Until the end of paper has come

Published: 2010 - April/June, Dossier: The e-book revolution

More than 30 years ago, when the newly invented walkman helped bringing music out of the home, hardly anybody could imagine that like sound, also words might leave the shelf one day, and follow us in our daily movements. Even though the Gutenberg Project – launched in America in 1971 with the goal of digitizing the contents of copyright-free books – has arrived at more than 20,000 titles, the progress in computer science is actually responsible for relevant changes that are currently going on. Over the last decade, in fact, the contents of the printed book have started to migrate; thanks to the availability of several electronic formats, a new medium of reading is gradually spreading: the e-book reader.Already now, the term e-book – umpteenth neologism with “e” like “electronic” – refers to tangible publishing activities: the traditional book is revamped in a compressed form in electronic format, which seems to capture the sympathy of the public (or anyway the customers) in an expanding market whose roots are North American. The most widespread formats are pdf, dtb, Oeb, html, rtf, txt and prc: all of them so called proprietary formats, with the exception of Oeb, which became an open source format under the name epub. In a sense, thus, the Gutenberg Project is developing extremely well, instigating even the procreation of “twin” projects. With the accomplished variety of formats – which often binds the book’s producer to determined hardware and software products and limits therefore the end-user’s freedom – it can be argued that the dissemination of e-book readers (the appropriate data medium), as the decisive technology for the assertion of electronic publishing, is gaining a foothold in the collective imagination of literature lovers.
Among the companies that are the most active in e-book reader engineering, we have Amazon, one of the giants of world-wide distribution of culture; and Japanese Sony, a pioneer of design and development of technical devices and gadgets. Amazon has created Kindle, a reader now available in its second generation (operating on Linux) that is supporting more than ten data formats; Sony offers its reader in various models (Touch, Daily and Pocket), each with its technical specifics re display size, wireless connectivity and respective options of editing the texts available for reading. Apple, at last, who have overturned the use of music and the concept of telephony with their iPod and iPhone, respectively, are not yet present on the e-book reader market, even though it seems plausible that they’re planning to introduce a high-end reader: their Writing Pad might, thus, join the devices of Sony and Amazon, providing users with its extraordinarily simple, interactive and self-explanatory interface, capable of stimulating utilization of certain contents. As far as Apple, by the way, the case of iTunes Store – where to find applications for iPhone and iPod Touch, music, audiobooks and podcasts – is prototypical: entertaining a software platform meant to complement the various data media (in particular, the reader, as far as iPod, or the “phone”, as far as iPhone) has proved successful in creating a relation of extraordinary confidence and reciprocity between user/consumer and producer/dealer.  In this sense – considering both what has been explained using the example of iTunes, and the specifications of the two principal e-book readers (though there are more than ten such products available) – it seems desirable that the characteristics of the new e-book readers merge in one technical standard that warrants, above all, a high degree of interactivity like, for example, the possibility to edit the text, to “annotate” something by hand or with an electronic pen, and to use the “touch” function to select content; consequently, the possibility of navigating in internet so as to download e-books from an appropriate website and with an appropriate software that provides  for both data management and user support (both models, in one way or another, make use of online resources: Sony refers to http://ebookstore.sony.com, and Amazon’s Kindle to the “mother” website amazon.com) will help along the building of loyalty and ties between dealer and producer, and may become an incentive for getting used to usage which, at however early a stage, could point editors into a direction to follow as far as production and distribution.
And yet, interest for the electronic book and its easy distribution via platforms and software with user-friendly interfaces doesn’t exclusively capture the attention of the important protagonists in the world of technology, electronics, web and cyberspace. Actually, even traditional publishing houses in the paper sector, like the American Barnes & Noble, have been starting kind of a transfer of contents, converting the core of their production into an electronic format designed to be read with Nook, their proprietary reader. And by the way, not just traditional books, but also well-known magazines and newspapers, with their subscriptions and offer packages, are becoming a party to the marketing of the various e-book readers, lending themselves to digitization of their contents, they too ready to be downloaded wirelessly and at the desired time. To sum it up, that the passion for reading be pocketed seems already tangible. Without making its weight apparent.