[Nfbmo] Ibis Reader
DanFlasar at aol.com
DanFlasar at aol.com
Thu Mar 4 07:04:52 UTC 2010
Below is an URL and a copied interview with Liza Daly, spokesperson for a
company that is releasing anew mobile-based reading app called the Ibis.
It's an interesting read, but just as interesting is that the article
does not mention another new reader - Blio, which, unlike IBIS, seems
already to have been designed from
the ground-up for book purchase. Not only that, as y'all may know, Blio
will allows the sighted reader
to purchse and read books on mobile devices as well as computers, it will
also read them aloud. And Blio
is a free app.
Here's a link to an article about Kurzweil and his plans for the (at press
time unnamed) Blio:
_http://caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/e-books-for-the-blind-%E2
%80%93-but-what-about-the-caribbean-2/_
(http://caribbeanbookblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/e-books-for-the-blind-–-but-what-about-the-caribbean-2/)
Out of curiosity, I linked to the IBIS page ( _Ibis Reader_
(http://ibisreader.com/) ! ) to check it out. The page was a bit confusing
but I clicked on the GetBooks link, chose the first free book category
(public domain books) and chose
the first book to read - which happened to be the "Kama Sutra" by
Vatsayama.
Really! It was the first book!
I got to a login page, entered an email address, invented a password and
was taken to the first
page of the Kama Sutra. Suprisingly, the book was completely accessible
via JAWS. As the artile
explains, IBIS is not a downloadable App, it's a webpage that, written in
HTML5 (a new internet protocl),
that links to the varoius books IBIS offers. The experience is just like
reading any well-designed webpage.
Books are offeredone page/webpage so at the end of each page, you have to
click the NEXT link to go
to the next page.
That get's *really* old! Bookshare and Project Gutenberg, I'm pretty
sure, don't have that linmitation.
But, it works fine for what it is, seems to be at least consistent with
good accessible webpage design.
Given that Kurzweil is behind Blio, IBIS may not be great competition.
But, give it a try if you feel
like it.
Anyway, the interview with Ms.Daly is interesting.
Dan
I've started a bi-weekly interview series with leaders and innovators in
the book industry. My first interviewee is Liza Daly, of _ThreePress
Consulting_ (http://threepress.org/about/) , and the woman who knows all about
ePub. Liza, along with _Keith Fahlgren_ (http://kfahlgren.com/) , recently
launched the _Ibis Reader_ (http://ibisreader.com/) , a cross-platform mobile
reading app built on HTML5. I asked Liza to tell me all about it.
1. There are lots of good mobile ereader applications out there: Stanza,
Kindle, eReader, Kobo, not to mention dedicated readers like Nook and Kindle
and the Sony Reader. Why do we need Ibis?
_Ibis_ (http://ibisreader.com/) isn't meant to compete with any of these.
In fact we're quite open about encouraging readers to take their books off
Ibis Reader and put them on a preferred device. You can download a complete
epub off the web site any time, and on the mobile devices we provide some
quick "Read in Stanza" links on the iPhone (or Aldiko on Android).
What we hope to be able to do in the coming months is provide features that
are only available on a web-native platform. Because everything is just a
web page, and the code is common across all devices, we can roll out new
features and fixes quicker than any of the above. We should be able to
innovate as fast as the ideas come.
2. The big problem with mobile readers right now is availability of
titles. How will Ibis users get access to new books?
We're committed to a DRM-free approach, which we know is going to be tricky
in terms of acquiring popular content. But there's great literature and
non-fiction being created outside of the traditional publishing industry.
We're still calling titles on Ibis Reader "books," but in the digital space it
doesn't have to be a traditional book at all. We want to help readers and
authors connect with all forms of writing -- short stories, literary
criticism, poetry, comics, even interactive fiction or video! It just has to be
wrapped up in epub, and despite some anti-hype, epub is a great container
for any content you want to distribute digitally.
3. Will people be able to buy books and read them on Ibis?
We sure hope so. For us, it's critical that paid content be almost as
frictionless as free content. Anyone who's bought an ebook lately (outside of
the Kindle hardware ecosystem) knows that it's anything but straightforward
to buy digital books. So we won't go ahead until we're happy with our
approach.
4. Will publishers be able to sell books to Ibis users?
We're definitely interested in talking to publishers who want to be able to
sell direct-to-consumer. That's been very successful for small to medium
niche publishers.
5. How does _OPDS_ (http://code.google.com/p/openpub/wiki/OPDS) work with
Ibis?
OPDS is critical to discovering and acquiring books in a mobile context
where people don't want to type and can't upload their own books. At launch,
we'll use OPDS similar to the way Stanza and Aldiko do: we browse public
catalogs of free content and let people get those books with just a click. The
catalogs are always up to date and provide great metadata, covers, etc.,
all in a commonly-understood data format.
Eventually, of course, we're interested in using OPDS to manage paid
transactions, and we've got some other ideas about how OPDS can help people
discover books outside of just browsing catalogs.
6. What's so great about HTML 5?
HTML5 has definitely been a wild ride. It's got weaknesses for sure -- Ibis
Reader on a mobile device definitely isn't as fast or as feature-filled as
a native app, and Android doesn't behave the same as the iPhone. There are
limitations we'd love to be able to overcome. On the other hand, it's a
tremendous asset for a tiny company to have a cross-platform environment to
work with, and adoption of HTML5 on devices and by consumers is only going
to grow. It's a good place to be even though it hasn't been easy.
7. What is the relationship between ePub and HTML5?
Right now it's uncertain. There's definitely movement within the IDPF to
make some kind of forward-looking statement about HTML5. In particular I
think it's critical that we adopt the <video> tag, to avoid unintentionally
tying ePub to proprietary technologies like Flash. But HTML5 is more than just
video and offline usage, and I don't want ePub to stagnate.
8. What about DRM and Ibis?
Easy question. No DRM.
9. What do you think is the biggest challenge to for ebooks in the next
few years?
Right now the fight is over pricing, but I think ease of purchase is the
real barrier to consumer adoption. It's so puzzling right now. People are
going to be much more willing to pay publishers' dream prices if they can
just get the books with minimal hassle and have some of the same freedoms of
use that print books have allowed.
10. What do you think about global markets for ebooks?
This is a huge area for us. I expect mobile reading and information access
to be a key growth area for digital content globally, and in the developing
world especially. The old publishing territorial rights models aren't
going to last long. I can't think of a better way to ensure that ebook piracy
becomes entrenched than a refusal to adopt worldwide rights for digital
content sales. During Ibis development we've taken special care to make sure
that we fully support non-English content and scripts.
Find out more about _Liza & Three Press Consulting_
(http://threepress.org/about/) , and go play with _Ibis Reader_ (http://ibisreader.com/) !
NOTE: this interview was cross-posted at the _Book Oven Blog_
(http://blog.bookoven.com/) .
_http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-mcguire/interview-with-liza-day-a_b_4846
94.html_
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-mcguire/interview-with-liza-day-a_b_484694.html)
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