this film loads very very slowly but i think it’s the most exciting vision of the book of the future since Apple’s Knowledge Navigator in 1987.
interestingly, the film also includes an elegant solution to the question of how (at least during this transitional period) bookstores might participate in the sales of ebooks. note this idea is more practical in Europe where Amazon and other online retailers are not allowed to compete on price.
and for history’s sake here’s a link to the Knowledge Navigator video and Wikipedia entry
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
I commented in blog post: “The future of the book, and the sorrows of Web video” on my site. http://postbook.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/the-future-of-the-book-and-the-sorrows-of-web-video/
“Bob Stein at if:book blog (Institute for the Future of the Book) points to the recent vision-of-the-future video from French publisher Editis. He remarks, “this film loads very very slowly but i think it’s the most exciting vision of the book of the future since Apple’s Knowledge Navigator in 1987.”
“It’s great stuff. I couldn’t help but be struck, however, by the sheer badness of my user experience in trying to watch this video. […]
“The video download should no more presume my continuous full attention than it should assume continuous full bandwidth….life is mostly not full-attention. […]
“The Editis video addresses this reality beautifully, in my opinion, precisely by showing their e-book device embedded effortlessly in so many different real-world scenarios of the main characters. It isn’t a thing-in-itself, in a demo setting. The Editis video stresses, as did computer visionary Douglas Engelbart decades ago, how the technology is valuable because it augments our lives and intelligence, rather than displacing it or delivering something purportedly all new. […]
Bob,
It was painful indeed waiting for the Editis-hosted video to load. I ended up finding it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK75RSQBZYs
Be sure to click on the HD button in the player for better quality.
Mike
It is a beautifully made piece, and it’s great news that there’s a lower-res version available. Thanks!
this video is a couple of years old by now…
didn’t we discuss it when it first appeared?
-bowerbird
I can’t help but finding this movie hilarious. Why are they so desperately clinging to the metaphor of the book? What this video is about, is the integration of information into everyday life and its instant availablity. If you look at smartphones, we are already there. The focus on a foldable screen the size of a book is nothing more than a romantic reminiscance and I doubt its practicality in a lot of the shown circumstances.