I spent today digging through all of the digital reading tools that I have collected. I checked for iPad capability. Off line capability. Multiuser possibilities. The challenge lies in providing fiction books digitally. For 100 simultaneous users at times. The music industry had a lot of growing pains over the last decade. I think they have developed some systems that provide artists and agencies profits. We know pirating takes place still, but I do not see the obvious and blatant sites as in the 90s. I hope the publishing industry will take some strides in that direction. I respect beyond words the right for an author to earn a profit from his or her work. I do want to purchase 100+ copies of your work. If I can control and monitor which programs our students get and when they don’t, I am willing to do the same for ebooks. We check items out if the library every day and keep track of who has what. We just need the vehicle to do this with ebooks too. Our schools may be pushing us digital. The experience a student can have with a digital text can be more accommodating and engaging. I can make suggestions as to a digital solution, but the “right” tool is still in development. This was quite the stream of consciousness tonight. I will share concrete findings as I wrap up this research.
One Comment
It feels insurmountable I presume. Hope you leave us some breadcrumbs when you get to the right solution. Remember that you can choose a “good enough” path until the “best” thing comes along.