SMARTBOOK
We are proposing a codex book that has been “smart tagged” and as a result is readable, searchable, networkable and smart.The SmartBook (sBook) concept was presented at the ELPub Electronic Publishing Conference, Toronto, June 2008.
The experience of using a book in the classical, codex form – more than 1000 years old – is far from “broken.” However it is ripe for evolutionary enhancement. A Cambrian explosion of forms is underway, offering new software, hardware, appliances, systems and networks that seek to extend and enhance the pleasure, power and utility of reading. But which of these forms, if any, promises the ideal combination of qualities and functions?
Hardware ebooks offer several strengths including numerous titles in one light package, rapid delivery of texts purchased online, some free ebooks for download, and potentially lower environmental impact than paper books. But the pleasure of the user experience, and rates of adoption, continue to be held back by strict hardware dependency along with proprietary standards and DRM that result in uncertain future access, obstacles to sharing, and little or no used book market.
Readers want and need qualities like persistence and reliability. Many people enjoy reading physical books because they last and don’t break. Still their more recent expectations, whetted by the tapestry of Web 2.0 possibilities, lean increasingly toward user-generated content, including collaborative co-creation. People increasingly want and expect to work independently and/or together in developing, expressing and sharing ideas as well as simply reading official or commercial publications. Yet some ebook systems don’t even permit, let alone encourage, original content creation and dissemination.
A research project of the Strategic Innovation Lab, OCAD, Toronto.