
E-books are not merely an ephemeral rendition of
their print predecessors - they are a new medium, an altogether
different reading experience. Consider these options: hyperlinks within
the e-book to Web content and reference tools; embedded instant
shopping and ordering; divergent, user-interactive, decision driven
plotlines; interaction with other e-books using Bluetooth or some other
wireless standard; collaborative authoring, gaming and community
activities; automatically or periodically updated content; multimedia
capabilities; databases of bookmarks, records of reading
habits, shopping habits, interaction with other readers, and
plot-related decisions; automatic and embedded audio conversion and
translation
capabilities; full wireless piconetworking and scatternetworking capabilities; and more.
In an essay titled "The Processed Book", Joseph Esposito expounds on
five important capabilities of e-books: as portals or front ends to
other sources of information, as self-referencing texts, as platforms
being "fingered" by other resources, as input processed by machines,
and e-books serving as nodes in networks.
eBookNet.org is dedicated to this technological revolution. It carries news, views, links to resources, discussions, and much more besides.
Hope you enjoy your stay with us and come and visit us often!
Dr. Roman Zenner, Editor
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