Trust for Digital Reading
The readings and discussions around text and digital text have me doing a lot of self-reflection on my digital consumption of media. I embrace technology; I work with technology daily, and advocate its use within learning. The only area I personally haven’t fully converted from analog to digital is reading.
Looking to Music as an Example
Now when I think about music and why I made the conversion it’s obvious. I was able to have my complete collection of music with me at all times, and able to quickly listen to whatever I was looking for. Convenience and price changed my listening habits from CDs to digital audio. The one of the biggest hurdles was the shift from CDs to digital audio completely was DRM (Digital Rights Management). Originally when purchasing audio tracks from iTunes, the audio files were encrypted and could only be played on some players, and with specific software that was authorized. This walled garden meant your audio library wouldn’t easily play, or play at all on many personal players, home equipment etc. After some time Apple worked with the 5 major audio labels, and DRM was no longer shipped with music purchased from their online store. This means now if you choose to move your audio library to a different player, a different system, you are still able to play the audio files you payed money for. To me this makes me feel comfortable investing money in a product I know I will be able to use in the future, and not remain dependent on a closed system to access my files. Now with books many different types of eReaders exist, and work well with books, but don’t do such a good job representing textbooks with the same detail the physical copies do (tables, graphs, images etc.)
A Locked Ecosystem
The current state of books is even further behind when it comes to closed systems, and accessibility. Music and audio files are a method of preserving our past, the same way the written word in books; journals etc. are a record of our written history. What worries me with the digitization is the disappearance of the print version. I’m aware of the environmental aspects of printing, and the resources required, but think about accessibility for a moment. Many of the eBooks sold with DRM don’t allow transfer of ownership. This means after I finish a great novel, I can’t sell or even donate this book. For the person who can’t afford a brand new book hard or softcover, and could never justify the cost of purchasing a dedicated eReader has now lost access to a book they could have once been able to acquire second hand. This digital marketplace has just eliminated access to a potential source of information for someone. While the distribution with eBooks is dramatically a lot more simplified, its accessibility is now locked and limited. While libraries have been now allowed slowly to loan digital copies of books from certain publishers, this brings up the question, do you really own it the book if you buy it from a digital store or are just licensed to access the material? There have been several articles that point out errors where a book has been sold that actually didn’t have permission to be sold. Sometime after the purchase, the book in question was removed from all user devices without their consent. The real world equivalent to this would be the company essentially coming into your home without telling you, and taking back something you bought from them. This concept I assume doesn’t leave average consumer with much trust in this system of sale.
Digital Trust Issues
The ability to remove an item an item without your knowledge is one thing, but how about just editing. Maybe sometime after a work of literature is released, someone doesn’t agree with the author, or for some reason the text isn’t deemed appropriate. The ease to subtly change words after publication seems like an advantage for authors and publishers, but how can we be sure we are preserving information and history when our books now act more like a Wiki then a piece of preserved history. Words, sentences, paragraphs, complete chapters can be modified at whim, with or without the publishers/authors consent. This for me is a major trust issue when it comes to digital books/textbooks.
Future Hopes
Like all technologies I really hope this one can find a way to make it’s way to reach the most people possible. I see the benefits, and all the really great advantages of interactive eBooks over the static page, but for right now the best value I feel personally with books is one where I own the physical object, and I’m 100% certain that nothing in it has changed since I bought it, and I can hand it down from one generation of readers to the next without any issues or restrictions, and full cross platform ability between devices. I hope one day I will feel this confident with digital eBooks.
References/Resources:
Cambridge Forum radio broadcast: From Papyrus to Cyberspace, 1999 with James O’Donnell and James Engell.
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
FairPlay. (2015, May 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FairPlay&oldid=662772103
E-book. (2015, May 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=E-book&oldid=664433416
Relavent Article: Why 2024 Will Be Like Nineteen Eighty-Four How Amazon’s remote deletion of e-books from the Kindle paves the way for book-banning’s digital future. By Farhad Manjoo http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2009/07/why_2024_will_be_like_nineteen_eightyfour.html
Post Image: Johannes Jansson/norden.org [CC BY 2.5 dk (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/dk/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons
I like your comparison of purchasing online music, and digital text. It reminds me of the outrage when Apple sent out the U2 album entitled ‘ Songs of Innocence’ to the majority of iTunes users. Gasca (2015) talks about the distrust that iTunes users felt in his blog: “The error was in not understanding that a free product sample arrives by mail in our mailbox, not on the nightstand by our bed–while we are sleeping.” This is similar to what you mentioned about the feelings of readers when their digital books just disappeared off of devices simply because purchasing rights had not been followed.
I remember a time when people left books in airports and coffee shops for others to pick up and read. You could even include your email address and hope to track the book as it traveled to different locations throughout the world. Now that we have digital text, as you say, we cannot even really call the book our own, let alone share it.
In his online article, Holmes (2014) discusses the loss of the iPod classic and the feeling of losing your “personal music library”. He states that everything is now in the cloud, and has become disposable.
When Kobos and Kindles first came out, many of my friends where completely sold on the idea of having all of their books on one small device that you could carry with you at all times. As you stated Digital Rights Management (DRM) controls many of these purchased books, and has created a more regulated book exchange. DRM also limits the ability to alter text, which makes it very frustrating for those with dyslexia or low vision. In some cases, print books are making a comeback!
Thanks for the post!
