Notes: Digital Divides; New Used Store Highlighted
E-read all about it! Reuters
reports that long-promised flexible digital screens which can be rolled
up and put into a pocket "may finally arrive" in newspaper form as
early as this year. Several major newspaper chains, including Hearst
and McClatchy, have invested in such products, and "Hearst's San
Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle will likely be among the
first of its 12 daily papers to offer such devices to several hundred
subscribers later this year." A newspaper group in Europe is
considering similar trials.
Production costs for some of the devices, including the Sony Reader, may be low enough for publishers to give away readers for free with an annual subscription.
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Speaking of digital reading, Peter Osnos's latest column for the Century Foundation reacted to a strain of what may be called technological triumphalism evident in Kevin Kelley's New York Times Magazine cover story Scan This!, in which the author extolled a universal digital library. (It is the same story that at BEA, John Updike said conjured up a "pretty grisly scenario.") Osnos, who is leading the Caravan Project, said:
"The future is a not a just a contest among technologies . . . Search engines, hand-held devices, and whatever else is in the offing, provide tools, pipelines, and plumbing for information, but they are only as useful as the material that they carry. And the people creating that information, along with the editors and publishers who support them, have a role to play as essential to learning and entertainment as do the wizards of technology. What we need is a balance between the interests of content and the means of distribution. We also need to find a language we all understand about how to use the technology that is available. To take a now out-of-date example, what good did it do us that our old video recorders could tape programs when so few people bothered to get past the blinking 12:00? How about all the CD-ROM investments? Random House spent millions a decade ago to make sure its childrens' books could be read on CD-ROM players that were almost immediately made obsolete by the Internet. Where are all the abandoned e-readers of the first generation? Sony is going to launch a new form of e-reader for $300-$400 soon. Do book readers really want more gadgetry? Technology is only really as useful as our readiness to use it. And books, to take the subject of Kevin Kelly's opus, are only as valuable as the words and ideas in them.
"I hope that all worthy books (and news, games, and whatever else we can devise to share) are made as widely available as technology will permit. And I also hope that happens with due regard for the time-honored interests of the writers, editors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and readers who benefit so much from them and are their creators."
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Kema Clark, who worked for Ford Credit for 26 years and started Kema's Hobby, a used bookstore, in Gray, Ga., in February, is one of four entrepreneurs who will be featured in a supplement to some Time publications in August, the Macon Telegraph reported.
In addition to books, Clark sells coffee and work by local artists. The store has a small conference room where groups can meet.
So far business has been all over the lot. "February was great, March was pitiful, April was a little better and May improved on that," she told the paper. "I knew it would be up and down the first year."
Still, she's happy. "I've dreamed about coming back home and having this bookstore for years and years," Clark added. "Coming in here every day is a joy."
Production costs for some of the devices, including the Sony Reader, may be low enough for publishers to give away readers for free with an annual subscription.
---
Speaking of digital reading, Peter Osnos's latest column for the Century Foundation reacted to a strain of what may be called technological triumphalism evident in Kevin Kelley's New York Times Magazine cover story Scan This!, in which the author extolled a universal digital library. (It is the same story that at BEA, John Updike said conjured up a "pretty grisly scenario.") Osnos, who is leading the Caravan Project, said:
"The future is a not a just a contest among technologies . . . Search engines, hand-held devices, and whatever else is in the offing, provide tools, pipelines, and plumbing for information, but they are only as useful as the material that they carry. And the people creating that information, along with the editors and publishers who support them, have a role to play as essential to learning and entertainment as do the wizards of technology. What we need is a balance between the interests of content and the means of distribution. We also need to find a language we all understand about how to use the technology that is available. To take a now out-of-date example, what good did it do us that our old video recorders could tape programs when so few people bothered to get past the blinking 12:00? How about all the CD-ROM investments? Random House spent millions a decade ago to make sure its childrens' books could be read on CD-ROM players that were almost immediately made obsolete by the Internet. Where are all the abandoned e-readers of the first generation? Sony is going to launch a new form of e-reader for $300-$400 soon. Do book readers really want more gadgetry? Technology is only really as useful as our readiness to use it. And books, to take the subject of Kevin Kelly's opus, are only as valuable as the words and ideas in them.
"I hope that all worthy books (and news, games, and whatever else we can devise to share) are made as widely available as technology will permit. And I also hope that happens with due regard for the time-honored interests of the writers, editors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and readers who benefit so much from them and are their creators."
---
Kema Clark, who worked for Ford Credit for 26 years and started Kema's Hobby, a used bookstore, in Gray, Ga., in February, is one of four entrepreneurs who will be featured in a supplement to some Time publications in August, the Macon Telegraph reported.
In addition to books, Clark sells coffee and work by local artists. The store has a small conference room where groups can meet.
So far business has been all over the lot. "February was great, March was pitiful, April was a little better and May improved on that," she told the paper. "I knew it would be up and down the first year."
Still, she's happy. "I've dreamed about coming back home and having this bookstore for years and years," Clark added. "Coming in here every day is a joy."
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