Welcome to BoockCamp Toronto 2010

When I arrived at Robarts I wrote myself a name badge, gathered a schedule and walked over to the main auditorium for a welcome speech by Hugh McGuire. All around me was chatter but the one conversation I picked up on was a person explaining why his iPad was not such a good thing. He was upset at Apple’s closed ecosystem and limited standards.

Hugh started to speak. He explained that all the sessions were to be one hour in length. The first 15 minutes being an intro of the topic by the guest speaker and the final 45 minutes being a participatory discussion which would include everyone in the room.

Note: these are my thoughts on each session that I sat in on. I believe I’ve accurately paraphrased what was said in these groups but I am sure that others interpreted the sessions differently. I sat in on a total of six sessions.

Session One: The Shifting Role of Design in Publishing

Ingrid Paulson of Ingrid Paulson Design

Ingrid had the following thoughts on the state of the industry:

• eBooks are poorly designed, reasons are many including poor technology, and a limited number of typefaces
• Book jackets are a big question for the eBook’s digital future
• How are publishers going to build an electronic brand without an actually physical presence (i.e. a pBook is a physical object)
• The ePub format is currently really limited, it compares well to early web browsers
• Designers are not involved in a proper manner. Most publishers are trying to mass convert pBooks but the technology is not quite there and ePub books are full of errors and not well designed.
• Too often publishers are thinking of the size of the files and the formats for their eBooks and that restricts creativity
• On the plus side there are no physical page restrictions with eBooks
• Customers will not need so much shelf space for their book collection as their eBook reader will contain hundreds of books represented by only a small icon referred to as a pseudo cover

The audience wondered if:

• the future book cover will be more informational or more akin to artwork
• designers will become less valued

After writing my synopsis of the day’s events I finally made it to Ingrid’s website. Her work is wonderful and unlike other people who claim to be designers or care about good design, she does care and is a damn good designer. Please visit her site to understand what the difference between design and ‘technologists with templates’ is all about.

Ironically the shifting role of design in publishing was shifting all day.

Session Two: Digital Workflow

Sharon Balley of Anansi, and John Maxwell of SFU

Sharon started this talk and John, who was a last minute pairing, chimed in occasionally but tried to keep his dialogue separate from that of his presentation later in the day. Immediately questions were raised becuase print production has been the same for decades with only minor differences and evolutionary steps due to technology. But how would that change with the advent of electronic publishing?

• Where does the epublishing fit into the traditional publishing workflow?
• How does this added responsibility affect the traditional editorial and production workflow?
• How will the roles of designers, marketers, editors, sales, distributers, etc., and other departments change with electronic publishers?

Sharon’s company, Anansi, converts printed books to ePub documents using Oxygen as a tool for ePub conversion and they have learned a few things along the way (John also participated):

1. Third party converters make unfortunate judgment calls and the indexing is spotty
2. MSWord to printer doesn’t work well at all. (note: MSWord was roundly criticized as a helper production tool but no one seemed to realize that authors like to use it for writing because it is the most robust tool and that they are already comfortable with it) In fact they believe that they have to get a printer ready document into an in-house style guide slightly before the print version because it usually takes about 4-5 weeks for a print book and 2-3 weeks for ePub version.
3. Agile work flow allows for both print and electronic versions at the same time and perhaps it is best to create PDF, XML and ePub formats specifically for flexibility and mass print conversions

Issues affecting conversions are that publishers have to notify authors if a conversion is going to be made due to the growing authorship/copyright legalities. And for the moment retailers are signing only short term agreements for electronic publishing because the landscape is changing so fast.

Some of the technology used is:

• Adobe’s PDFXML Inspector is best used to edit the ePub format
• oXygen is best used as a pure XML editor
• Sigil is good for only tweaking ePub in XML files

Other thoughts on Agile publishing:

• It starts with the Web and then gets passed to Adobe InDesign
• After changing the extension of the ePub to ZIP and then separating the necessary information, one can import an unzipped ePub format into InDesign
• IDML in InDesign is useful publishing cross format
• One might want to produce templates in WordPress first the move to the pBook format

Of course with the ever changing landscape of publishing tools I would take most of this advice with a grain of salt. As various technologies evolve, the answers to the publishing workflow will change with them. John Maxwell’s session later in the day would prove to be only a temporary solution for specific instances of workflow only.

