Re: Article: The e-book era is here (despite reports to the contrary)

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

"Cook, Jenise" wrote:

> >From the STC Emerging Technologies listserv, a question:
>
> Folks, Do you find this article agrees with your experience?
> http://www.dclab.com/ebookera.asp

It sounds exaggerated to me. Yes, these changes are happening, and may very
likely continue to happen. But not everybody goes along with them by any means.
A few isolated examples don't make a trend.

I can't help noticing  that the article fails to make a distinction between the
Internet and ebooks. On-line journals and reference materials aren't exactly the
same thing as ebooks. You may subscribe to on-line references, but you often
don't get a physical copy of the information you subscribe to, and many people
don't miss one. I suspect that one reason that actual ebooks haven't done well
is that they combine the old distribution method of the traditional books with
an electronic form. Ebooks are neither as convenient, as easy on the eyes nor as
unbreakable as traditional books, nor as easy to update as on-line information.
They seem to combine the worse of both technologies, rather than the best.

Finally, I have heard predictions of the end of the traditional book as long as
the personal computer has existed. I'm still waiting for it to happen. Maybe
improved screen technologies or distribution methods may give ebooks a place in
publishing. Yet, if that happens, I don't think that ebooks will replace
traditional books any more than photography replaced painting, or movies
replaced theatre or TV replaced radio. The technologies are far more likely to
co-exist.

Of course, it may be, too, that ebooks represent one of those technologies that
very few people want, such as the video telephone (which I first remember seeing
as a child in the Sixties), virtual reality or the "social desktop (AKA Bob). So
far, anyway, there aren't any compelling reasons to use it.

--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177

"Art is a moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without
entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without
moral passion is television."
- Rita Mae Brown



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