Transcript Digital Literacy, Digital Books

Digital Literacy, Digital Books
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
“‘[P]eople don't get e-books.’ This is as true today as it
was ten years ago. Venture capitalists didn't get it
then, nor did the series of owners that killed Peanut
Press, nor do many of the players in the e-book
market today. And then there are the consumers,
their own notions about e-books left to solidify in the
absence of any clear vision from the industry.”
In your experience, is this true? Do you have an e-book, or
know anyone who does?
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
“Part of the problem is right there in the name: ebook. In the print world, the word ‘book’ is used
to refer to both the content and the medium. In
the digital realm, ‘e-book’ refers to the content
only—or
rather,
that's
the
intention.
Unfortunately, the conflation of these two
concepts in the nomenclature of print naturally
carries over to the digital terminology, much to
the confusion of all.”
Siracusa is pointing out a confusion between the
medium and the message: “book” is both form and
content. When we say “e-book,” what are we talking
about?
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
•
Complaints about E-books
– the screen: "I can't read an entire novel off a screen!" "I'll stick to
paper with its vastly superior contrast ratio." "Eye strain! Eye
strain!”
– the reading device: "It's too big." "It's too small." "I can't roll it up."
"I'm afraid of breaking it." "The battery never runs out on a real
book.”
•
Why Books are Better
– "Books will never go away."
– "Books have advantages over e-books that will never be
overcome."
– "Books provide sensory/sentimental/sensual experiences that ebooks can't match."
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
• Advantages of e-books
– Convenience: anytime, anywhere; more likely to be with you
– Power: instant searches, annotate w/o degradation, create
links
– Potential: consume, share, remix
Are there places you *wouldn’t* be able to read an e-book?
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
• Advantage: Better Publishing Model
– Print: “Bookstores pay for the books they order, but they are able
to return any unsold books for a full refund (though they usually
have to pay shipping)…. This means that if a publisher ships 100
copies of a book to a bookstore and only 50 sell, the remaining
books are shipped back and the bookseller is given credit for them.”
– E-book: “The publisher hands over a file. Then, every month, a
check arrives from the e-book seller. There is no additional cost to
the publisher per unit sold. There are no printing costs, no
warehousing, no trucks or planes to deliver merchandise. There's
no forecast of demand, with the accompanying dire consequences
of unsold inventory or unrealized income if the predictions are
wrong one direction or the other. There's no tracking of and
accounting for unsold books, no retailers cutting the covers off of
paperbacks and shipping them back to the publisher as proof of
their destruction.”
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
Q: So, how did publishers actually respond to content requests
from e-book vendors?
A: Publishers effectively sabotaged the e-book market from day
one.
– "You will not get our content unless you protect it with DRM!"
[Digital Rights Management: access control technologies used by
publishers, copyright holders, and hardware manufacturers to limit
usage of digital media or devices. (Wikipedia)]
– Most publishers dictated list prices for e-books that were based on
the prices of the printed versions.
– The digital text supplied to e-book vendors was often rife with
typos. And the kicker: e-book vendors were not allowed to correct
these typos. This fell under the contract clause that forbade all
modifications to the text.
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
Dark Times for the E-book Market
• “In 2003, Apple started selling music for the iPod through its iTunes
music store. Apple sold audio books as well, through a partnership
with Audible. Perhaps unknowingly, Apple had just positioned itself
perfectly for e-book domination.”
• The device: mass-market reading device, met the minimum threshold
for screen size and legibility
• Rapidly gaining market penetration: millions of customers who'd proven
their willingness to buy things from an online store
• Digital distribution channel: accessed via a desktop application used by
every iPod owner.
• Deals with content owners: not just the independent labels or the
scraps from the big table, but all the top record labels, and for their
most popular content.
• “Apple never took it….No one moved. The entire e-book market
was stalled.”
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
Dark Times for….Reading
• “[Steve Jobs] had a wide range of observations on the industry,
including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go
nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.”
• "It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that
people don't read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in
the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is
flawed at the top because people don't read anymore."
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
Modern Times
• The current e-book market is like a "re-imagining" of the old ebook market. Some things have changed drastically…
– With iTunes as the number one music retailer in the US, the
viability of digital media sales is no longer in question.
– Content owners are starting to show some signs of cluefulness
when it comes to DRM.
• …but it's still basically the same story.