Session Three: Print-on-Demand Workshop

Rob Clements of Lightning Source Inc.

I didn’t know what to expect in this session, but I figured it might be a little marketing heavy and I was correct but never-the-less intrigued by Rob’s proposal. Rob works for Lightning Source which is wholly owned by Ingram, the largest book distributer in North America. Rob juxtaposed the way LSI uses digital printing to its advantage over the traditional way publishers currently print books.

• Traditional Method (front loaded, many books printed): Many copies after the initial print run stay at the publisher’s warehouse then these books get delivered to the retailer and finally to the customer.
• Print on Demand Method (8 hours to 3 days for a limited run of 1+): Publisher receives a request of (x) amount of books through an online web store, the publisher then requests the print on demand (POD) company for those books and for them to be delivered to the client of the web store. The POD printer holds the electronic files which consist of the PDF for printing, the printing rights, the native currency amount, the type of paper, the spine width, etc. And then sends them directly to the end client.

Someone in the discussion noted that currently the law states that a Canadian publisher/distributer must be sourced from a Canadian vendor but that this law may be changing. So this brought up the next question as to how Canadians protect our own interests? Is it more important to print the book in Canada or allow the book to become freely available to the world through digital publishing mechanisms? If we primarily choose the latter many of the existing POD companies have multiple print houses around the world.

Other interesting tidbits of information that came to light were:

• 5 publishers own about 50% of the total market and another 16000-20000 own the rest
• For books to be printed at many POD companies the author/publisher needs to get them an ISBN number

I found this session interesting because it’s tone and much of its content was self-serving but I still learned a lot. But for next year I hope that people who do directly represent companies give more holistic talks about their industry in general.

Session Four: eBooks: From Structure to Typography

Scott Boms (designer) and Joe Clark (author)

I really liked this session. I thought that although at times it was pessimistic it really encouraged the audience to see past the present day technology and tools and ask the tough questions that make us all want more from the electronic publishing world.

The point was made that we currently have web standards that can be used to create books online but that there is a conceptual shift from design to structure with eBooks that is going unanswered. Sometimes a complete restructuring of a pBook is required to place it in its electronic form, but at other times the book only needs to be repurposed. Knowing which one to choose is the challenge in front of us.

Currently regular linear prose books are the standard for eBooks on line and that they are the first of their kind to be reproduced without proper typography in mind. Many of these eBooks are getting mass converted and the quality of those conversions is poor without any human interaction whether it be from an editor or designer.

Some of the questions asked:

• What then is the designer’s role for ePub eBooks?
• What does a designer do when moving previously well known graphic type books to an eBook format?
• How do the dimensions of the pBook, the colour reproduction, the type selection, the layout of singles vs. spreads and text within images affect the transition of the electronic version?

It is already apparent that although web standards can separate structure (HTML) and presentation (CSS) the ePub format still has lousy mechanisms for typography, pagination, etc. What is worse is that web standards today dictate that the user has the control over the display of their information, therefore reading devices dictate what a page looks like which is not necessarily in the best interest of the book’s brand.

Joe mentioned that we should all be using DAISY instead of ePub for the design of eBooks for “… any E-book that includes a reading of itself, as DAISY allows us to avoid reinventing the wheel.” DAISY has the added advantages in that it contains structural markup, it is speech capable, printed page numbers are preserved and the speech can be linked to specific sections within the eBook.

Towards the end of the session the big question was asked: What are the choices for heavily designed books that we want to translate into an electronic format? And the answers given were:

1. Give up
2. Use ePub
3. Make them applications

After leaving this session I came up with one more answer which I think is the right one: Just don’t copy the original, instead make it an entirely new entity that challenges the reader on its own merits. But alas there is always the other plausible answer that not all books are meant to go digital.