Gasca , P Flawed Freebie: Apple’s U2 Stunt Serves as a Cautionary Tale Retrieved (June 3, 2015) from: http://www.inc.com/peter-gasca/apple-strikes-out-with-free-music-download.html
Holmes, D (2014)Why the outrage over Apple’s U2 stunt is good news for the future of music Retreived from: http://pando.com/2014/09/15/why-the-outrage-over-apples-u2-stunt-is-good-news-for-the-future-of-music/
Hi
There are very valuable notes in your blog that can be used by eBooks providers to make their books better. I also think that the way information is evolving and the speed the information is changing at requires a dynamic container “book” that changes with it. Most of our data is online and accessed by our smart devices. Having our eBooks within the same environment is very helpful. We can share, group read, write notes, add, cretic…etc.
Interesting points Lynn, Nidal and Daniel.
I’ve head many arguments against digital music but I have to admit I hadn’t considered the complications associated with e-books. For example, when one passes away, music libraries are often officially non-transferable. The same can be said with the new streaming music system and could be argued for e-books. As people have said before, consumers are losing the right to resell and/or inherit but also a degree of control.
This was an interesting (non-academic) article found on the Verge regarding DRMs. Found on http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/5/8737537/apple-music-and-the-terrible-return-of-drm
One comment that surprised me was when it was mentioned that e-books are not easily customized for those with dyslexia (broad term) and low vision. I was always under the impression that printed ink is not very customizable but with an e-book reader, one has the ability to change the look of the book. Perhaps each system allows for different customizations much like iOS vs Android?
As one researcher mentioned, if customizations like line spacing, contrast, typeface, font size and background than they can minimize visual discomfort and for facilitating the visual part of the reading process for dyslexic, partially sighted and non-impaired users as well (Schiavo, 2014).
Thanks for discussing this topic. It certainly pertains to Ong’s belief makes the that writing is completely artificial. There is no way to write naturally and the inclusion of e-books adds to his thought.
::: Matt
References
Ong, Walter. (1982.) Orality and literacy: The technologizing of the word. London: Methuen.
Schiavo, G., Buson V. (2014). Interactive e-Books to Support Reading Skills in Dyslexia. Workshop on Interactive e-Books for Children, IDC 2014 (Aarhus, Denmark)
I think that the topic you raise brings up the issue that literacy externalizes knowledge and makes it an independent entity separate from the author (Ong, 1982) and similarly audio recording makes music and lyrics separate from the composer. Perhaps the the digital version of the book which cannot be resold or donated brings back the transfer of knowledge to its more organic form which is similar to the oral form. After all, one cannot resell or donate the words of another. At the same time, no-one is stopping readers from retelling the stories they read to others or citing them in further writing. Perhaps during the short period in history since the invention of the printing press, we have been disillusioned into believing hat we own the physical object of knowledge that we buy in a book when in fact it was never really our stop begin with.
Great read Daniel, I remember those DRM days, that was not long ago. They have all but disappeared. The music industry must have gone through a revolution in how it earns money. The DRM days I feel represented a time period when they tried to preserve their way of life through DRM and restricting access / combating piracy. Remember the epic battle between Napster and Metallica? Remember the fan revolt? I still remember Lars Ullrich’s sarcastic smirk on video questioning why their own fans feel they are entitled to their music for free! Personally, I do not remember when I last purchased an album or paid for a song. I believe the last album I purchased was U2 Rattle and Hum. And I do not think I ever purchased a song. Sadly, I stream all my music online. However, do go to a lot of concerts and that is where I feel the music industry has concentrated their earning efforts. They release a song and video, put it on Youtube for free, I watch it and buy a ticket for their concert. This is quite the paradigm shift them their old ways of doing business.
I feel the same thing is happening to books. Give it a few years and lets see where we stand.
Many of the Post #1’s question have been about whether the digital media will replace books. I guess one can point the effects of digital media on CD’s and link that to books. This debate will never end. Regardless of that outcome, perhaps books are going through a similar paradigm shift in that way that they make money. eBooks and iBook systems are restrictive. They rarely allow you to print or even screen-capture parts of their books despite the fact that you can easily photocopy parts of a real book. I find these rules and regulations as frustrating as DRM was back in the day. However I understand that publishers are simply trying to protect their own interests. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in a few years, especially with this new movement of open textbooks, open education and open information such as MIT Opencourseware programs.
Hi Daniel,
Like, you I have not fully embraced all digital formats either, even though I use newer technologies daily. In the Cambridge forum, O’Donnell mentions that new technologies, which create new forms of democratization, also create new lines of exclusion. He states that as new people access power, new people are excluded from power. It relates to some of the points you made.
Your example of the ebooks is a good one. It demonstrates that more people are able to self-publish ebooks, and are able to sell them. However, due to the technology, the restrictions you mention, DRM, have limited access. Another impact of ebooks that I noticed, which is impacting students is that ebooks are less expensive than the print versions. However at the end of a semester students are not able to sell their ebooks, as they were able to do with the hard copy book. Also I have noticed that some publishers (like Jones & Bartlett) limited access to their interactive ebooks for a particular time period. Again that limits the access to the information, which students have already paid for.
But on the flip side due to the increased access for publishing, has impacted the open text initiatives. The costs to produce the open text is absorbed by institutions, or for example in the case of the BC Campus open text project, it is funded by the government.