– Dedicated e-readers: Amazon Kindle is the new Rocketbook (And
now the Kindle 2)
– Popular attitudes towards e-books haven't changed much.
– “There's still a big piece of the puzzle missing, however: a trusted
online store with a loyal, established customer base of millions
through which to sell the actual e-books.”
the once and future e-book:
on reading in the digital age
John Siracusa
Modern Times
•
The Reader…
– "You know what we call people who finally try e-books after they've
sworn they could never read on a handheld device? 'Customers.'”
Have you tried an e-reading device?
What are your reading habits?
Does a new literacy call for a new book model?
David Meerman Scott
The New Digital Literacy
• “When I wrote The New Rules of Marketing & PR, I added the
URLs of Web sites, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos and other
links at the bottom of the each page in case readers wanted to
go to the sites I was discussing in the book.”
• Zak Nelson: “People are becoming more literate in reading
websites, and that neural reconfiguration may well be affecting
how traditional books are read and sold (or, unsold as the case
may be).”
Does a new literacy call for a new book model?
David Meerman Scott
“So what if a book read more like a website? What if it looked
more like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, with links
to other chapters, pages, and even other resources in the
marginalia? What if there were paid advertising on the page, but
not traditional ads but rather something more akin to Google
AdWords, where the placement is determined online in a
bidding process coupled with consumer-driven inputs? What if
on the printed page, instead of single photos or illustrations with
captions, books adapted the concept of the embedded YouTube
video, and used a storyboard format--i.e., a comics format--to
depict a scene, when sequential visuals are required?"
Does a new literacy call for a new book model?
David Meerman Scott
Does a new literacy call for a new book model?
David Meerman Scott
•This kind of reading might be called
“radial reading,” a kind of reading
where readers seek out more context
for the work.
•For example, when reading a critical
edition of a poet like Wordsworth, you
might not read it cover to cover in a
linear fashion. You might jump from
the poem, to the explanatory note, to
the appendix, and even to other
books.
•In other words, “radial reading” is not
new - but what does this proposed
layout do that conventional print
layouts don’t?
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Digital Literacy
“The screen mediates everything from our most
private communications to our enjoyment of
writing, drama, and games….and it requires
navigation skills different from those that helped
us master print literacy.”
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Advocates of Digital Literacy
…see this as an advance for humanity:
“The book is evolving, progressing, improving, they argue, and
every improvement demands an uneasy period of adjustment.
Sophisticated forms of collaborative “information foraging” will
replace solitary deep reading; the connected screen will replace the
disconnected book.”
…speak of replacing, rather than supplementing, print literacy.
…ask us to consider:
“What is ‘reading’ anyway in a multimedia world like ours?”
“We are increasingly distractible, impatient, and convenience
obsessed—and the paper book just can’t keep up. Shouldn’t we
simply acknowledge that we are becoming people of the screen,
not people of the book?”
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
The evolution of reading…
• Styles of reading have evolved (from aloud to silent)
• Reasons for reading have changed
• Amount of time spent reading has changed
…or the decline?
• Nearly half of Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure
• Americans ages 15 to 24 spend only between 7 and 10 minutes per
day reading voluntarily
• two thirds of college freshmen read for pleasure for less than an
hour per week or not at all (2007 NEA report)
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
What are the effects of reading?
NEA
“regular reading is strongly correlated with civic engagement,
patronage of the arts, and charity work. People who read regularly
for pleasure are more likely to be employed, and more likely to
vote, exercise, visit museums, and volunteer in their communities;
in short, they are more engaged citizens.”
Harold Bloom
“One of the uses of reading is to prepare ourselves for change, and
the final change alas is universal.”
“You cannot directly improve anyone else’s life by reading better or
more deeply. I remain skeptical of the traditional social hope that
care for others may be stimulated by the growth of individual
imagination, and I am wary of any arguments whatsoever that
connect the pleasures of solitary reading to the public good.”
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Paper vs. Screen
Internet users used to be avid readers…
• In the 1990s, the heaviest readers were also the heaviest users of
the Internet (2005 study)
…but now web readers aren’t good students.
• “The Web is now the primary source of reading material for lowincome high school students in Detroit. And yet…‘only reading
novels on a regular basis outside of school is shown to have a
positive relationship to academic achievement.’” (2008 study)
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Q: Why does this matter?