Session Five: The sBook – OCAD initiative

Bob Logan and James Caldwell (I was filling in for Greg Van Alstyne)

sBook can be best described as a cross platform for reading, writing and publishing. The goals of the sBook project are to develop a unifying information architectural framework for readers, writers and publishers that ties together emerging standards; and to invent new forms of functionality and interoperability to achieve our design vision. The name “sBook” refers to the qualities of the intended experience:

Simple: the pleasure and beauty of human readable pages
This would be an open format container which includes not only the book format, but also the information for it being printed anywhere in the world into any format with the book’s and its owner’s rights firmly adhered to.

Social: developing context and community through social media tools
Meaning that the author or authors could build a community around their published work, complete with granular commenting.

Searchable: the power and practicality of electronic text
For all images and text contained within or any other content that may arise.

Smart: intelligent recommendations both within and beyond the work
Capability to jump to other published works that are pertinent to the present work.

Sustainable: effective use of material and energy throughout the lifecycle
One open format that can be updated or change with graceful degradation.

Synchronized: can be updated by author and publisher
Editions and versions of author and publisher can be fully tracked.

Scalable: open platform supporting new products, services, experiences
Open and extensible format to ensure that the format of the sBook will be around as long as the traditional pBook. To the point, whatever the open format is, it needs to be open sourced and headed by a public governing body.

I won’t say much more here because I was directly involved. However I would like to criticize our use of ‘The sBook’ as the title in the session schedule. I thought it actually looked like a miss print because there was no further description given. We will have to change that for the next time because the points that we are trying to make are far more important to think about than what the title entailed.

Session Six: The Book of Mpub (An Agile Process)

John Maxwell (SFU)

A team of University students and their professor from Simon Fraser, John Maxwell decided to publish a book. At the outset they understood part of the problem but found that they wouldn’t understand all the issues until the end of the process.

To get started they used an Agile process adapted from Agile software development to create their pBook because it allowed them

• Cheap fast prototyping
• A cyclical, iterative and lightweight processes

John believes that the ‘Agile Process’ is how the web came to be and so his team moved from the traditional qualities of pBook publishing with linear change to an internet structure. He rightly understands that although books haven’t changed, the media sphere has and therefore the book has a different function starting in this decade.

Recounting the Mpub book he says that it was:

• Born on the web and developed there
• First started in WordPress and still exists there
• Initially developed as a blog for the belief that the web is the best starting point for ePublishing
• Collaboratively built
• Produced with simple open web technologies like XHTML
• Mechanically very simple to produce a pBook from the XSL translation from web to Adobe InDesign
• Created with workflows that were cyclical
• Engineered so that they could make editorial changes up to the last minute

During their process both the editing and production overlapped and even now there is no ‘final’ state to their book but it exists in multiple formats simultaneously that were all produced on a magazine type schedule. For marketing help they received feedback from various people on the web and these contributions helped a great deal during and after the launch. They allowed open permissions to those who wanted to contribute more and used InCopy within InDesign to edit the document at a more granular level when it came time to print the book on paper. Towards the end of the project they made print proofs at their in-house Espresso Book Machine.

John mentioned that the most difficult aspect of the process was the inventing and discovery curve.

To sum it all up

It was a long day, full of interesting people with great insight and thoughts about the publishing industry. At the end of the day Hugh McGuire thanked all the contributors, the volunteers and the audience for attending. There was definitely more detail this year and more specifics. The industry is moving quickly whether or not we have proper standards or not and whether or not anyone even agrees on what should be happening. The hype and forward momentum seems to have caught most people in a frenzy but because we are in the early years of electronic publishing there are still formats to be ironed out and procedures and process to be developed that will satisfy everyone’s needs.

I hope this event is held again next year, as I believe it is necessary to bring the community together.

Lastly I will say that I learned something very important today: my personal electronic publishing process could use a little reworking. Next time I will take my laptop to an event like this because transferring my notes from paper to final electronic form took way too long.

KAOSPilot’s Intelligent Ecology

Uffe gave us only a quick synopsis about KAOSPilot and referenced it as a school whose purpose is to ‘create positive societal change through personal growth and enterprise’. He also gave us a small diagram on where he believes KAOSPilot is situated. This he calls ‘The Intelligent Ecology’.

