Buzzwords from BookExpo
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Only a few years ago, the publishing camps were firmly divided about digital publishing’s place in the world. While supporters declared ebooks to be the “death of paper,” critics dismissed digital reading as a flash in the pan. When it seemed like these newfangled ebooks were actually gaining popularity, both sides became just as divided on where digital fit in the publishing clubhouse.
Now that the flames have died down some and most in the industry can agree that both print and digital will still have their place, a new attitude has been adopted. At this year’s BookExpo America and IDPF Digital Book event, the same thematic buzzwords kept getting tossed around with an infectious eagerness. Terms like experimenting, risk-taking, and disruptive models were everywhere, with industry leaders looking past whether or not anyone should digitally publish to what the next step in digital will have to be.
Eric Hellman, founder of Unglue.it, seeks to “unglue” books in order to have them enjoyed on any device and by any reader, spoke to GoodEReader after an IDPF breakout session on the disruptive business model. In other words, what kind of out-of-the-box thinking is required to take the current state of e-publishing to a whole new level?
Mercy Pilkington is a young-adult author and a teacher in a correctional facility. She does not have a single textbook in her classroom. With the top-of-the-line technology at her disposal and the low reading ability of many of her students, there’s no need for standard paper texts. Instead she relies on e-readers, iPads, desktop PCs, Polycom video conferencing equipment for virtual field trips, live streaming for science demonstrations, and text-to-speech read-aloud software to teach English and science. Within the next ten years, public school classrooms across the country are going to look a lot more like Mercy’s classroom because the educational possibilities with these kinds of technologies are limitless. Have a question? Send an email to mercypilkington@yahoo.com
