ARTICLE/BLOG: The Future of Books Debate

[Ryan Goble]

With Ann Arbor based Borders closing (sobs) it may seem like books are at their end. Here is an article from Wired and an interesting response from a blogger. It would make an interesting in-class debate / project to continue gathering data to make the most compelling argument.

Clive Thompson on the Future of Printed Books
By Clive Thompson - November 29, 2011 - Wired December 2011

Will the ebook kill off the print book?”

Every time I hear that question, I think about the “paperless office.” Back in the ’80s, the rise of word processors and email convinced a lot of people that paper would vanish. Why print anything when you could simply squirt documents around electronically?

We all know how that turned out. Paper use exploded; indeed, firms that adopted email used 40 percent more paper. That’s because even in a world of screens, paper offers unique ways to organize and share your thoughts, as Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper noted in The Myth of the Paperless Office. There’s also this technology truism to consider: When you make something easier to do, people do more of it. Now that every office worker has access to a computer and a printer, every office worker can design and distribute elaborate multicolor birthday flyers and spiral-bound presentations.

Read this full article HERE.

Then I came across this interesting blog response citing some research from The Economist.

A [False] New Hope for Books by Tom Tunguz

In this month’s Wired, Clive Thompson pens an article titled “A New Hope for Books.” He writes, “Back in the 80s, the rise of word processors and email convinced a lot of people that paper [in the office] would vanish…We all know how that turned out. Paper use exploded; indeed, firms that adopted email used 40% more paper.” Clive makes the case that eBooks will analogously increase the demand for paper books.

 

There are two problems with this argument. First, the data is inaccurate. The Economist profiled American paper usage and found that per capi... ”Younger workers, who have grown up with electronic communication, feel less need to print documents than their older colleagues.”

Read that full blog here.

[Karl Steinkamp]

Ryan,

 

Great article. As a school we are moving towards iPads as a 1:1 device and hoping that quickly the device will replace the 40LBS textbooks that our kids carry around now. One question being asked right now by my HS principal is if there is any way to buy a book on Amazon (kindle app) that is owned by the school and then given to the students for use in the classroom. Unless that starts to happen we are forced to stay with paper as it is not financially feasable to buy the book each year to give the students on their iPad. Does anyone know if Amazon, or anyother publisher / book company has come up with something that works for schools???

 

Karl

[Ryan Goble]

You should ask that as a crowdsource ? in the New Media and Tech group. Textbook companies (like the record companies before them) are a massive business and will do everything in their power to protect their IP.  I do know that Amazon books are on major lockdown (as iTunes was for its first 6 years).  I tried to convert those files so I could read them in my iBook reader (after purchasing them on Amazon) and it was the proverbial "bridge too far."  Again, I'm sure someone round these parts will know more than we do. Re: Amazon's long term plan I thought this was an interesting article as they are creating "sharing" libraries for Amazon Prime members. They might be trying to make the Fire overtake the iPad by making this option for schools.