A: Because literacy determines our being! It tells us who we are as
humans and how we relate to the world!
“For centuries, print literacy has been one of the building blocks in the formation
of the modern sense of self.”
“By contrast, screen reading, a historically recent arrival, encourages a different
kind of self-conception, one based on interaction and dependent on the
feedback of others. It rewards participation and performance, not contemplation.
It is…a kind of literacy more comfortable for the “outer-directed” personality who
takes his cues from others and constantly reinvents himself than for the “innerdirected” personality whose values are less flexible but also less susceptible to
outside pressures.”
How does a culture of digitally literate, outer-directed personalities “read”?
(Rosen: “Not very well.”)
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Scenes of Reading: People of the Screen
Historian reading a scholarly book in digital format:
“I scroll back and forth, search for keywords, and
interrupt myself even more often than usual to refill
my coffee cup, check my e-mail, check the news,
rearrange files in my desk drawer. Eventually I get
through the book, and am glad to have done so. But
a week later I find it remarkably hard to remember
what I have read.”
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Scenes of Reading: People of the Screen
“People of the screen:” “exhibit a bouncing/flicking behavior,
which sees them searching horizontally rather than
vertically....Users are promiscuous, diverse, and volatile.’”
“It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional
sense, indeed there are signs that new forms of ‛reading’ are
emerging as users ‛power browse’ horizontally through titles,
contents pages, and abstracts going for quick wins.”
“It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the
traditional sense.” (2008 British Library report)
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Scenes of Reading: People of the Screen
“Rather than reading deliberately, when we scan the
screen in search of content our eyes follow an Fshaped pattern, quickly darting across text in search of
the central nugget of information we seek.”
“‛Reading’ is not even the right word” to describe this
activity, [Jakob] Nielsen pointedly says.”
Does this disruptive, erratic, strategic mode of “reading”
(or power browsing) describe your habits?
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Scenes of Reading: People of the Page
With screen reading, “you are the master, not some dead author. And that
is precisely where the greatest dangers lie, because when reading, you
should not be the master”; you should be the student. “Surrendering to
the organizing logic of a book is, after all, the way one learns,” he
observes.” (Historian David Bell)
“You enter the author’s world on his terms, and in so doing get away from
yourself. Yes, you are powerless to change the narrative or the characters,
but you become more open to the experiences of others and, importantly,
open to the notion that you are not always in control. In the process, you
might even become more attuned to the complexities of family life, the
vicissitudes of social institutions, and the lasting truths of human nature.”
Rosen is suggesting that the passivity associated with reading is
actually a good thing. Does this sense of surrendering describe
your experiences with books? With all forms of print literacy?
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Critiquing the Kindle
•
•
•
•
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•
Prohibitively expensive
Can’t share ebooks with friends
“you have no sense of where you are in the book by its feel.”
“It doesn’t smell like a book”
It’s not marked by previous readers
“But it is at least worth noting that these tactile experiences [of the book]
have no counterpart when reading on the screen, and worth recalling that
for all our enthusiasm about the aesthetics of our technologies—our sleek
iPhones and iPods—we are quick to discount the same kind of
appreciation for printed words on paper.”
Rosen clearly values the tactile experiences of reading…are they
important?
What IS the tactility of screen reading?
Is it true that we don’t care about the aesthetics of the book?
People of the Screen
Christine Rosen
Critiquing the Kindle (Oh no, the children!)
Okay, now she’s talking about YOU: “Meanwhile, older children
and teens who are coming of age surrounded by cell phones, video
games, iPods, instant messaging, text messaging, and Facebook
have finely honed digital literacy skills, but often lack the ability to
concentrate that is the first requirement of traditional literacy.”
Is she getting this right? What kind of concentration does digital
literacy require?
In Defense of Readers
Mandy Brown
Looking and Reading
• Brown emphasized the “pre-reading ritual” of looking at a book
• This examination “eases the transition between looking and
reading”
• She gives a designer’s perspective
•
•
Using elements (illustrations, categories, links, summaries) to “create an
entryway” into reading
Emphasizing the beginning of the text through typographic signals
• She also addresses the reader’s attention
•
•
Designers should eliminate distractions (through typographic detail, line length,
typeface)
The reader’s attention fluctuates while reading
How does a designer’s view of reading, looking, and attention differ
from the other perspectives we’ve read?
