Informed Strategies

Dr. Victor McCrary, the force behind the recent Electronic Book '99 conference and chair of the Open eBook Authoring Group, orchestrated a program of fascinating presentations and exhibits in this developing industry. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) was joined this year by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) as co-sponsors of the second annual workshop, which was subtitled "The Next Chapter" http://www.nist.gov/ebook99 and held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, at NIST headquarters on September 21-22, 1999.

Following on the heels of the Seybold San Francisco/21st Century Publishing Conference at the end of August, Electronic Book '99 attracted over 600 attendees, double the size of last year's program. The audience was a mix of publishers, entrepreneurs, authors, hardware and software developers, and librarians. The focus of this year's conference/workshop shifted from the handheld-device manufacturers to standards and software that support publication and rights management.

At the conclusion of last year's conference, Microsoft invited others to join it in the development of a standard. This year, the Open eBook (OEB) Authoring Group released the Open eBook Publication Structure 1.0, which uses familiar HTML semantics but is an XML-based syntax that allows publishers to provide their content without having to reformat it for each reading system. In recognition of their work, plaques were given to the members of the OEB Group by McCrary, who is technical manager of information storage and integrated systems in NIST's Information Technology Laboratory.

As part of the Department of Commerce, NIST's mission is to stimulate economic growth through the application of technology, measurements, and standards. The value of this approach was proven by the rapid adoption of the CD-ROM, which avoided the format competition of VHS and Betamax, for example--a battle that, at the time, slowed the growth of the videotape industry.

Len Kawell, president of Glassbook and former designer of Lotus Notes, is leading the EBX Working Group, which includes Adobe, Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, SoftBook, NuvoMedia, NIST, and Xerox, among others. Assuming that readers will want complete interoperability, the EBX draft specification focuses on copyright/rights management and a distribution protocol. Glassbook http://www.glassbook.com builds software that enables the secure distribution and delivery of e-books via the Internet.

DAISY (Digital Audio-based Information System) and the NISO Digital Talking Book Committee have jointly developed an XML Document Type Definition (DTD) for digital talking books. DAISY http://www.daisy.org is an international consortium of libraries serving both the blind and those who cannot read regular print.

Dr. Charles M. Geschke, Adobe Systems' president and chairman of the board, spoke first, pointing out that throughout history, publishing has always been a combination of technology and commerce. Given a potential audience of 12 million, the book publishing industry in the U.S. is estimated at $61 billion and is split between business publishing ($35 billion) and the general public ($26 billion).

Adobe will soon release Adobe Acrobat Merchant, which will enable publishers to decide on the level of access they wish to offer, and enable the e-commerce component to be handled by the Adobe software on the publisher's server. Web Buy, an e-commerce component that resides on the user's machine, will be incorporated into the new version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. In the future, the publisher/author may be paid at the point when materials are read rather than when they are developed and distributed.

Dick Brass, vice president for technology development at Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com, entertained the audience with his predictions for the rapid growth of the e-book market. He even created a funny faux ad pitching print books that he expects to see from Weyerhauser in the future with the slogan "Real Books, from Real Trees, for Real People." To aid in the rapid adoption of e-books, Brass shared the news of Microsoft's pending release of the Clear Type Font that will be incorporated in Microsoft Reader, which the company claims will dramatically increase the display capability of the average PC and thereby eliminate one of the current hurdles to widespread e-book adoption.

On the topic of copyright, Brass noted that real copy protection prevents honest people from doing stupid things. Publishers would be well advised to foster habits of honest purchase, as it may be easier in the future to copy print editions (which can be keyed or scanned using OCR) than to copy encrypted electronic documents.

The four e-book manufacturers that led the discussions last year described their strategies for going forward, with three of the four shifting their emphasis away from handheld units.

Jim Sachs, CEO of SoftBook Press, Inc. http://www.softbook.com, shared his vision of the market, noting that "e-books will expand the market for reading just as videos expanded the market for movies." Given the variety of emerging players in the market, Sachs observed that it was difficult to figure out if you're sitting down with competitors or partners.

Martin Eberhard, CEO and co-founder of NuvoMedia http://www.nuvomedia.com; http://www.rocket-ebook.com spoke about the aesthetic experience of reading, and profiled the e-book user as someone who travels and wants the convenience of multiple titles in one device, who needs timely news, or who finds large print desirable. Eberhard predicted that e-book editions will be released before the print versions, that authors will write specifically for e-books, and that e-books will be interactive and have multimedia capabilities. NuvoMedia released its Rocket eBook last year; this year it is releasing the eRocket, which will allow readers to view books on their PCs.

Kathy Skinner, vice president of marketing for Librius http://www.librius.com, announced that her company is refocusing on distribution of e-material and has chosen not to introduce its Millennium Reader. Skinner then noted market requirements: Buyers want portability, value, readability, indefinite ownership of the content, and large memory; while sellers want digital rights management, security, integrity of context, and lots of customers.

