Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time) - O'Reilly Radar

Rebooting the Book (One Apple iPad Tablet at a Time) - O'Reilly Radar:

"Is it heretical to speak of re-inventing the book? Hardly. Consider that before the advent of the printing press, books were made by hand. No two were alike. After the advent of the printing press, information fell on the same pages in each book, and page numbering, tables of contents, and indices became common.

Authorship materially gained in importance, and the end-product was a democratization of knowledge, not to mention a revolution in science.

To me this hearkens back to lessons learned from the way that sound transformed the motion picture industry; namely, it changed how movies were made AND changed what movies were."

Sony ramps up e-book self-publishing options | Crave - CNET

Sony ramps up e-book self-publishing options | Crave - CNET:

"According to Sony, Author Solutions and Smashwords will offer authors the option to publish content in the EPUB format, 'the International Digital Publishing Forum's XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications.' Amazon, on the other hand, uses its proprietary e-book format."

College Students Reject the Kindle: What e-Book Reader is Going to Work? | CloudAve

College Students Reject the Kindle: What e-Book Reader is Going to Work? | CloudAve:

"The book must be on the device in its entirety, or be available to read without pauses. Some of the ebook systems only allow printing or access to pages one at a time on a limited seat basis. This is not an ebook reader issue, this is a supplier issue. Issues like DRM are also going to play in with how people use books. If the DRM solution does not work with any ebook reader then there are going to be issues, and students will reject the entire ebook solution including the reader. The book must be highlight able, mark able, and annotate able. These marks, highlights and annotations should be searchable by keyword(s).

Students should be able to print pages with their highlights and annotations intact on the page like it was part of the original content."

News: 'A Better Pencil' - Inside Higher Ed

News: 'A Better Pencil' - Inside Higher Ed:

"Here’s my objection to the Google book project. First, I think it’s great to digitize as much nondigital text as possible. I take advantage of many of the online databases with digitized newspapers, early printed books, and manuscripts. What I don’t like is that Google is poised to monopolize text. No one entity should have that kind of power over the word. Not only does Google intend to profit from this kind of control (it answers to its stockholders, not to the public), it would have the power to manipulate the text under its control, deciding who can and cannot see it, what can be displayed, what can be erased."

Amazon’s Kindle DX: Not Yet a Hit on Campus - Digits - WSJ

Amazon’s Kindle DX: Not Yet a Hit on Campus - Digits - WSJ:

"Students at Reed College in Portland, Ore., have also had about four weeks to spend with the Kindles. Now some of them have come up with a list of about 10 improvements for the device, including the need for page numbers and easier way for note taking and highlighting, said Martin Ringle, Reed’s chief technology officer. Still, Ringle said, “the pilot is going really well because this is precisely the kind of information we were hoping to ascertain.”"

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com:

"Students need portability, ease of use, and flexibility. I’m still waiting for higher-resolution and color e-ink, but for now, the $300 Reader has my vote for educational deployments."

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com

Hey, Princeton! You should have waited for Sony | Education IT | ZDNet.com:

"The Sony Reader? Just grab the stylus, enter note-taking mode, and you have the option of entering notes with an on-screen keyboard (that responds to both fingers and the stylus), writing directly on the touch screen, and highlighting by dragging the stylus over text. Annotations are easily removed with the stylus by clicking on the eraser tool. The device can also be used to take notes directly in a separate note-taking application. Again, you can use either the stylus or on-screen keyboard, although the latter is too big for serious BlackBerry-style thumb typing and too small to touch type."

Will E-Books Transform the Way We Read? - CBS Evening News - CBS News

Will E-Books Transform the Way We Read? - CBS Evening News - CBS News:

"'They can download digital media for free, and that's audio books, e-books, music and video,' said Renee San Jose, a marketing and events coordinator with Overdrive. It's not sponsored by some high-tech company, but your public library.

Surprised? Libraries are changing with the times, said Washington D.C.'s chief librarian.

'While we used to be the place that held the books we're now in some places the connection point,' said Ginnie Cooper, the chief librarian of D.C. Public Libraries."

