Peter Brantley
Open Book Alliance
San Francisco
EU Presidency
Madrid Spain
04.2010
“[A] book is a machine to think with.”
- I. A. Richards,
- Principles of Literary Criticism, 1924
2009 Total books
2009 Total trade
2009 Total paper
2009 Total mass
| $23.8B
| $8.1B
| $2.2B
| $1.0B
(-1.8%, 2008)
(-1.8%, 2008)
(-5.2%, 2008)
(-4.0%, 2008)
2009 eBook sales
2010 (01+02) sales
| $313.0M (+176.6%, 2008)
| $60.8M (+108%, 4Q2009)
Source: SEC Filing Form 8K
5000
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1Q-2008
2Q-2008
3Q-2008
4Q-2008
1Q-2009
2Q-2009
3Q-2009
4Q-2009
~03 - 08 April 2010 (5 days):
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450,000 iPads sold.
600,000 iBooks downloaded.
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Mobile phones account for more than 86% of ebook sales.
Manga account for 75% of the ebook market in Japan.
Manga account for 82% of mobile sales.
Historically, PDF for print page representation.
IDPF’s EPUB for reflowable content.
EPUB = “web site in a file”
EPUB = xhtml + css + metadata
Apple and Google utilize EPUB format.
Amazon MOBI (#FAIL!) - proprietary.
EPUB = (also) DTBook + css + metadata
EPUB and DAISY aligning next generation
formats to ensure their continued interop.
Designing for the web aids accessible design.
EPUB + TTS will become more prevalent.
Open source TTS engines (e.g. Festival).
Devices, Delivery, Stores
Early ebook systems married devices with
delivery and existing stores. Apple iBooks,
Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook.
Trend is to promulgate the buying and
reading experiences through the web.
“Devices without web connections
are not landlocked, they are landfill.”
“Cloud based systems offer users
flexibility and ebook capabilities
beyond just text on the screen.”
- Liza Daly, Threepress Consulting
Ebooks are being enhanced with non-textual
media (video, audio, interactivity) and reader
driven non-linear narratives.
“Many of Penguin’s iPad books seem hardly
to resemble “books” at all, but rather very
interactive learning experiences ... ”
- PaidContent UK
Pressure to move digital books from selfcontained packages of media assets to a set
of pointers to network located resources.
Impacts:
Mobile access (size, complexity)
 Rights manifests (use vs. acquisition)
 Content sourcing (contracted vs. user gen)

Networked digital books will stretch our
understanding of what a book can be.
Digital book experiences of the future will be
delivered in browser-based reading engines.
What readers want to have ..
Be able to find the books they want,
in the formats that they can use,
for the devices that they have.
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.
The U.S. Department of Justice advocates:
“[book] data provided should be available in
multiple, standard, open formats supported
by a wide variety of different applications,
devices, and screens.”
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.
A reader ...
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
browses a catalog of titles selects a title for more information makes a acquisition decision obtains book (payment if required) installs and reads the book.
Because we use open standards for
describing data, it is possible to link
bibliographic book data more easily.
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

Book reviews
Reading lists
Annotations
An open and freely accessible digital public
library is the cornerstone of our democratic
society.
A fundamental right to basic information
access regardless of income or location is
essential for societal development.
Private + Public partnerships combine the
vision and guardianship role of government
with ingenuity, resources, and flexibility of
the private sector.
In the U.S., the Library of Congress and the
Copyright Office are integral to any solution
helping to realize this vision.
Copyright protection is a primary catalyst 4
authorship and creativity. The legitimate
rights of authors & publishers should not be
preemptively seized by private agreements.
Rightsholders must retain reasonable levels
of control over the use of works conditioned
through legislative processes.
Digitization of works with uncertain rights
(“orphan works”) should be deposited into
national public library infrastructures.
Legislation endorsing digital deposit and
providing for licensed access mechanisms can
engender viable markets for consumer access
to digitized books.
Regulated, interactive public-private rights
registries can permit the rapid identification
of works while maintaining control, licensing,
and compensation for books with known
copyright holders.
Books know no borders. Core rights data
must be exposed through an internationally
specified network of registry managers.
Contact :
peter brantley
internet archive
san francisco ca
@naypinya (twitter)
peter @archive.org