Daniel Munyan, president of Everybook, Inc. http://www.everybook.net, addressed a "new world order" where publishers have a single comprehensive solution that can be output in print or to the Web. Munyan cited a Gartner Group study that estimated the average cost of an e-commerce site at $1 million, with upwards of $5 million just to "run with the pack," and up to $20 million for differentiation. Confident about the company's still-to-be-released handheld device, it plans to introduce its Everybook, a two-page unit with color display, early next year.

One of the more interesting talks was given by Bruno de Sa Moreira, co-founder and general manager of 00h00 (pronounced "Zero Hour"; http://www.00h00.com), whose company mission is to become the benchmark for European Web sites selling digital books. Interviewed in the June 28, 1999, issue of Time magazine, de Sa Moreira said that Zero Hour is capitalizing on the beginning of the publishing revolution with the delivery of digital content that is printed by users or by a service provider near them.

Established in 1998 in France, Zero Hour has 400 titles and it accepts all types of files, archives in SGML, and participates in the International Printers Network (which enables printing close to the customer). Customers can either order a digital book for $3, which is delivered in Adobe PDF within 15 minutes, or pay $6 and have a print book shipped to them. Currently, 85 percent of Zero Hour's sales are of digital works, and 40 percent of its sales are to U.S. customers.

Zero Hour also sponsors a community page where readers can list their own interests and exchange books with other readers. Positioned as a partner for publishers, it will either acquire online publishing rights or provide part of its system for digital editions of books where publishers are not assigning rights.

One challenge noted by Rich Lysakowski, executive director of the Collaborative Electronic Notebook Systems Association (CENSA; http://www.teamscience.com), is the need to create standards for authors, rather than readers. Publishers of scientific material find that formulas are not easily dealt with and require typographical and display improvements.

Chris Pooley, president and CEO of Books24x7.com http://www.books24x7.com, which publishes computer books electronically, pointed out that it is harder to add value to a novel that doesn't benefit from being searched or updated-two advantages of the electronic environment. Pooley described the concept of having many reference and informational titles in a database that can be searched to identify appropriate text or chapters. This approach could generate new revenue for publishers by creating demand for the content.

Sol Rosenberg, president of the Versabook division of Versaware, Inc. http://www.versaware.com, echoed the concept of a searchable library. Versabook has targeted the publishers of reference books, textbooks, product manuals, and specialty books, offering to convert them to electronic form and deliver them on CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or via the Web.

Steve Potash, president of OverDrive Systems, Inc. http://www.overdrive.com, was delighted with Open eBook Publication Structure 1.0, which he said will expand his business-one that has been involved in desktop publishing since 1986. His company offers tools for authors for as little as $1,500 and an e-commerce and rights package starting at $10,000.

Bob Stein, CEO of Night Kitchen http://www.nightkitchen.com, demonstrated the company's new TK3 Reader, which is designed to enable an author to utilize the new functionality available with electronic editions: an online dictionary, the ability to highlight text, searchable text with simple and advanced approaches, and a "bread-crumb trail" for users to retrace what they've read.

Robert L. Mallett, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, gave the first keynote, which commented on two NIST initiatives: the development of a Braille reader that transforms text from regular books to Braille, and the initiation of an international competition to develop the best encoding techniques. Emphasizing consumer protection and the significance of privacy policies as key to the development of e-commerce, the federal government has played a role in protecting writers and their works, and inventors and their patents.

Harlan Ellison, award-winning author, delivered the second keynote, challenging the audience to remember the humanist perspective by relating stories from his own experience. He said that, as a writer, he prefers the old, standard typewriters, and also spoke of the ability to create a good piece of writing without the aid of techie tools.

Over 30 exhibitors demonstrated their advances in technology, including software, batteries, and new models for publishing and distributing written publications. It was a great opportunity for attendees to ask questions and experience a hands-on approach to learning about new developments.

Overall, it was amazing to watch industry dynamics in an emerging market. Victor McCrary deserves credit for bringing such a diverse group of players together in the same room. As the industry grows, it will be interesting to see what new roles are developed for distributing book content.

Once monographs are in electronic form, it is possible to search them collectively. This capability will serve as an incentive for publishers to acquire additional content in specific subject areas to present as a collection. Since technical and reference material benefits from the ability to search or update, look for this type of content to be available before a large quantity of leisure reading is available. The participation of industry giants such as Adobe and Microsoft, combined with the release of a standard format for displaying e-books on any reader, are signs that we are getting closer to seeing the rapid development of e-books, even though they are not very visible at this time.

Although the projection that e-books will outsell print books within a decade sounds aggressive, sales will be driven by convenience, new functionality, and available content if offered at a reasonable price. When it's easier to download our reading to a lightweight, high-resolution laptop, mark it up and recall it, then we won' t need to remember where we read an article. Now that's progress!