Mike, thanks for the link to Seth's excellent post.
I do take issue with this paragraph, though:
"""
And then we need to consider the rise of the Kindle. An ebook costs
about $1.60 in 1962 dollars. A thousand ebooks can fit on one device,
easily. Easy to store, easy to sort, easy to hand to your neighbor.
Five years from now, readers will be as expensive as Gillette razors,
and ebooks will cost less than the blades.
"""
I own a Kindle and like it very much, but that sounds like Amazon.com
PR. My points:
1) Why quote the ebook price in 1962 dollars? The reality in 2011 is
that Kindle books in general are too expensive, particularly when
comparing their cost with the paper counterparts (think about variable
costs in paperbacks, logistics etc; it is pretty obvious the cost
reductions are not being fully reflected in consumer prices). Given
the current situation, I see no evidence that ebooks will cost less
than razor blades, ever.
2) "easy to hand to your neighbor", sure, if you dont't mind being
without your entire collection, or if you have several spare Kindles
(but you are limited to sharing books among just a few Kindles). The
whole point of DRM is to hinder sharing anything with your neighbor.
3) I totally support librarians pushing for ebook lending solutions,
and not only for the sake of the future relevance of libraries, but
because I want to have better options for sharing my ebooks with my
friends (actually, anyone who does not live in the US cannot lend
Kindle ebooks at this time; meanwhile Amazon.com is very happy selling
them to us via "free" 3G).
Otherwise, a great post.
Cheers,
Luciano
On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 6:41 AM, Mike Taylor <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Seth Godin is not a library professional -- he's a marketing guru with
> a string of best-selling books and a blog that manages to be both
> insightful AND brief on an astonishingly consistent basis.
> (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ -- highly recommended). So he's
> outside the library world, looking in, and has a track record of
> seeing far and clear.
>
> Which means he's probably worth paying attention to when he writes
> about The Future Of The Library, as he does in the newest post on his
> blog:
> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/05/the-future-of-the-library.html
>
> To summarise: "The library is a house for the librarian ... [Kids]
> need a librarian more than ever (to figure out creative ways to find
> and use data). They need a library not at all ... We need librarians
> more than we ever did. What we don't need are mere clerks who guard
> dead paper."
>
> -- Mike.
>
--
Luciano Ramalho
programador repentista || stand-up programmer
Twitter: @luciano
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