By Jon. For Online Currents
Non-fiction E-books 1: the current state of play
By Jon: First published in Online Currents 2003 – 18(4): 10-12
In this series of 3 articles I first summarise the current state of the e-book market in general and then look at the situation for non-fiction e-books. I give some reasons why non-fiction books are not sharing in the rapid growth of fiction titles and examine several models for non-fiction e-book distribution: free downloads; paid downloads; paid distribution on CD or other media; and ‘library’ systems which sell access to texts but not the texts themselves.
Non-fiction e-books 2: for free and for sale
By Jon: First published in Online Currents 2003 – 18(5): 12-14
In a previous article I indicated that the fledgling e-book market has matured and settled down for some steady growth, largely driven by an increase in the use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) with e-book display capabilities. Although fiction is by far the more popular, there are increasing amounts of non-fiction material finding their way into e-book format. In this article I look into sources for downloading non-fiction e-books, while the concluding article will describe e-book ‘libraries’ and CD distribution systems.
Non-fiction E-books 3: CD sales and ‘elibraries’
Online Currents 2003 – 18(6): 23-25
In two previous articles I discussed the current state of eBook development and looked at online sources of downloadable eBooks. Here I want to describe two other distribution models – the supply of eBooks in bulk on CDs, and the use of an ‘elibrary’ model to permit limited-time access to eBooks while online.
All businesses mentioned here can be found online at www.nameofcompany.com; e.g. ‘www.samizdat.com’, etc.
CD Sales
There are two major sources of free out-of-copyright eBooks on CD, Samizdat and BlackMask Online. Both appear to be run as one-man businesses: B & R Samizdat Express, by Richard Seltzer and BlackMask by David Moynihan. Both carry out their marketing through websites; Blackmask also provides its texts for free download. Both derive most of their material from Project Gutenberg, which was discussed in the previous article. Both attempt to provide answers to the question ‘Why should I pay for something I can get online for free?’. The differences between them are mainly a matter of price, classification and emphasis.
Online backups with Mozy
By Jon. For Online Currents
Open Office 2.2
By Jon. For Online Currents
Open Publish 2008
Collaborative Indexing
Discusses shared indexing projects and their possible application today.
Open Publish 2009
Why Words Matter
Considers the importance of human understanding of words and their meanings for reliable information access.
OZIA 2007
Enhancing access to website content with indexes
Examines a variety of approaches for helping users find information efficiently on websites.
Paul Budde Communication
By Jon. For Online Currents 18 (3), April 2003