Why Amazon's Kindle Should Use Open Standards 315
Tim O'Reilly wrote in Forbes a while back that he thinks the Kindle only has another two or three years of life left, unless Amazon wises up and embraces open standards. He came to this conclusion, in part, because of his experience deciding how to publish documents on the web back in the mid-1990s.
"You see, I'd recently been approached by the folks at the Microsoft Network. They'd identified O'Reilly as an interesting specialty publisher, just the kind of target that they hoped would embrace the Microsoft Network (or MSN, as it came to be called). The offer was simple: Pay Microsoft a $50,000 fee plus a share of any revenue, and in return it would provide this great platform for publishing, with proprietary publishing tools and file formats that would restrict our content to users of the Microsoft platform. The only problem was we'd already embraced the alternative: We had downloaded free Web server software and published documents using an open standards format. That meant anyone could read them using a free browser. While MSN had better tools and interfaces than the primitive World Wide Web, it was clear to us that the Web's low barriers to entry would help it to evolve more quickly, would bring in more competition and innovation, and would eventually win the day."
Re:I wouldn't publish on Kindle if it was Open (Score:5, Funny)
If you keep your work as the internet's best kept secret, that's great by me!
Re:I wouldn't publish on Kindle if it was Open (Score:5, Funny)
57. Here [lightandmatter.com] is the list.
Apparently he guessed wrong.
Lame (Score:4, Funny)
when the first iPod came out, it was the smallest player with the highest capacity
Not true at all. It had less space than a Nomad!
And no wireless!!
Re:Some things... (Score:5, Funny)
You pay 10$ in gas to drive to the library? What do you drive? A Hummer h2?
You are just an anti-electron bigot. :-) (Score:3, Funny)
A sweet smelling rose bush is worth a $1 to me, for sure. But do you have the right to ask me for $1 to enjoy that rose bush?
If it is my bush, I do. Otherwise, grow your own.
The real question is should we continue to pretend that nonmaterial productions should count as property
Or, you might say, how long do we pretend that just because something doesn't have a mass, it doesn't mean its free. People invest in, create, store, protect, and attempt to trade digital works just as much as any physical work. Of course its real....
And really, while we are at it, just because something is represented by electron states doesn't mean that it is any less real than something that is represented by a more giant assembly of atoms and molecules. You just worship that neutron and proton, don't you. No matter what we little electrons do, spin, absorb photons, spit them out.. you just want to sit there with your buddy the big stupid neutron that doesn't do anything. Ever notice in Physics, that they don't have "neutron volts"... why, it's electron volts. Geez, wonder why that is. That's because neutrons are lazy. Oh we will just hang out and let the protons and electrons makes the atom do all of its interesting stuff. We'll just be stupid mass distorting spacetime and being useless. Let the electrons do all the work..Yeah, you go hang out with your "real" neutron buddies.
SIGNED,
SOB SOB SOB
ELECTRON
PS.. I GAVE UP MY LAST PHOTON FOR YOU, AND NOW i AM JUST THE LOWEST SHELL!
Re:Some things... (Score:3, Funny)