But for the majority of his talk Uffe Elbaek led a frank discussion for three hours on his experience of birthing an extremely large and socially sensitive project from point zero to fruition in a condensed time line of only two and a half years. During this time Uffe had to not only deal with the many third parties involved, such as the political organizations, vendors, sponsors, and citizens of the city of Copenhagen but also the very basics of putting together a team from scratch. I mention this because when he started the team it was only one person deep – himself. As the key organizer he had to start by resolving some of the key issues such as time, money and people. Was there enough time to get this event off the ground, was there enough money to support the event and who were the people that would support and participate in the Games to make them a success.

He viewed all these questions as if he was forging long-term relationships with every stakeholder that he encountered. He wanted his team to become the nucleus of a communications hub for lively two way discussions and not just a central hub where directives were given. He encouraged the organizational structure to help strengthen conversations between the stakeholders themselves. This he believed helped augment the stakeholders’ relationships within the greater Games community.

Because of his belief in openness Uffe didn’t start this undertaking with his own concept of what the Games should be but instead he developed a plan of action that he calls the ‘Dehok Project Model’.

It starts with the ‘idea’ and ends up with the ‘how’ – how to implement. You will of course notice in the diagram that the ‘concept’ does not get recognized until the ‘need, purpose and value’ get realized. As a side note he quoted a common saying in Denmark for ‘purpose’ which I will have to paraphrase: “Your purpose must be so succinct you can pee it in the snow”. (this one I will always remember)

Uffe believes that the Dehok model is useful to combat what he calls the ‘Project Paradox’, whereby most projects start with an ‘end date’ but very little accumulated knowledge with which to make proper decisions. Here the goal is to compress the gap between the decision and knowledge curve as best as possible.

The Dehok model allows the core team to realize an open outcome rather than a predestined one because it indulges varied experiences to manage change. More specifically, this model does not focus on the final concept but instead encourages the team to focus on a consensus allowing them to work together in an atmosphere containing less internal conflict. He believes, as do I (and most of us I imagine), that a cohesive team structure is best united to solve a set of problems when they all believe in their common goals. This process starts with an idea but consistently appreciates the requisite variety of ideas that develops through different personalities. Of course the end goal is a mutually beneficial outcome.

This talk was one of the better more comprehensive ones that I have ever been to. My suggestion would be to go see him if you have the opportunity. Thanks Uffe.

As a request, Dr. Scolari was asked to give several lectures while in Toronto with interface being the topic of his last presentation. The topic of interface for Carlos is not just about computer interfaces but about the complete ecosystem of what an interface is. From his research he has developed seven laws that govern their existence:

1. The interface is a metaphor.
2. Interfaces are not transparent.
3. Interfaces form an ecosystem.
4. Interfaces don’t disappear, they transform.
5. If an interface can’t do something, it will simulate it.
6. Interfaces co-evolve with their users.
7. Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization.

It is interesting to note that dictionaries primarily define an interface as “a surface regarded as the common boundary of two bodies, spaces, or phases”. Of course in the 1960’s computer scientists claimed the word and redefined it as a device which allows the exchange of data between two different systems. Today this is regarded as a hardware definition but more recently with the explosion of computer software applications and their devices, designers have developed interface to mean the graphic control panel with which people use to interact with a hardware device. This evolution of meaning is interesting because it certainly substantiates Carlos’s sixth law of Interfaces.

The Laws

First Law: The interface is a metaphor.

We have already seen how the dictionary definitions of interface are evolving to include more diverse meaning. Perhaps time is shaping this definition but a specific definition does not yet exist. If anything it is actually expanding. One can use the term to make it applicable to almost anything they need.

Some say that the best interface is an intuitive one that does not need instructions; others believe more to the point that it is the place where the interaction occurs. Carlos believes that an interface functions as a membrane, an instrument, a conversation, and a place. He asserts that they are dynamic in the hands of the users and very much conversational interchanges. This is why he believes that they are not so much a membrane (as most designers and technologists would have you believe) but more comprehensive as a space “in which semiotic and cognitive processes take place.”