In Defense of Readers
Mandy Brown
“As a designer, the only way to ensure that the page
makes for good reading is to read it yourself; to
relinquish the design sensibility that is inclined to
look at text and take the time to actually read it. It’s
not an easy task, but then, neither is reading on the
web, and making the effort may help you empathize
with the reader’s plight. The web is still a noisy,
crowded place—but it’s also limitless, and surely we
can find space enough for reading—a space where
the text speaks to the reader and the reader does
not strain to hear.”
Is there space for *reading* on the web? Or only
power browsing, scanning, skimming, distractions,
flashing ads, distractions….
Flat Screen Novels
Harold Augenbraum
The physical act of reading…
“When you read an e-book, you read from
edge to edge. When you read a printed
book, you read from the edge to the
interior, and then the interior to the edge,
again and again and again, a metaphor of
immersion.”
Does this difference matter?
Flat Screen Novels
Harold Augenbraum
The book as an unique object…
“Another difference is the lack of
uniqueness for the book as an object.…
Sure, your own Kindle is unique, but the
cover to the book never changes, and again
flattens the reading experience from a
unique physical experience with unique
content to the same physical experience
with unique content.”
How often is our reading actually a unique
physical experience?
With the rise of standardization comes
more opportunities for books to
become unique objects … aesthetic,
artistic objects.
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer
Su Blackwell
Su Blackwell
Su Blackwell
Su Blackwell
Su Blackwell
Su Blackwell
correspondences
Dan Visel
The book as unique object…
“you could argue that
Correspondences isn't a book:
a maroon band surrounds an
ingeniously constructed box
which, when unfolded, turns out
to contain three pamphlets
folded accordion-style and a
postcard.”
“The whole thing was printed
letterpress; it's a limited edition,
and each copy is signed by the
author.”
correspondences
Dan Visel
“The extraordinary form of the book is a
recognition that in an age when content
has become almost infinitely cheap an
object needs to stand out to be bought.”
correspondences
Dan Visel
(inter)active reading…
“At nine points in the story there are bracketed
numbers, indicating the points in the story where a
postcard is read or sent; the reader is invited to take
the postcard include and to compose a message to
be a part of the story, and possibly part of future
editions of the book. There's a lovely tension here
between the intent of the author and the wishes of
the collector: filling out the postcard and dropping it in
the mail destroys the unity of the book.”
correspondences
Dan Visel
(inter)active reading…
“While this book is very firmly an object, it's also
aware of itself as a process: while the writing and the
printing of the book has already happened, the
reader's response may yet happen. It's a book that
wouldn't have existed in this form if the web hadn't
changed our understanding of how books work.”
correspondences
Dan Visel
Interactions with the author…
“This empathy between the author and the reader is not empathy
as empathy is generally understood to exist between two
people: Rilke is of course dead and does not know the reader or
the suffering that the reader might be undergoing. The reader
may not even speak the same language as the author. Rilke is
not your friend and almost certainly would not cheer you up if he
were. But this is immaterial, the feeling still exists: the reader
knows Rilke even if Rilke does not know the reader….this sort of
response is perhaps why people describe themselves as having
a visceral connection with books: our terror of print being dead
isn't so much for the books themselves but for the associations
inherent in those physical objects, the sense of connection
with the author even if that connection is unreciprocated.”
correspondences
Dan Visel
Interactions with the author…are changing
“Greenman's work, like that of Johnson's before him, anticipates
a new kind of relation between the author and the reader. The
reworking of this relationship in increasingly varied ways will be
the most significant aspect of the way our reading changes as
it moves from the printed page to the networked screen.”
We’ve gone from the smell of books to new models of publishing
to the convenience of the Kindle to designing reader-friendly
spaces to…new relationships to authors.
What IS the most significant aspect of our new ways of reading?
Digital Literacy,
Digital Books
Final thoughts…
We waded through the key points of discussion surrounding e-readers,
digital books, digital literacy, the future of reading, and the dangers of
screen reading.
Beyond offering us these points of discussion (in addition to important
historical and cultural contexts), these readings are also models of
digital discourse. That is, they’re hyperlinked to images, videos, and
other texts; they actively encourage radial reading (some more than
others); two contain robust comment sections (including author
responses).
How do online critical essays differ from print articles in academic
journals or books?
How does critical discourse change in a digital environment?