management or stand back and wait for the rest of the industries using digital media figure out what is most effective: open access or restrictive DRM. This will influence how digital books online play out.

Source: http://bookseller-association.blogspot.com/2007/02/piracy-on-digital-highway.html

This article was about all the benefits of using audio books and how they are on the up and up recently. This is I find very odd. I know that this form of books is available but I didn't really know that they were increasing in popularity. The only memory I have of audio books is when my dad would borrow them from the library when I was 5. I almost thought they stopped making them! According to this article $124 million worth of audio books were purchased in the UK in 2004 and $120 million in Germany in 2005. This year there is predicted to have a 20% increase on those numbers.

People are downloading book audio files, putting them on their MP3 players and enjoying these books while they do everyday chores. This article made four major points about audio books and why they are a convenient way to 'read' a book: 1) You can do others things while listening, multitask doing housework and commuting to and from work. 2) When you love reading but don't have enough time audio books are perfect for you. 3) Audio books are great for the older population who can't read as well as they used to. 4) Blind people use audio books, a much easier ways to read compared to a brail book, and I'm sure less expensive.

I agree with all the points that this article brought up but I'm not sold on the fact that the audio book is so up and coming. Like I said in think that listen is a great way to multitask but then which task that you are doing is getting done right? Are the dishes clean or did you understand the whole plot of the book?

Check out the article at:
http://www.articlesmaker.com/shopping-and-product-reviews/book-reviews/is-now-the-right-time-to-ride-on-the-audio-books-trend.html

This article was pretty interesting in the sense that we've talked so much about e-books and how they affect our lives however we've failed to touch upon how e-books may affect the lives of those who are disabled. Since 2001, the Landowski multimedia library of Boulogne-Billancourt in western Paris has been using people who are considered to have Locked-In Syndrome as the basis of their field studies. Locked-In Syndrome referrs to those who may be a quadriplegic, or who can only communicate by blinking (i.e. people with disabilities). Alaine Patez, a French digital librarian says that in 2003, they teamed up with Mobipocket to create the multimedia library, and they have set up loan services for digital downloadable books and devices. The success of this library led to the creation of the Bibliothèque numérique pour le Handicap (Digital Lbrary for Disabled Persons), which is believed to give disabled people a passage into reading, culture and learning as printed books would for those who are not disabled. This library provides a service to disabled people that otherwise they may not have, and its system is specifically designed for those who are disabled. Each person who signs in has a name and password, and the library allows for each user to download 3 books for 21 days, in either PDF format or Mobipocket's PRC. Over 400 users are able to access over 1,000 copyrighted documents in French; 50% are fiction, and 50% are nonfiction. I think this is a great gesture and opportunity for the e-book industry to grow.

Reference:

http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=6201#more-6201

The new Adobe Digital Editions is an new software that lets people to read and manage e-books wit open standards. Open standards are publicly available specifications that provide a common method of achieving a particular goal. Adobe clearly understood the cost involved in distribution of e-books in all different formats to various devices, and worked close with the publishers, authors and service providers on new format (PDF, XHTML, OEB, OCF) that may become universal. This led to this beta version of the software. One can download free e-books from Adobe Labs's website to check it out on Digital Editions.

The software is less than 10 megabytes and it takes only couple of minutes to install. It never expires and automatically updates. The main advantage I notice is the time taken to open and scroll through the books. It is absolutely fast. There are multiple views that users can click to read their books - more comfortable. It opens to the page where user stopped reading on the previous attempt. Google is using JPEG-2000 and JBIG2 image compression for their PDFs, currently Digital Editions beta doesn't support Google's PDFs. They will be supported in the final release. Issues such as more keyboard shortcuts, icon view - slow when there are more than 100 books, crash on windows OS sometimes proper search spots in XHTML based documents is expected to be solved in the next beta release. Moreover, Adobe made a discussion in the Labs Forum so that users can leave their comment about the software usability.

Adobe is making a big move while no one is looking. In relation to the new Digital Editions beta, Adobe says "Make reading an experience".

References:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/digitaleditions/faq.html#item-1-3

Ever since Apple unveiled the iPhone there has been a plethora of media buzz surrounding it. The device, which launches in June this year, is a multi-function device that acts as a phone, PDA, and MP3 player. It has Internet capabilities, which make checking your e-mail and RSS feeds simple. It supposedly runs a slimmed down version of Mac OS X.

The first among many issues Apple has ran into since they announced the iPhone was with Cisco. Cisco claimed that they had trademarked the term "iPhone" prior to Apple releasing it as their name for their new gadget. Cisco said that they were in the works of working out a deal with Apple, but they were unaware that Apple was going to go ahead and use the term before they reached a settlement that was agreeable for both of the companies. They are currently trying to settle the dispute out of the courts.

Another, more recent, dispute is with LG. LG is releasing their new phone the LG Prada (KE850). When you first look at the screenshots for it you're like, "that looks a lot like the Apple iPhone." The resemblance is unreal. The head of LG Mobile Headset R&D Center have recently realized the resemblance and the CEO of LG, Woo-Young Kwak has reportedly called Apple's iPhone an outright "copycat." LG's phone even recently won the International Forum Design Product Design Award. When put side-by-side they both have a similar shape, interface, and both are touch screen.

Perhaps Steve Jobs will have a response to this soon, he seems to be responding promptly to DRM concerns.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/14/lg-officially-calling-apples-iphone-a-copycat

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth

Download file

An article titled "New York may ban iPods while crossing street" catches anyone's attention. How can they ban using iPods on the streets of New York City? One man is proposing new legislation that does exactly that. New York State Senator Carl Kruger states that three people have been killed because of being distracted by an iPod or cell phone while crossing the street in his Brooklyn district. People are distracted by talking on a cell phone, changing a song on an iPod, or just listening to music and not being able to hear what is going on around you.

Apparently, "New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine." Blackberrys and video games are included in these gadgets that could be banned. If eReaders become a popular electronic device in the future, could they face the same scrutiny cell phones and iPods are facing? According to the article, "Tech-consuming New Yorkers trudge to work on sidewalks and subways like an army of drones, appearing to talk to themselves on wireless devices or swaying to seemingly silent tunes." Kruger says that he doesn't want to take that away from New Yorkers, he just wants to protect people from walking into speeding traffic and that "it's becoming a nationwide problem." "Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry. This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only an endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand," says Kruger.

I think that this is going a little too far. If people don't want to pay attention to traffic ordinances and walk down the street alert and safe, then why make them? They will have a big problem with people breaking the law. People are attached to their cell phones and ipods these days. New York already took away driving on a cell phone, which many people do not obey, do they really think that it will stop people from walking with a cell phone or listening to an ipod? I don't think so. People just need to pay attention to their surroundings a little bit more and these accidents won't happen. We at RIT know more about this than a lot of people, if we yell "watch out" to someone, it doesn't always mean they can hear us, they may be deaf. So do they propose that the hard of hearing people of New York are banned from crossing the street? No way! According to the article, one of the people who were killed in Brooklyn was screamed at by bystanders yelling "watch out," but the person crossing the street did not hear them.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070207/tc_nm/newyork_ipod_dc

Terrebonne Parish Library System (TPLS) just launched their free digital media service. People are able to explore the library collection of fiction, non-fiction, music, and video titles. OverDrive, Inc., the library's digital partner provides the digital media technology. Users are able to log in the library's website from anywhere in the world. TPLS has many free digital media link to browse popular audio books, ebooks, music and videos.

Users would need to install Adobe Reader or Mobiopocket Reader to enable to use these digital media. After that, they can purchase any free media from TPLS and download them to their personal computer. Wanda Bruchis, Computer Services Administrator for TPLS claims that "this free digital media service is great for an offshore worker or college student away from home has ability to enjoy the latest John Grisham or graphic novel."