Second Law: Interfaces are not transparent.

This is probably my favourite law because it adds so much controversy for designers. Designers and researchers have insisted that the best interface is the one that disappears. Unfortunately I think this is a rather vague statement because there is a physical and intellectual side of this equation. A better definition would be that the physical interface is so intuitive that when the user is communicating within the interface, they can easily manipulate the device without being distracted by the learning curve of that interface. The end result is to focus on the task at hand and not think about the details of communicating.

But as Carlos points out “Even the simplest example of interaction – such as clicking on a button or transferring a document to the trash – hides an intricate network of semiotic negotiations and cognitive processes.” I think we generally forget this idea. Just ask yourself how many times you have used a gadget only to have to relearn its communication syntax.

Designers and usability experts know that users invariably find new ways of using the interfaces. The ‘usability expert’ (I use this term loosely) tends to try and govern the user’s experience but the user will end up interpreting it their way and coming up with new ways of frustrating the intended purpose. Carlos notes that these relationships between designer and user are ‘political’ and that interfaces are an ‘ideological extension of the vision of the designer’s world’ which allow users to perform certain tasks but not others that may be the wish of the user.

Third Law: Interfaces form an ecosystem.

Simply stated, when multiple technologies make contact with each other an interface is produced. This can happen between technology devices and between technology and human interaction. If there is no communication between two or more devices then the interface would be considered ‘latent’ until that time when an interaction restarts them.

This ecosystem is more of an evolutionary process. The method of communication within interfaces can easily be borrowed from one system to another without boundaries. In fact we tend to use older type interfaces with newer technologies before they develop their own interactive language. Carlos notes that many times interfaces do not find good ‘interlocutors for dialoguing’ and that sometimes there must be a confluence of technologies to birth one single interface. One of his examples was coming together of the original WYSIWYG Macintosh computer in 1984, the HP Laserjet and Adobe’s Postscript language. It was the union of these three technologies that revolutionized computing.

Fourth Law: Interfaces don’t disappear, they transform.

Touched on in the third law, Carlos states that “interfaces can rise from their ashes and reincarnate into new devices.” Interfaces are constantly adapting to different material formats in different technology devices. This law is historical in nature and I believe it is explained well in the following quote by Carlos Scolari: “In order to understand how an interface works and develops, first we must be archaeologists. A webpage interface can only be understood as a device that synthesizes six thousand years of writing technologies: it is read vertically like a papyrus, it organizes the text in columns and it employs the typography variations to communicate just like a Middle Age codex or a newspaper. From this perspective the World Wide Web could be considered a metamedium that concentrates and integrates many other interfaces and communication experiences.”

Obviously people create and employ new interactive strategies on a daily basis. But all these environments are created from our past history and knowledge. This adaptation is necessary to bridge the gap between old and new so that we as users may more easily understand what is required of us to use a new technology. That being said there are old interfaces that are latent for decades but under the right circumstances get readopted and adapted onto new devices. Of course this creates a generation of new users learning an old interface.

Fifth Law: If an interface can’t do something, it will simulate it.

Interfaces are restricted to their technological medium and they cannot always simulate the best ‘real world’ interaction, and when this happens, designers and engineers copy established protocols and processes to make the interaction seem more natural and relevant. For example we live in a physical three dimensional world but many times technology is presented to us in a two dimensional technology plane. So because we use paper, folders and buttons in our real world, designers tend to mimic them by creating three dimensional effects in our computer-restricted, two dimensional interface world. In this way users do not have to relearn a completely new visual vocabulary.

Carlos gives the following example: “A good example of interface simulation may be found in newspaper pages. In the last decade many printed publications have modified their graphic style to resemble that of web pages in order to adapt to a new generation of readers. In these publications the articles are shorter, small icons identify the different sections, there are more photos and infographics and the page explodes in a myriad of textual fragments that the reader must recompose like a puzzle. ‘Reading’ these publications is like navigating through a webpage. However, it is not an ‘interactive newspaper’: it’s just a traditional newspaper simulating a hypertextual environment.”

