The document discusses the challenges and opportunities in the digital book landscape, emphasizing the need for common standards to facilitate discovery, acquisition, and reading of books across various devices. It introduces the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) as a potential solution for creating accessible catalogs of digital books. The document also highlights the importance of simple metadata standards, like Dublin Core, in linking bibliographic data to enhance reader experience and accessibility.

1. Peter
Brantley
Tools
of
Change
Internet
Archive
Frankfurt,
Germany
The
Presidio
10.09

2. Entering
the
digital
fold,
a
tangled
landscape:
1. finding
the
book
2. format
of
the
book
3. acquiring
the
book

3. Digital
channels
are
fragmented
...
 web
search?
(Google,
Bing,
etc)
 publisher
site?
(tor.com
...
)
 the
local
library?
(borrowing/lending)
 online
bookstore?
(Amazon,
Indigo)
 alt.
vendor?
(Smashwords,
Shortcovers)

4. What
is
the
reader
getting?
 highly
structured
display
(PDF)
 downloadable
book
(EPUB,
MOBI)
 cloud-­‐based
(EPUB
>
HTML,
Flash)
 not
really
available
at
all
(biblio
data,
ILL)

5. Plethora
of
devices
–
 iPhone
|
Android
 Sony
Reader
|
iRex
Illiad
|
BeBook
|
Bookeen
Plastic
Logic
|
Amazon
Kindle
reader
device
 traditional
laptop
 game
console
(Wii)
 near-­‐mythical
Apple
Tablet

6. +
Device
+
Format
+
Discovery
+
Acquisition
+
Installation
(
+
DRM
)
=
CONFUSION.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th/2295925353/

7. What
readers
want
to
have
..
Be
able
to
find
the
books
they
want,
in
the
formats
that
they
can
use,
for
the
device
that
they
have,
and
not
have
it
be
painful.

8. What
publishers,
libraries,
bookstores
want
-­‐
Make
books
available
for
discovery,
with
accurate
descriptive
information,
at
as
many
different
places
as
possible,
under
the
sales
/
use
terms
permitted.

10. Even
the
U.S.
Department
of
Justice
is
an
advocate:
“[book]
data
provided
should
be
available
in
multiple,
standard,
open
formats
supported
by
a
wide
variety
of
different
applications,
devices,
and
screens.”

12. Creating
a
new
architecture
using
common,
open
standards
that
permits
people
to
find,
buy,
acquire,
and
read
books
from
any
source,
on
any
device,
using
many
different
ebook
applications.

14. Library
2.0
Gang
(02/09):
Google
books
and
libraries
various
email
discussions
of
nascent
“Open
Catalogue
Crawling
Protocol”
Google,
DLF,
Talis,
and
others
Atom
vs
Sitemap
discussions

15. IDPF
Board
conference
calls
Tools
of
Change
(NYC,
Feb
2009)
hallway
conversations
Web
Expo
2.0
(SF,
Apr
2009)
pinot
noir

16. “The
Open
Publication
Distribution
System
(OPDS)
is
a
generalization
of
the
Atom
[XML]
approach
used
by
Stanza's
online
catalog.
...
I
believe
this
effort
has
the
potential
to
be
a
critical
enabler
to
the
growth
in
access
to,
and
adoption
of,
digital
books.”
-­‐
Bill
McCoy,
Adobe,
04.09

17. “BookServer”
is
the
architecture.
“OPDS”
is
the
technical
specification.
“Catalogs”
are
made
using
OPDS.
“Atom”
is
the
XML
scheme
for
OPDS.

18. Because
OPDS
is
based
on
a
commonly
used
XML
standard,
called
Atom
–
OPDS
Catalogs
can
be
rendered
or
read
by
–
 web
browsers
 news
readers
(rss)
 mobile
applications

19. Because
Catalogs
are
easy
to
make
–
 any
web
site
can
run
a
bookstore.
 libraries,
bookstores,
publishers
can
play.
 search
engines
can
serve
as
book
gateways.
 aggregators
(IA,
Ingram,
etc.)
can
harvest
multiple
catalogs.

20. Because
Catalogs
contain
simple
data
describing
books
and
their
availability
–
Catalogs
can
also
be
used
for
B2B,
to
distribute
data
to
partners
for
“harvest”
instead
of
using
complicated
standards.
(Future:
“real
time
web”
notifications.)

21. Catalogs
provide
manifests
–
 list
of
the
titles
available
 information
about
each
title
 formats
the
title
is
available
in
 ways
the
title
can
be
acquired

22. A
reader
...
1. browses
a
Catalog
of
titles
2. selects
a
title
for
more
information
3. makes
a
purchase/borrow
decision
4. obtains
the
book
(PayPal,
Amazon,
etc.)
5. installs
and
reads
the
book.

23. Catalogs
can
be
derived
from
basic
bibliographic
metadata.
Such
as:
ONIX,
MARC,
(ahem)
spreadsheets
Internally
OPDS
Catalogs
use
simple
Dublin
Core
metadata
to
describe
the
titles
offered.

24. ONIX
(and
BISG
“BookDROP”)
are:

designed
for
a
different
use
cases

complex
standard
with
many
options

not
widely
used
beyond
publishing

not
understood
by
web
browsers

established;
change
is
difficult

25. Because
we
use
open
standards
for
describing
data,
it
is
possible
to
link
bibliographic
book
data
more
easily.

26. Catalogs
could
tie
together
–
 book
reviews
 reading
lists
 annotations
 fan
fiction
 etc.

27. A
workshop
sponsored
by
the
Internet
Archive
October
19-­‐20,
Fort
Mason
San
Francisco,
California
With
the
assistance
(among
many
others):

O’Reilly
Media
http://oreilly.com/

Threepress
http://threepress.org/

Feedbooks
http://feedbooks.com/

Book
Oven
http://bookoven.com/

28.  Adobe
 Ingram
Digital
 Aldiko
 O’Reilly
Media
 (Amazon)
Lexcycle
 OLPC
 Applewood
Books
 Pixel
Qi
 Book
Oven
 Shortcovers
 Booki
 Threepress
 Feedbooks
...
psst
...
 HumanWare
 and
others

29. Contact
information:
peter
brantley
internet
archive
@naypinya
(twitter)
peter
@
archive.org
keith
fahlgren
o’reilly
media
@abdelazer
(twitter)
keith
@
oreilly.com