On Tue, May 23, 2006 at 04:07:06AM -0400, David H. Rothman wrote:
.... PG people are very welcome to write me privately or phone me--especially Greg, if he's really serious about the comments he made to U.S. Today extolling interactivity. Here's PG's chance to adopt a powerful format (OpenReader) and enjoy readers worthy of it (dotReader and in the future FBReader). I'm all ears as far as suggestions from Greg or anyone else, and I know others will be as well.
I enjoyed reading those quotes, and they're pretty accurate from an interview I did a few weeks ago concerning launch of the newest Sony eBook reader with electronic ink. (I was just in Tokyo two weeks ago, and was unable to find one of these units for sale. I didn't look all that hard, but peered closely in the PDA section of Bic Camera which is a huge electronics chain store). They somehow recycled the article for USA Today -- nice to see. Of course I'm serious about limitations of eBook readers, and am against any format that is one-way, closed, non-fixable/editable, etc. This is a thread in the "about" essays Michael and I worked on: http://www.gutenberg.org/about , with a key theme being "unlimited distribution." For the OpenReader format, as Marcello said there is no conceptual resistance to using this as a "convert to" format at gutenberg.org, just as plucker is. All we need is a clear and preferably open source processing chain that we can insert into the ibiblio.org site. Also, of course, a reasonable support community so that PG help staff (me, George & Marcello) don't end up being too challenged in supporting the format. In short, as you've heard before, you should feel encouraged to "go for it." -- Greg