Sixth Law: Interfaces co-evolve with their users.

Users will apply their knowledge and understanding to any interface presented to them. Then they can choose to either accept the interface and perform interactions as the interface was designed to do, negate the interface and ‘under use’ its capabilities or lastly to ‘over use’ the interface and try to make the interface conform or take action on things that it was never designed to do.

The users therefore either cooperate, under use or exceed an interface’s abilities. Perhaps it is every designer’s dream that an interface gets used for its intended purpose but Carlos surmises that it is best when users push an interface to do things that it was never intended to do. When the interfaces are ‘pushed’ evolutions occur that allow for new devices, practices and metaphors that may not exist. The resulting evolutions may or may not be an intended consequence that the original creator thought of.

Seventh Law: Interfaces are subject to the laws of auto-organization.

This final law is interesting. Carlos believes that applying linear models to technology evolution is less effective or true than applying a networked model. He believes that applying a simple linear model generates a simplistic (and sometimes mythical) view of the present and future state of a technology. Whereas as the “socio-technical network is composed of technologies, subjects, grammars and interpretation processes” that allow us to look at the interactions between the various relationships. Where a linear viewpoint helps us navigate forward and backward in time (i.e. MS Word 1.0 -> 7.0) the networked viewpoint helps us understand the confluence of the users, technologies and various internal conversations.

New interchanges may produce new usages and allow the interface to grow with unintended reward and future purpose. Carlos terms this phenomenon, the interfaces state of ‘effervescence’. Obviously the viewpoint of interfaces as a network means that their environment can be quite complex and unpredictable but growth oriented.

Final Thoughts

After writing this article I performed an Internet search on interface laws. To be sure I found many references but Dr. Scolari’s seems to be the most comprehensive. I also wish to mention that it is refreshing to hear someone speak about interfaces as it relates to all things not just solely to the computer industry. In fact, Carlos gave his talk to a diverse audience that understood it as it related to their own fields of interest, just as I used his newspaper examples.

Carlos has written several books in Spanish but he is currently preparing his first book in English. I will update this article when his book is released – I for one, look forward to reading it.

A few unique circles

The task given to everyone in the workshop portion was to draw out 30 circles and within five minutes have each one represented as a unique visual entity. I was enamored with the thought processes of each individual in the room, their various talents, knowledge and personal interests that lead them to draw their unique sets. The following is an amalgamation of a limited set of everyone’s work that I pieced together into the grid below.

Of course the set of circles that can be created are infinite and the circles themselves, drawn by human hand are also unique. But I just can’t help but enjoy the sameness of the group juxtaposed with their individual characteristics.

There were approximately 26 lectures that one could attend during the day, each of which lasted for a little less than an hour. Of course, for some, it could be difficult to choose between the different lectures going on at the same time. Fortunately for me, my choices were easy and without scheduling conflicts. I chose the following lectures:

The lectures

Kindle, Shmindle: future directions for ebooks

Speaker: Evan Leibovitch
Topics discussed: Different electronic formats such as ePub and PDF, varying eBook readers that are proprietary and non-proprietary, organizations such as IDPF, Adobe, Amazon, Google and others that are either working with the consumer or for their own interests (I will let you decide who is who). Also technologies such as embedded linux, webkit, PDF and ePub standards used for ebook readers.
Of Interest: There was an outcry from the audience concerning DRM, a topic another speaker was actually covering in a different session. Evan declined to comment on this except from the point of view that there are alternatives to DRM that are used within the programming realm that do not annoy consumers. The audience agreed to disagree in the heated debate that followed, primarily to protect their own interests . If it is any indication of the trouble the industry may be in, I do not remember one person who voiced a concern about their intended audience.

