More on teens and ebooks
A couple of weeks ago, the Bits blog of the NY Times covered a proposal by the Democratic Leadership Council called "A Kindle in Every Backpack." Says the Times:
Its authors argue that government should furnish each student in the country with a digital reading device, which would allow textbooks to be cheaply distributed and updated, and allow teachers to tailor an interactive curriculum that effectively competes for the attention of their students in the digital age.
David Rothman at Teleread pointed out subsequently that he's already done a lot of research along these lines, going back to the 1990s. But David also brings up a very good point - a Kindle is not the magic bullet. He stated in an email (which I have his permission to quote):
So why do standards matter? To separate the idea much as possible from specific brands and types of machines. Policymakers need to understand that just like adults, kids ideally should be able to use whatever kinds of devices they want for reading, Web-browsing, you name it. Many children can benefit from the interactivity of netbooks, the compactness of iPod Touches and so on. And it would be horrible to force all low-income students to use Kindles--without good keyboards--when they lacked decent hardware at home and faced long lines at the library for use of Internet-connected machines.
I'm thinking of the entire population, not just young people. For example, what about the seniors for whom Kindles or variants might be more appropriate than for the young? As some have said, Kindle-style machines could be the new large print.
David is absolutely right - and what I like about David's approach is how it highlights the critical role that libraries take in a ebook world. Libraries provide content that we look at as "free" - subsidized by taxes and private grants. Distributing content independent of the device is the only way ebooks are going to flourish at the rate many initially envisioned - strapping content to DRM (and a particular device) and squeezing every last penny out of it consumer-by-consumer is yet another stranglehold being put on ebooks, ensuring that only those with disposable income can take advantage of their benefits (those who need these benefits the least, I might add).
What I offer:
