Links of interest this morning:
—Delays in production of the OLPC laptop, from Wayan Vota at OLPC News. He remains upbeat on the project’s long-term prospects despite competition from companies such as Asustek and skepticism from some policymakers.
–MobileRead’s .epub poll and accompanying discussion. Participants are focusing on the nuts and bolts. The IDPF would do well to serve up practical information and promote open source software for creation and reading of .epub files. In a related vein, publishers should toss serious money in the direction of the IDPF rather than letting Adobe dominate the financing. I agree with Evan Schnittman that publishers can enjoy an upper hand in relations with tech companies. I hope Adobe fares well with Digital Editions, but .epub also needs alternatives such as the open source FBReader—a viable project that might benefit from more resources from book publishers or maybe even a MacArthur- or Soros-style foundation if publishers don’t come through. Yes, I know. There’s the DRM issue. But .epub should be for all publishers, not just those insistent on DRM.
—Danish record label floats flat ISP fee idea for unlimited P2P music, in Ars Technica. Applicable someday to e-books? Also in Ars: Teachers’ lack of fair use education hinders learning, sets bad example.
