So what will Wi-Fi and the TabletPC mean to newspapers? Steve Outing takes a perspicacious look in his August 28 column for Editor and Publishing.
The TeleRead take: Back in the early 1990s TeleRead was advocating small tablet machines that could be used not just for books but for a variety of purposes–full-fledged computers that could work with a well-stocked national digital library system. Such a system isn’t online yet. And tablet technology at a TeleRead level isn’t as cheap as it could be. But the TabletPC, which also vindicates Roger Fidler, who was in this area as far back as 1981, certainly is coming close in terms of performance. Wi-Fi will just add more oomph. You’ll be able to download books almost instantly, as needed, if you’re in Wi-Fi hotspots such as Starbucks or airports. Or in your own home with a Wi-Fi network.
Along with this speed and convenience, however, will come some important intellectual property issues–since book-swapping will be easier than ever. TeleRead would help address these questions by providing ways to track the popularity of individual titles, so that publishers could be paid either by readers or from a national digital library fund, depending on the title. If Wi-Fi became ubiquitous and affordable enough, even low-income schoolchildren could use the technology to share copies of their favorite e-books. They would not need to worry about home telephone connections, DSL or cable modems.
What’s more, to return to the topic of newspapers, imagine the possibilities of using the same infrastructure for papers to collect payments for reading of individual articles. Thousands of newspapers could participate in this common payment system. It would not carry the same baggage as a system from one company such as Microsoft. Of course, let’s hope that advertising will keep pay-per-read to a minimum. But if we must have it, then let’s reduce the amount of money going to middlemen.
