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I'm familiar with it, and I love it. Love the Commentpress<http://www.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/>work as well. This project addresses participation and scholarly communication (nicely), not the interface by which you access it. If you think about the audience at a public library, it'd be amazingly valuable to have a whole bunch of kids books directly hosted on your site with an intuitive URL, library branding, a downloadbale ePub version, and a hosted version with commenting similar to what you see in the Candide 2.0 project. I think with some user testing you might find the commenting a little outside of the way a casual 15 year old reader might want to interact with it, but you never know. I think the interface part is the real kicker with all of this. If I could just fire up the iPad, navigate to a book's page at my local library and start reading it to my kid, that'd be amazing. Or if I had one of those soon to be released Google laptops running the Chrome OS, I'd be in good shape to read to my kid. Still, if I'm at home using Internet Explorer 6 on my ancient laptop, I could read to my kid. Yes, you can do much of this with the Candide 2.0 bit, but it wasn't designed to solve the cross-platform, cross-device, with-or-without connectivity issue, it was designed to probe the participatory reading issue from a decidedly academic perspective. I'm really sorry to see that the Candide 2.0 thing stopped with that one text. I'd love to see that platform used for more books, with the interfaced redesigned to appeal to a broader audience. I think it is a great starting point. On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 12:58 PM, Owen Stephens <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > I guess that people may already be familiar with the Candide 2.0 project at > NYPL http://candide.nypl.org/text/ - this sounds not dissimilar to the > type of approach being suggested > > This document is built using Wordpress with the Digress.it plugin ( > http://digress.it/) > > Owen > > Owen Stephens > Owen Stephens Consulting > Web: http://www.ostephens.com > Email: [log in to unmask] > Telephone: 0121 288 6936 > > On 10 Apr 2011, at 17:35, Nate Hill wrote: > > > Eric, thanks for finding enough merit in my post on the DPLA listserv > > to repost it here. > > > > Karen and Peter, I completely agree with your feelings- > > But my point in throwing this idea out there was that despite all of > > the copyright issues, we don't really do a great job making a simple, > > intuitive, branded interface for the works that *are* available - the > > public domain stuff. Instead we seem to be content with knowing that > > this content is out there, and letting vendors add it to their > > difficult-to-use interfaces. > > > > I guess my hope, seeing this reposted here is that someone might have > > a suggestion as to why I would not host public domain ebooks on my own > > library's site. Are there technical hurdles to consider? > > > > I feel like I see a tiny little piece of the ebook access problem that > > we *can* solve here, while some of the larger issues will indeed be > > debated in forums like the DPLA for quite a while. By solving a small > > problem along the way, perhaps when the giant 1923-2011 problem is > > resolved we'll have a clearer path as to what type of access we might > > provide. > > > > > > On 4/10/11, Peter Murray <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> I, too, have been struggling with this aspect of the discussion. (I'm on > the > >> DPLA list as well.) There seems to be this blind spot within the > leadership > >> of the group to ignore the copyright problem and any interaction with > >> publishers of popular materials. One of the great hopes that I have for > this > >> group, with all of the publicity it is generating, is to serve as a > voice > >> and a focal point to bring authors, publishers and librarians together > to > >> talk about a new digital ownership and sharing model. > >> > >> That doesn't seem to be happening. > >> > >> > >> Peter > >> > >> On Apr 10, 2011, at 10:05, "Karen Coyle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> > >>> I appreciate the spirit of this, but despair at the idea that > >>> libraries organize their services around public domain works, thus > >>> becoming early 20th century institutions. The gap between 1923 and > >>> 2011 is huge, and it makes no sense to users that a library provide > >>> services based on publication date, much less that enhanced services > >>> stop at 1923. > >>> > >>> kc > >>> > >>> Quoting Eric Hellman <[log in to unmask]>: > >>> > >>>> The DPLA listserv is probably too impractical for most of Code4Lib, > >>>> but Nate Hill (who's on this list as well) made this contribution > >>>> there, which I think deserves attention from library coders here. > >>>> > >>>> On Apr 5, 2011, at 11:15 AM, Nate Hill wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> It is awesome that the project Gutenberg stuff is out there, it is > >>>>> a great start. But libraries aren't using it right. There's been > >>>>> talk on this list about the changing role of the public library in > >>>>> people's lives, there's been talk about the library brand, and some > >>>>> talk about what 'local' might mean in this context. I'd suggest > >>>>> that we should find ways to make reading library ebooks feel local > >>>>> and connected to an immediate community. Brick and mortar library > >>>>> facilities are public spaces, and librarians are proud of that. We > >>>>> have collections of materials in there, and we host programs and > >>>>> events to give those materials context within the community. > >>>>> There's something special about watching a child find a good book, > >>>>> and then show it to his or her friend and talk about how awesome > >>>>> it is. There's also something special about watching a senior > >>>>> citizens book group get together and discuss a new novel every > >>>>> month. For some reason, libraries really struggle with treating > >>>>> their digital spaces the same way. > >>>>> > >>>>> I'd love to see libraries creating online conversations around > >>>>> ebooks in much the same way. Take a title from project Gutenberg: > >>>>> The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Why not host that book > >>>>> directly on my library website so that it can be found at an > >>>>> intuitive URL, www.sjpl.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn and > >>>>> then create a forum for it? The URL itself takes care of the > >>>>> 'local' piece; certainly my most likely visitors will be San Jose > >>>>> residents- especially if other libraries do this same thing. The > >>>>> brand remains intact, when I launch this web page that holds the > >>>>> book I can promote my library's identity. The interface is no > >>>>> problem because I can optimize the page to load well on any device > >>>>> and I can link to different formats of the book. Finally, and most > >>>>> importantly, I've created a local digital space for this book so > >>>>> that people can converse about it via comments, uploaded pictures, > >>>>> video, whatever. I really think this community conversation and > >>>>> context-creation around materials is a big part of what makes > >>>>> public libraries special. > >>>> > >>>> Eric Hellman > >>>> President, Gluejar, Inc. > >>>> http://www.gluejar.com/ Gluejar is hiring! > >>>> > >>>> [log in to unmask] > >>>> http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/ > >>>> @gluejar > >>>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> -- > >>> Karen Coyle > >>> [log in to unmask] http://kcoyle.net > >>> ph: 1-510-540-7596 > >>> m: 1-510-435-8234 > >>> skype: kcoylenet > >> > > > > > > -- > > Nate Hill > > [log in to unmask] > > http://www.natehill.net > -- Nate Hill [log in to unmask] http://www.natehill.net