Sascha Lobo, blogger and startup founder, announced his new startup this morning at the CONTEC conference, one that will go live tomorrow. (He admitted being responsible for delivering a keynote address the day before launching a new venture may not have been the best use of his time.) His keynote outlined where his startup’s concept was born, out of the frustration of a friend who engaged in a social reading app but received nothing but silence, as social reading wasn’t catching on.
“The core idea of books doesn’t change,” explained Lobo. “That doesn’t mean anything to you, but it means a lot to the publishing industry. The core idea doesn’t change, but it translates.”
But what is a book, really?
“Books are the best way to pay people for sharing their thoughts. I want to live in a society where people are getting paid for sharing their thoughts. But the publishing industry isn’t acting very economical, they are making the same mistakes as everyone who are presented with change in a very deconstructive way. But books are the best way of sharing thoughts. Books have been about sharing always.”
According to Lobo, the internet is also about sharing, pointing out that people excuse their illegal sharing activity online since that is the key function of the internet.
“Ebooks are some form of ancient technology. They are just the digitization of the printed thought, with pixels. This is now how to get along in the internet days.”
“The future of the book is the web. Think of ebooks are being on the internet. Buying ebooks, selling ebooks, interacting with ebooks.”
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.