Will Amazon Open the Kindle to Developers? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Will Amazon Open the Kindle to Developers? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com:

"Reading is a solitary activity, requiring privacy, concentration and a total attention span. It would be counter-productive to create a device with options other than reading that would be unnecessary and a burden on the dedicated reader. To these dedicated readers content is what matters most."

CK12 Format Updates

Greetings CK-12 Community!

We have launched a new version of our FlexBooks System (Release 1.1.2). This is a significant milestone in our journey as it has the following flagship features:

• Print Preview from Editor
• Live Media Support to embed and view videos
• Integrated metadata for enhanced searching
• Symbol Editor for editing Math Symbols
• Anonymous PDF access (no need to sign in to view a PDF or a book)
• Search improvements (performance, highlighted text)

One big change you will notice is that we have switched to LaTex for our PDF generation, meaning that when you print your book you will notice a cleaner layout and better representation of charts, graphs and equations.

We have also upgraded the web farm to provide better performance for our users. Hence, our old system has been renamed as http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org, until all 'valid' user generated content migration is complete.

Your user credentials will work the same way as before (same username and password combination), and you will be able to access the following books on http://www.ck12.org:

-Life Science
-Earth Science
-Biology I
-Engineering--An introduction for High School
-Engineering--Problem Solving with Matlab
-Basic Physics
-21st Century Physics Flexbook
-People's Physics Book
-Algebra I

If you were working from a FlexBook you do not see here, you can access it at http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org We will be upgrading those books for release on http://www.ck12.org in the next month.

Any of your custom created personal FlexBooks you have been working on can be accessed at http://flexbooks-archives.ck12.org. If you would like to have them transferred to our upgraded system, please contact us at support@ck12.org. We find that working individually with users is the most effective way to prune and cleanup outdated content.

Please stay tuned. We have more performance improvements coming to catch the ones we missed this time around.

Thank you for being a part of our community and happy flexing!

-The CK-12 Team

Opinion: Amazon is right not to offer public domain books | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Opinion: Amazon is right not to offer public domain books | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

"The decision by Amazon not to offer public domain books has caused some angst in the ebook community, but from the perspective of a corporate lawyer I think it is the correct decision, at least for now. Don’t forget that Amazon can be sued, and even be subject to criminal charges, if it violates the copyright laws. One suit against Amazon could easily eat up any of the fees Amazon would collect for public domain books for years to come. These things are extremely expensive to defend – costs in the millions are commonplace. Many plaintiff’s lawyers work on a contingency basis and only get paid if they win or force a settlement, so while Amazon is paying millions in defense fees the plaintiff is able to bring the suit almost for free. (Why do you think there are so many class actions suits over relatively trivial matters.)"

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help:

"The old journalism, with its overreliance on the same experts and analysts, is out of touch with a culture of information sharing, connection and the collective wisdom of diverse voices passing along direct experience."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"At Princeton, the Amazon KindleDX pilot project is sponsored by OIT, the University library and the High Meadows Foundation. The High Meadows Foundation gift of term funds over four years was given to the University to fund initiatives that support goals set forth in the 'Research, education and civic engagement' section of Princeton's Sustainability Plan, which was announced in February of 2008. It is one of the plan's three main areas, along with greenhouse gas emissions reduction and resource conservation.

The library digitized content for the e-reader pilot, while OIT converted some content into e-books and prepared others for delivery, and a committee consisting of representatives from OIT and the library set the goals for the pilot."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"'If, through the use of e-readers, we can cut down that printing by even 1 percent, we will have more than made up for what was spent on this pilot,' said Serge Goldstein, one of the pilot project's directors and the University's associate chief information officer and director of academic services."

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester

Princeton University - Pilot of Amazon's Kindle e-reader launched with fall semester:

"In addition to class size and availability of readings, general selection criteria for the courses included their heavy reliance on 'e-reserve' material for most of the required reading on the syllabi. The library provided to the e-reader pilot administrators a list of the top courses that put digitized readings on electronic reserve for students at the library."

