Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Standards ≠ Control

To be clear: the argument over standards is not the same as the argument over who should have control over what an ebook looks like, whether it be ereader device manufacturers (Apple)? ebook designers (Penguin)? or human readers (you)?

The argument over standards asks whether we are willing to agree as a community—both ereader manufacturers and ebook publishers—to agree on the rules for creating and displaying ebooks so that the ebooks that we create and sell don't break after a week of use.

3 comments:

  1. You are correct. Who knows what Apple is thinking?

    ReplyDelete
  2. this agreement should have
    been obtained before anyone
    "standardized" on a format.

    -bowerbird

    ReplyDelete
  3. The standards do nothing to prevent the "strip mall" effect that Mac Slocum noted: http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/1713-which-e-reader-apps-do-you-use/

    ReplyDelete

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