Friday, September 25, 2009

E-Textbooks - The Time is Now
by Gerald Trites

E-readers have been on the market for a while now and have been slowly growing in popularity. The biggest thing holding them back from a runaway market has been price. At $400 plus, they can't compete with traditional paperbacks. However, in the college textbook market, the situation is very different. University students have been paying prices in the range of $100 - $150 for traditional hard cover textbooks for years. Multiply that by five courses and two semesters and you have a lot of money.

Admittedly, the traditional textbooks are expensive to produce, but the cost is simply more than some students can bear. So they often try to go without, or share their books. This hurts their education, because you cannot become educated without reading, even in this digital age.

E-Book readers have the potential to change all that. There are different ways to get readers into the hands of the students without bankrupting them - through university bookstores, renting programs and used markets. Also, the price of the readers, like all new technologies, will be coming down over the next few years.

The textbook publishers need to give some serious consideration as to how they will proceed with this area. One thing they should not do is to each adopt their own unique protocol for the books. They need to be compatible across publishers. Students always have to purchase books from different publishers, and can't be expected to acquire six or seven different readers. So there needs to be standardization.

Also, the University Bookstores need to be empowered to sell the content. Not just for convenience, but for support.

In addition, the readers need to be compatible with other major readers, such as the Kindle, so the students can access other readings when they wish.

Use of e-readers by students could bring on a new wave of reading among young people. This is critical to education. A win-win-win for the publishers, the students and their professors. For an article on this emerging world of readers, see this article in Computerworld.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Google World of Books
Gerald Trites

When Google announced a couple of years ago that they were going to digitize the world's books, a few eyebrows were raised. They began with all the books whose copyright had expired. Copyright laws vary, but in most countries, copyrights expire after a period of time, like 50 years, at which time they become part of the public domain. There can be exceptions, but this depends on the actions of the individual authors, if still alive, or their estates, or other interested people. So digitizing the books in the public domain is not really a big deal.

Then Google extended their realm to obtain the specific permission of copyright holders for books not in the public domain. Again, this was not too big a deal because it at least respected the rights of the authors.

A big change took place, when they proposed to digitize all books, and pay the authors part of the proceeds, with the provision that the authors could opt out if they wish. This was a significant change, because it put the onus on the authors to opt out rather than seeking their permission. It was a negative assurance approach to copyright law.

Although some groups support the idea because of the perceived advantages of having digitized books, many opposed it. One of the main arguments against it has been the fact that Google is essentially claiming full digital rights to these books, thus taking away a significant part of the copyright benefits of authors and publishers.

Of course it has been challenged in the courts and in a class action suit settlement last year, Google was granted the rights to digitize all out-of-print books, which covers many not in the public domain. The settlement essentially gives Google a monomoly over the digitization of books and tramples over the rights of authors, their heirs and traditional publishers. The US Department of Justice, which monitors things like concentration of economic power and monopolies, is concerned and has launched hearings. Most recently the head of the copyright division in the US has voiced opposition to the settlement.

This is a vastly important case. The attempts of Google to corner the market for digital books needs to be curtailed. The field needs to be left open to competition and competitive market forces. This is in the long run interests of everyone.

Information wants to be free. The internet makes that possible to a greater extent than ever before, but it must be recognized it will never all be free. Free market forces remain relevant. Placing a significant chunk of that information under the control of one large company is the absolute wrong way to go.

More on this in E-Commerce News.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Virtual Workplace

There is nothing new about employees working from home. It's been a growing element of the business world for years. New younger employees expect it. And it saves costs of such expensive accoutrements as office space and furniture. Some companies have gone to "hotelling" where no employees have fixed offices assigned to them, but reserve space when they need it.

Of course technology makes all this possible, especially high speed internet.

But the challenges remain and need to be addressed by companies. Since employees can't be supervised, they need to be managed by output. How is the output of employees measured? That's still a big issue for some employers. And then there is the question of security. How should the company-owned computer systems be configured to minimize risk of data leakage and hacking? Employees may be working at home or even in internet cafes on unprotected or poorly protected wireless networks. There is a need for policies and controls here. And likely encryption policies as well as Data Leakage solutions.

An excellent article on this topic, together with relevant links to helpful resources can be found on the E-Commerce Times Site.


Monday, September 07, 2009

The 3-D Web

Want to have a business meeting without having to pay for travel? It happens all the time, you say. How about if I add that all the participants - in virtual form - can be there around the virtual table. They can talk to each other and look at each other as they interact. It sure beats a teleconference, where you miss all the body language.

Something similar has been done with expensive teleconferencing systems in the past, where you can sit people at a meeting table, and then interact with others on a screen at the end of the room who are actually in a different room in another part of the world.

But the new 3D Web will make virtual conferencing possible for anyone with a web browser to participate. To create a 3D image of themselves and place it at the meeting table. To see and interact with the images of the others at the meeting.

Live Virtual meetings are just one aspect of the 3D Web soon to come our way. It will change the way we interact with each other, It will usher in a new Web and perhaps a new world. Read more in this article on Computerworld.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Basics of Starting an Online Business

Here's a basic but useful primer on what is needed to start an online business. It covers the technology end in an ioverview fashiopn. Of course there are lots of other matters to consider in starting any business, including things like form of organization - corporation of proprietorship - methods of recordkeeping and accounting, income tax consideration, and so on.
Ecom Primer: What You Need to Set Up Shop Online — eCommerce-Guide.com