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help

Nieman Reports | Why the News Media Became Irrelevant—And How Social Media Can Help:

"Today, people expect to share information, not be fed it. They expect to be listened to when they have knowledge and raise questions. They want news that connects with their lives and interests. They want control over their information. And they want connection—they give their trust to those they engage with—people who talk with them, listen and maintain a relationship."

Open Source Exile: eBook readers need OpenURL resolvers

Open Source Exile: eBook readers need OpenURL resolvers: "Ask yourself, though, whether you'd want to flick between works on the current generation of readers---very painful, since these devices are not designed for efficient navigation between eBooks, but linear reading of them. You can't follow links between them, of course, because on current systems links must point either with the same eBook or out on to the internet---pointing to other eBooks on the same device is verboten."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Because the current college system, like the newspaper industry, has built-in redundancies, new Internet efficiencies will lead to fewer researchers and professors. Every major paper once had a bureau in, say, Sarajevo -- now, a few foreign correspondents' pieces are used in dozens of papers. Similarly, at noon on any given day, hundreds of university professors are teaching introductory Sociology 101. The Internet makes it harder to justify these redundancies. In the future, a handful of Soc. 101 lectures will be videotaped and taught across the United States."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Both newspapers and universities have traditionally relied on selling hard-to-come-by information. Newspapers touted advertising space next to breaking news, but now that advertisers find their customers on Craigslist and Cars.com, the main source of reporters' pay is vanishing. Colleges also sell information, with a slightly different promise -- a degree, a better job and access to brilliant minds. As with newspapers, some of these features are now available elsewhere."

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com

A Virtual Revolution Is Brewing for Colleges - washingtonpost.com:

"Students starting school this year may be part of the last generation for which 'going to college' means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors. Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering. Colleges, like newspapers, will be torn apart by new ways of sharing information enabled by the Internet. The business model that sustained private U.S. colleges cannot survive."

The Year of E-Textbooks? - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Year of E-Textbooks? - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education:

"There are no page numbers for books on the Kindle; instead, every passage has a 'location number,' which lets users jump to that section. Those numbers can be long, and it can be awkward to type them on the small keyboard. So when Ted Humphrey, the professor, asked students to turn to a certain passage in the Iliad, there were 'some glitches,' he says, as a few students mis typed the location number."

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

To Kindle or Not to Kindle: "In the end, I decided to take the plunge and go for the iPod Touch. In my Verizon family of multiple lowest-common-denominator cheap-o cell phones, the iPhone was too rich for our blood. So an iPod Touch was the next best thing.
There were three reasons why I finally went this route. The first is that I decided in the end that smaller was better; I liked the idea that an iPod would fit in my pocket, even smaller than a rack-sized paperback, and at the same time the iPod screen is in the end not that much smaller than that of a Kindle"

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

To Kindle or Not to Kindle: "To Kindle or Not to Kindle
By Jim Cullen
Mr. Cullen teaches at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York. His most recent book is Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write and Think about History. He blogs at American History Now.
Like a lot of devoted readers, I reacted to the roll-out of Amazon's new Kindle two years ago with a sense of wary fascination."

The Kindle Problem - The Atlantic (September 15, 2009)

The Kindle Problem - The Atlantic (September 15, 2009):

"Meanwhile, competitors have spotted an opening and are taking the opportunity to try to elbow the Kindle aside. As of this year, Google has made 1 million public domain books available for free on the Sony Reader, which is priced at $100 less than the Kindle. By thus joining forces, Google and Sony just might out-convenience Kindle."

IREX Technologies 'Consumer' eReader To Feature The Barnes & Noble eBookstore

IREX Technologies 'Consumer' eReader To Feature The Barnes & Noble eBookstore:

"'We will change the dynamics of the consumer market - users want to easily purchase content from a variety of sources and we allow them to read it on an IREX eReader as well as other devices,' said Kevin Hamilton, North American CEO of IREX Technologies. 'Signing this deal with Barnes & Noble positions IREX well in terms of content, and we'll team with other industry leaders to provide the network infrastructure and retail presence.' Earlier this month IREX Technologies confirmed that its anticipated device will include an 8.1-inch touch screen with stylus navigation and 3G wireless connectivity."