When Every Book is Connected to Everyone

Speaker: Peter Brantley
Topics discussed: Publishers’ and authors’ responsibilities and changing roles in the future, DRM, innovation and perception of what the market believes a book is worth, the simple idea that a book is a place where data aggregates, the misunderstanding that publishers only warehouse and distribute books, the death of the traditional book as we know it, the future printed book will be a gift item but people will engage literature by reading eBooks as the norm and many other threads of discussion.
Of Interest: This talk had one of the more lively discussions that followed. The audience really took sides; trying to explain what they did well but at the same time worrying about their future roles. None more so than the publishers who seemed completely confused by the present audience market and were upset at the larger brands such as Amazon pricing them out of business. My take on all this was that everyone needs to sit down in their respective fields and determine their best opportunity for future viability and come up with sustainable, growth-oriented business plans, instead of being blind followers who split their people and money resources, all the while lowering their quality.

The Evolving Ecology of the Book

Speaker: Carlos A. Scolari, Steph Troeth
Topics discussed: This one started out with a discussion of the book interface, its evolution, past, future, and fusion of combinations of form. The image below sums up the talk.

Ecology blackboard brainstorming

Of Interest: We learned that the original columns used in publishing date back to early clay tablets, a major evolution took place when papyrus scrolls developed into book pages as we understand them today. Also discussed was that in the future we will no longer be using page numbers in eBooks because of a ubiquitous search functionality and the problems with pagination as related in different electronic resolutions and formats. A technologist, Liza Daly, also gave a short demo of her new project ‘Zen Garden’ that aims to help publishers create more varied and flexible eBook formats that are visually appealing.

Toward the sBook: simple, searchable, smart, social, sustainable, scalable

Speaker: Greg Van Alstyne et al (Disclosure: I am also a part of this initiative)
Topics discussed: The lecture was quite simply the future of the book format and the way in which people will interact with it. The extension of the printed book to an electronic form, different initial markets that would benefit from the public format, the relationship created between the reader and writer, and the transition of an eBook into a sBook.

sBook blackboard brainstorming

Of Interest: Interestingly enough the audience seemed confused about the sBook initiative. I think that may have had to do with visuals that were shown to explain the path of information and the connection between the traditional paper copy and electronic copy. However the people who did understand the community involvement angle quickly pointed out that the academic field would be ripe for such a book. Ironically and perhaps tellingly, this is the first target area we had already thought of. This group also was concerned about the persistence of information in the digital age (format death) and deep linking and how both can be taken advantage of.

Open Source Publishing

Speaker: Evan Leibovitvh
Topics discussed: Open Source software, Free Open Source Software (FOSS), FOSS software alternatives for publishing, business models for making money from FOSS and alternatives to DRM.
Of Interest: Evan took some time to explain the different levels of how “free”’ open source software was to distribute, (public domain -> public domain with product name posted -> scenarios that mandate programmers give back all enhancements to code -> GPL: which forces all programmers to make all additions they write to remain free). Watermarking alternatives that are more flexible than DRM, but still have similar protection assurance that one can use the law if their rights are abused.

The wrap up

The aforementioned list was only a small representation of the lectures for the day. And within the lectures, people from the casual participant to the ‘expert’ met and talked about the ideas or problems that most interested them. But the topic of books, especially as related to publishing, is changing or evolving so rapidly, even the experts would have to admit that, at best, their “facts” are merely opinions of what may happen.

Unfortunately big business was not in any of the rooms that I participated in, and although there were many intellectuals and entrepreneurs, I got no sense of a true direction. The publishers were generally in upheaval and confused with the new markets, the writers/authors were worried about their product, the designers were worried about the direction of book readability and visual quality, the technologists as usual said they had all the answers (but were only helpful in their area of expertise) and the readers were most interested in getting the least expensive copy of a piece of literature in the best, most readable format.

I admittedly came away exhausted after a full day of information overload and listening to opposing opinions. And I know many people sounded disparaged but the bottom line is that the industry is changing, and everyone is going to have to play catch up each time the publication direction changes. However, there were many of us in these lectures that thought there is opportunity to be had and lots of it to share. I think the very fact that this event was such a success is proof that excitement is again building in the industry — along with fear — and that, as a whole, this change is good for the industry.

Who knows if your next book will be in electronic format and sell for five dollars, or will be on paper for twenty? Either way, you as the reader will get this choice for the foreseeable future, and you will dictate the direction.