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www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/news/article.php/395301
By Don Sussis June 17, 2000 Back in the Internet''s Jurassic Period, 1993, young entrepreneur and student Marc Andreesen developed The Mosaic Web browser, the first browser for what was to become the World Wide Web. In August 1994, I was taking a graduate course in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University. The course was taught by Bob Stein, a recent emigre from Santa Monica beach. Bob had just relocated Voyager, his acclaimed CD-ROM publishing company, to downtown Manhattan thus pioneering what was to become Silicon Alley. I''ll never forget one of the first classes -- Bob was discussing design considerations for a computer screen and their effect on how "documents" are read. The word "document," for Bob, was a generic term. It referred to any type of content, eliminating the need to separate, say, newspapers from books or film reviews from legal contracts. In mid-sentence, Bob grabbed his Macintosh PowerBook, disconnected it from an electric outlet, and proceeded to lie down on the floor in front of his superfluous desk and the bay of computers that were perched on a metal stand next to it. As his lanky six -foot frame hit the floor, Bob stretched out on his side, parallel to the desk, and hoisted his six pound portable computer up into his chest-- as if he were attempting to curl up with a good book. Next he adjusted his position and then began to read out-loud from the screen. He did this for a full minute and then looked up. "Why can''t I use my computer just like a book?" he asked. "If we design information--and that''s what a book is, after all--to be read on a computer screen then people will find it interesting and convenient to do so." Why not? Well, there were the obvious objections. The laptop computer weighted too much. The machine had to be turned on--books were so much easier "to use." It was impossible to write in the margins and "dog ear" a page (i.e., folding its top corner down so as to make it easier to find); turning computer pages is relatively awkward compared to the ease of turning paper pages. And quite simply, reading a computer screen is too hard on the eyes, and, paper just feels better! Jump ahead to the year 2000 -- most of these obstacles have been overcome. Electronic Reading Machines are now lighter and easier to hold; new software permits marking pages, capturing text and underling significant passages; "dog earring" pages can be done more efficiently by making searchable database links; page tuning is now done with the press of a button; more pixels per page have made reading clearer and easier on the eyes. As for the feel of paper, well, cheap paper is no joy to the touch, but good paper is still wonderful to feel and that has not been conquered by eBooks. The early animosity to eBooks, I think, was a knee-jerk reaction. That is, it was an unwillingness to confront the "latest thing." There are still strong vestiges of this alive and well. My friend Patricia is an avid reader who loves the printed page and cannot imagine reading from a computer screen. It has just been in the last 6 months that she has surrendered to email. Little by little she is learning to use a computer and to integrate it into her work. Although, it has not yet become a part of her daily life. For me, being separated from email for a few days produces high anxiety. Such concerns are issues, however, only for those over 45. Teenagers today accept the computer the way we accepted talking over the telephone. There is no problem adapting. I still have an elderly relative who cuts short phone calls when they are "long distance," meaning that they are a luxury. People under 30 in economically advanced nations do not consider computers, cell phones, PDAs or email anything special--they take it for granted as part of social life. As McLuhan once said "a fish is unaware of water." This is not to argue change is necessarily good, but rather to say that there are benefits to be gained from progress. Indeed, the mass printing of books containing mostly plain text can hardly be considered an improvement over the rich, hand illustrated books of the medieval period. They were works of art-- not commercial throw-a-ways. Regardless of the presentation format, the real pleasure of a good book comes from the delight in communicating with the author and the sense of compelling insight that accompanies the stimulation of mind. The binding of a book, or the quality of its paper may enhance the experience of reading, but so too does a good glass of wine. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "the word''s the thing"--the rest is only packaging! Of course, presentation is important. This is especially true for magazines where timing, trends and topicality have heightened importance. That is why zines are especially constructed for the digital age--speed to market can be a winning quality where information can date quickly. Downloading from a Web site is a superior delivery system to buying at a cash register at a physical store--especially if it takes a couple of days to get the document from the author to the consumer. This is why billions of dollars are pouring into innovations to allow, say financial information, to be instantaneously accessed by wireless digital devices. Of course, such stuff isn''t literature-- which takes time to make and should be savored when read. But there is no inherent reason why people will not savor reading literature on a small, portable eBook. There is nothing to say that people will not become very comfortable pressing a button in order to advance text instead of turning a page. After all, most people said that they would never use an ATM machine to meet their banking needs--they were too impersonal. Now, most people prefer them to bank tellers. Why wait for a live person to read a computer screens and "tell" you your balance when you can do it yourself? Why travel to a store to buy a book or wait for it to be delivered when you can have almost immediate access to it online? And who will miss lugging around pounds of books on vacation or on business travel? Everyone I know has taken too many things with them because they feared needing or wanting something when they were away from home or office. Now it will be possible to retrieve most of what we want electronically-- without having to carry it with us! Yet these advantages are only of minor importance. What is most important is that the scope of "the book" will now change. It will become --in some cases--a rich multimedia document. That is, much more than the printed page. Good stories will be enhanced by rich pictures, even video clips. E-dictionaries will provide immediate help for understanding words. Translation into and out of different languages will be available, thus making more literature available to readers. Some books will also incorporate sound, not only for effect (such as the starting of an engine or the rush of wind through trees) but, also, to teach pronunciation and diction, rhythm and rhyme. New forms of hybrid expression will emerge to utilize multimedia technologies creating rich and exciting venues for expression and communication. Readers will then find themselves becoming viewers, listeners and even participants, too. This is not say that books as we now know them will not be read and enjoyed. But the very notion of what constitutes a book is about to expand. The change should not be mourned, but celebrated. We have enjoyed the books in their present form for about 500 years; we know, more or less, what to expect. This is satisfying. But it is no reason to fear what the next 500 years will bring. Besides, there will be plenty of good paper-based books to enjoy in our lifetime. Only now we can look forward to "reading" a new art form, which promises to be very vibrant, and deeply absorbing, too. Why not use technology to create "books" which engage our senses and our mind''s capacity in ever richer ways? The promise is exciting. And the business opportunities are too! Don Sussis is an eBusiness consultant in Manhattan and a contributing columnist to the ECommerce Guide. He can be reached at dons@interested.com. |
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