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don - NYTimes.com

At Your Fingers, an Oxford Don - NYTimes.com:

"“The promise of technology is to take us back to the past, toward one-to-one learning,” said Monica Martinez, president of the New Tech Network, a nonprofit group that trains teachers and designs high schools that use computing extensively. “But this is returning back to that concept in a very different way.”"

Why Apple’s Tablet Will Eat Kindle’s Lunch

Why Apple’s Tablet Will Eat Kindle’s Lunch:

"I think the Apple Tablet will be disruptive to the still formative eReader and digital publishing industry. Amazon is the current forerunner there, with the popular Kindle taking the lead over earlier player Sony and smaller companies like iRex, FoxIt and Bookeen. They’re already sitting right on top of a pile of published works to distribute, and right now their vertical strategy is almost the only game in town."

Apple, eBooks and the Media Tablet. « The Digital Professor

Apple, eBooks and the Media Tablet. « The Digital Professor: "It is a media tablet that is needed for distributing eBook content in the education market, not the standalone reader. Students from elementary through graduate school do not need an additional device to carry around. What they do need is a well-done touchscreen media device capable of performing daily tasks related to their educational pursuits. For most this may mean just a tablet, capable of taking notes in class, reading an eBook, and communicating with their teachers and classmates."

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com: "When indiana social studies teacher Chris Edwards directs his students to work on research projects in class, they turn to resources such as books, atlases, computers—and Kindles. Amazon.com’s e-book reader is a device more commonly spotted in airport lounges or on commuter trains than in high school classrooms. Edwards is one of a few teachers that have begun to capitalize on the slim, digital tablets to access and display electronic books. And he thinks the Kindle may eventually become a fixture in student backpacks. “I see it as an update, not simply of the book, but of the library,” says Edwards, who has a set of five Kindles in his classroom at Fishers High School, in Fishers, Indiana."

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com

Will the Kindle Change Education? | Scholastic.com: "Some educators say they are already convinced that e-book readers are what schools need. “For the longest time, distribution of reading materials has been highly inefficient in getting the right material to the right student at the right moment,” says Daniel Witz, a language arts teacher at Lake Bluff Middle School, near Chicago. “You have maybe four books of a fiction title; if a fifth kid wants to be part of that circle, you don’t have that copy,” he says."

Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books - NYTimes.com

Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books - NYTimes.com: "“People need to remember, when they buy books that come with digital rights management, they don’t have the freedoms they normally would have with a book,” said Holmes Wilson, campaigns manger of the Free Software Foundation, which obtained the signatures of nearly 4,000 authors and tech pundits on a petition saying Amazon’s anticopying software was a “clear threat to the free exchange of ideas.” Companies like Sony and Adobe do not want to abandon anticopying measures, fearing that piracy of books would run rampant. Rather, they want to push the e-book industry toward common standards to avoid a replay of Apple’s domination of the digital music business."

Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com >> Blog Archive » YA writers: Detroit public school teacher of blind kids wants your ebooks for her Braille printer

Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com >> Blog Archive » YA writers: Detroit public school teacher of blind kids wants your ebooks for her Braille printer:

"Back in August, I got a surprise in the mail: a long Braille computer printout and a letter. The letter was from Patti Smith, who teaches visually impaired middle-schoolers in Detroit's public school system. She explained that almost all the Braille kids' books she had access to were for really little kids -- kindergartners, basically -- and how discouraging this was for her kids. The reason she was writing to me was to thank me for releasing my young adult novel Little Brother under a Creative Commons license, which meant that she could download the ebook version and run it through her school's Braille embosser (US copyright law makes it legal to convert any book to Braille or audiobook for blind people, but it is technically challenging and expensive to do this without the electronic text)."

