Do Open-Source Books Work?

bcrowell writes: "Whose version of the digital book is destined for world conquest? Pure and virtuous open-source books don't seem to have spread beyond the computer-science ghetto, while the dark side of the force is represented by the advent of mandatory antibooks in dental school. This article aims to move beyond the moralizing and tackle the real issues that are playing out in the free-book arena." Interesting to see this article come from someone who has himself written such a book.

Comments

Digital Books...

[Signal 11]

There's something to be said for being able to hold a book in your hand. The flexible pages, the weight, the simple fact that you know it is something tangible.

All of the current "digital books" that I've seen are a kind of tablet and you click buttons to make the pages scroll by. A big version of a palm pilot, or one of those Transmeta "web appliances". They won't replace books, because books have a quality that pure digital devices don't.

A book has texture, substance, density, weight, alot of things that make it much more physical, and therefore real, than these digital books do. If you're asking me, this is a fad. These digital books will wind up looking more like the Star Trek pads that you saw being waved about. Small palm-pilot sized devices which can interface with nearby systems (bluetooth) and upload/download information. They will have texts in them, of course, but people won't use them to read volumes - it strains the eye.

So I think the better question would be "What will these books evolve into?"

--