I think annecdotal evidence is no evidence at all. It is useless to discuss the growing or lessening popularity of ebooks in general
Branko Collin collin at xs4all.nl wrote: based on a few of Vijay's personal observations.
Those personal observations can be fun to talk about in their own right, but they are not evidence of a trend.
Very true of the above and agreed. I have also read about postts on web-sites in regards to people preferring real books and to stay away from ebooks as they are not good for eyes. So as a NEWBIE, I just wanted to know more in this regard from those with more experience. Vijay _______________________________________________ No banners. No pop-ups. No kidding. Make My Way your home on the Web - http://www.myway.com
On 18 May 2005, at 7:58, rvijay07 wrote:
Branko Collin collin at xs4all.nl wrote:
I think annecdotal evidence is no evidence at all. It is useless to discuss the growing or lessening popularity of ebooks in general based on a few of Vijay's personal observations.
Those personal observations can be fun to talk about in their own right, but they are not evidence of a trend.
Very true of the above and agreed. I have also read about postts on web-sites in regards to people preferring real books and to stay away from ebooks as they are not good for eyes. So as a NEWBIE, I just wanted to know more in this regard from those with more experience.
I read a story once about a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer who got into a conversation on a plane with the lady sitting next to him. It turned out that the stack of papers on her lap was actually a book she had printed out from Project Gutenberg. IIRC, it was a book that she had looked for for a long time, but could not find, until it turned up at PG. It is success stories like these that motivate me to be a volunteer. The failure stories,... well, they are sad and certainly should be taken as a lesson of how we can improve things. But in the end, we provide a service for people who appreciate our product, not for those who don't. Also, keep in mind that what PG produces is the raw material. We produce very basic ebooks that everybody has access to. Third parties can then take (most of) these raw materials and add value to them in some way. We are constantly working to make the life of these third parties easier. For instance, we are working on a format for meta-data, so that (in theory at least) it would be easier to produce richer versions of our etexts. Also, we produce MARK records, so that libraries and such have an easier time classifying our etexts. There are many more examples of this. Perhaps you should show your friends not the raw materials, but the end products. -- branko collin collin@xs4all.nl
On Wed, 18 May 2005, Branko Collin wrote:
On 18 May 2005, at 7:58, rvijay07 wrote:
Branko Collin collin at xs4all.nl wrote:
I think annecdotal evidence is no evidence at all. It is useless to discuss the growing or lessening popularity of ebooks in general based on a few of Vijay's personal observations.
Those personal observations can be fun to talk about in their own right, but they are not evidence of a trend.
Very true of the above and agreed. I have also read about postts on web-sites in regards to people preferring real books and to stay away from ebooks as they are not good for eyes. So as a NEWBIE, I just wanted to know more in this regard from those with more experience.
I read a story once about a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer who got into a conversation on a plane with the lady sitting next to him. It turned out that the stack of papers on her lap was actually a book she had printed out from Project Gutenberg. IIRC, it was a book that she had looked for for a long time, but could not find, until it turned up at PG.
Anecdotal evidence is better than none, particularly when the "solid" evidence has been based on a small sample, as it usually is. Here is one example of how this can go both ways: A decade or so ago I gave to presentations in the same lecture hall in the same month, each time to over 300 people. As usual, one of the first things I do is to ask, "How many of you know about Project Gutenberg before signing up for this conference?" In the first case, virtually everyone raised their hands, which was a total shock to me. I found out later that at least one person had not raised his hand. I was elated. . .!!! But it didn't last for long. . . . The next time not a single hand went up!!! I just goes to show you not to be fooled even by large samples. Last week a good friend gave just such a presentation in Fresno, to a small room full of librarians, and she was shocked to find that not one of them was familiar with eBooks, much less PG. During another conversation on this subject with someone at Ohio State, I mentioned that I presumed no one there knew PG since I had never received any emails from anyone@osu.edu The response was that she simply stuck her head out the door and asked very quietly [librarian voice] down the hallway if anyone was familiar with PG. . .and over a dozen positive responses came immediately, and a few more later from those who were engaged on the phone at the time. So, whatever you hear, I would take it with a grain of salt. ;-) Michael
participants (3)
-
Branko Collin -
Michael Hart -
rvijay07