An unexpected case for Open Media
January 27, 2008 – 9:36 am by Mur LaffertyBoingBoing reports about a rotting Detroit book depository (I’d post a pic here, but they’re listed as no unauthorized use). It is a poster child for urban decay. As a writer I look at the millions of words rotting away, all the work that went into those books, and how tragic it is that they’re decaying.
But on the other hand, I realize as we move toward putting more of our content into digital media, this doesn’t have to happen. Honestly, even though I’m releasing Playing For Keeps via PDF issues, I’m not a huge fan of ebooks yet – they’re just not for me. I might be interested in the Kindle except for the DRM associated with it (and the fact that you pay to subscribe to blogs), but I am a still a die hard book lover. But I do acknowledge that every day we put more content online, which means the words will likely never be lost.
(And if we share them via open media, it’s virtually guaranteed they’ll never be lost!)
One Response to “An unexpected case for Open Media”
While I agree about e-books in general, an open format, like the PDFs you are using for PfK, are not limited to crummy electronic readers. I can print those out on my duplex printer, in booklet format, and have a nice series of pocket sized chapter length booklets. The potential for print on demand (setting aside any possible sore feelings for the moment) has still barely been tapped. So I agree in terms of increasing access and improving the odds of works surviving despite these sorts of tragedies.
On the flip side, long term archival storage of digital media still presents its own issues. Format compatibility over time, long term viability of different physical storage media, et. al.
By Thomas on Jan 27, 2008