A Textbook Case of Missed Opportunities « The Scholarly Kitchen

A Textbook Case of Missed Opportunities « The Scholarly Kitchen: "In a separate post, Andrew Savikas, preparing for a talk at an upcoming O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, quotes from an exchange he had while preparing: The bigger issue I see is that thinking of the problem as “how do we get a textbook onto an iPhone” is framing it wrong. The challenge is “how do we use a medium that already shares 3 of our 5 senses — eyes, ears, and a mouth — along with geolocation, color video, and a nearly-always-on Web connection to accomplish the ‘job’ of educating a student.” That’s a much more interesting problem to me than “how do we port 2-page book layouts to a small screen.”"

Teaching the iGeneration: The Future of Textbooks

Teaching the iGeneration: The Future of Textbooks:

"Open Source technology may play a crucial role in the future of textbooks. Teachers everywhere are collaborating more. Teachers from all over are beginning to work together to create textbooks. With technology and organizations like ck-12, creating textbooks with a group of professional educators has never been easier."

Top News - Phones, PCs put eBooks within easy reach

Top News - Phones, PCs put eBooks within easy reach: "Sony also has announced that its Readers will be able to load eBooks 'loaned' from local libraries. A library card will provide access to free books that expire after 21 days. The library connection 'would seem to be something Amazon would never embrace, so that could be a key differentiator,' said Richard Doherty, director of research firm The Envisioneering Group. The feature also could prove popular at colleges and universities."

eTexts may soon hit VIU bookstore

eTexts may soon hit VIU bookstore: "Fourth-year criminology student Andrew Kaban worked in VIU's research department over the summer and looked at the relationship between how people read articles online versus in a hardcopy format. The results showed Internet readers skimming through articles, whereas hard-copy readers took their time and were more thorough."

Review: The Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300) eReader | Brad’s Reader

Review: The Sony Pocket Edition (PRS-300) eReader | Brad’s Reader: "Out of the box, the device feels sturdy and has a nice weight to it. The screen is smaller (5″) than my PRS-500 (6″) but that doesn’t bother me. I was also happy that it came pre-charged, so I was able to turn it on right away without having to plug it in and wait for it to charge. My only disappointment in this regard is the fact that the device does not come with a power adapter. If you want one of those, you have to buy it separately. The eReader will charge when plugged into a computer via the USB cable that comes with it. Luckily I have a power adapter from my PRS-500 that should work fine."

Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » Academic Texts on the Kindle

Hevel.org: A Chasing after Wind » Blog Archive » Academic Texts on the Kindle: "Which brings me back to academic reading. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but a lot of the books we read are big and heavy. I am so glad to have an office now because I have a convenient place to keep books. Back in the grad school days I was forever lugging around books like Huehnergard’s Akkadian grammar and Brueggemann’s Theology of the Old Testament [1400 pages between them]. I eagerly await the time, coming soon I believe, when most of the academic resources we need are available electronically. And if they are available electronically, I will most likely be able to put them on my Kindle (or my next Kindle?)."

A library without the books - The Boston Globe

A library without the books - The Boston Globe: "And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature."

Talkback on Library Journal

Talkback on Library Journal: "I have no intimate knowledge of Amazon’s Kindle offerings, but I suspect their catalog overlooks the sort of scholarly content faculty want and would recommend to their students. And then there is perhaps the most significant barrier of all. What would all those library workers whose jobs involve book selection and acquisitions do when it all moves to user selection via the Kindles?"

Talkback on Library Journal

Talkback on Library Journal: "As consumers use e-readers they’ll grow accustomed to simply downloading whatever book they need and having it ready to read in minutes. If academic libraries can adjust to those types of on-demand, just-in-time book orders, we may be in a position to pleasantly surprise the user community."

Newport News teachers, students armed with wide range of e-tools -- dailypress.com

Newport News teachers, students armed with wide range of e-tools -- dailypress.com: "Davis and Weston said the district is exploring the use of electronic readers this year. A finance class at Warwick High School will try using the Amazon.com Kindle electronic reader instead of textbooks and handouts. 'One class will have Kindles; one will not,' Weston said. 'They'll switch off halfway through year, and we'll see how they do.'"