You can check out their website at www.terrebonne.lib.la.us. They also have this awesome e-books site for kids. (http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp) Kids can listen or read along at their own speed. The ebooks for kids are very entertaining and they have amusing picture books. I bet my nephew will like this.

Source:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=208023
www.terrebonne.lib.la.us

This new E-book reader is sleek in design and looks like a book with its side-by-side dual touch sensitive e-ink screens, and uses AAA batteries for up to 6 months battery life. iriver still isn't even sure if they're going to launch this thing at home or abroad. To many, this is a very easy to use E-book reader and is very appealing.

Site
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/irivers-e-book-reader/

This article reminds of the one that I posted early by Cory Doctorow, who post many of his written pieces online and publishes them in hard copy as well. He sees it as a benefit rather then a hindrance that many other authors see. This author, Mark Thoma, is taking a look at 'copy-friendly' businesses and the aspect of having free downloads, and if they do increase the sales of books and other media, in this article he talked about the publishing industry.

The majority of these authors that were talked about in this article where not huge name authors that already had a lot of press about their written pieces. The ones talked about in this article were ones that had not had much publicizing of their books and could use a little bit more 'advertising' so to say. This is when many chose to post their works online, for free downloading and use as long as it was used in a non-commercial way. The ones that chose to use this way of promotion gained a huge about of readers of their works from all around the world. Most of the author agreed that yes, they may have lost some sales of book, but the exposure was so much more worth it. They are able to say that thousands of people had downloaded their book and viewed it and then shared it with their friends, word of mouth advertising is always the best kind.

At the end I liked the comment that this author made. There are some that will never use this type of distribution, as the Thoma puts it, the "blockbuster author." Why would someone like JK Rowlings post their book for free download? Well they wouldn't 't because they already have the fan base "but the next Rowling? That is another story. And perhaps a free one."

Check it out at: http://economistsview.blogspot.com/2007/02/businesses.html

New technology continues to grow over time. With that comes new gadgets and devices to view content. Since the birth of the PDA technology businesses, companies and corporations have been trying to develop devices that do several functions. The new iPhone is a great example of an "all-in-one device." Recently, e-ink and foldable displays have been becoming popular. It's becoming more realistic to mass-produce devices that utilize these technologies.

Polymer Vision recently just announced a "Cellular Book" with a rollable display. Polymer Vision is a company who spun off of Phillips. They want to commercialize their foldable display device this year, 2007. The device will first be offered by Telecom Italia, in Italy.

The device appears to be more of a book than a cell phone. The device comes with a rollable, foldable display that can be extended to a full five inches. The display wraps in the device to be "smaller than a mobile phone," so the company says.

The "cellular" part of the device is the fact it will be able to connect to the Internet and view content with 16 levels of gray. It also includes e-mail, RSS, and obviously e-books, which can be purchased through Telecom's network. The device will also play music and other digital audio such as podcasts. It comes with 4 Gigabytes of storage.

There is no word on release date and pricing information.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/05/polymer-vision-unveils-cellular-book-with-rollable-display

http://www.polymervision.com/News-Center/Press-Releases/TelecomItaliaandPolymerVisionannouncetheCE.html

Even with the lawsuit Google is facing for their Google Book Search project it has not scared off other libraries. Princeton University has now joined Google to digitized their whole library will take 6 years to complete and they are the 12th institution to have Google to place their whole collection online. Joining the ranks of other schools participating in the Google Book Search, Harvard University, University of Texas-Austin,Oxford University, Stanford University, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the New York Public Library, the University Complutense of Madrid and the National Library of Catalonia. So despite the bad, Google's idea of placing books online for easy access seems to appeal to everyone else especially for universities.

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/02/princeton_university_joins_google_bookscan_project.html

Found this by doing a google search. Apparently now ebook publishers are finding new ways of getting their books out to their readers by having podcasts. This allows them to talk more about the book and the author as well by having 3 to 4 minute interviews with the author. Thought this was another interesting approach to get the word out about an ebook. Who knows maybe the next iPod will also have an ebook feature, now there's an idea!

Source
http://www.teleread.org/blog/?cat=10