Epublishing

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KBleivik
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Epublishing

Post by KBleivik »

There are different ways to publish content on the internet. In this short article, we restrict ePublishing to publishing eBooks and eMagazines.

Adobe PDF (password protected) documents are one way to publish documents online in a portable format. If you want to sell books online, you have a greater problem. Software can be digitally signed and so can Adobe PDF files, but that is not the problem. The problem is that it is very easy to distribute the book or magazine to other people by sending them the password to the book.

In addition Adobe has AdobePress.

On that page they write

<cite>
Adobe Press is a world leader in high-quality books for visual communicators and the official source of training materials for Adobe software. Best known for the best-selling Classroom in a Book series, Adobe Press publishes instructional and inspirational books at all learning levels. Whether you're a Creative Suite user, or into Adobe Production Studio, or you design Web sites using Dreamweaver and Flash, we have you covered.

Classroom in a Book: The best-selling series of hands-on software training books.
Studio Techniques: The definitive guides to mastering essential features.
How-To's: Boost your skills easily, one terrific step at a time.
Real World: Industrial-strength production techniques for design professionals.
Training From the Source: Self-paced, hands-on books for people who learn best by doing.
Adobe Press books are published, marketed, and distributed by Peachpit Press.
</cite>

Who is Peachpit Press. Can you and I do it like Adobe does it? Can we publish our books via a third party? Yes, if we are accepted, we can. Sometimes this is against the democratic nature of the internet. We want to take control over the process ourself. We want to sell what we publishes on our own site. In some countries, there is an publishing mafia, that is very difficult to come around. It is not important who you are or what background you have. It is more important who they believe you are and what network you have. One of the worst stories I know of is one where a respected scientist in nonlinear, fractal an chaotic mathematics was constantly rejected from publishing in a magazine. He started his own, that today is, one of the most respected, and I think more respected than the magazine that denied him access to their magazine. The freedom to publish is correlated with the freedom to learn.

Is there a method to prevent other users from getting the book? The ideal is that a book can only be read by one person at the same time. If we sell eBooks or eMagazines online, will k digital books be sold to n readers, wher k << n? That is most often the problem with digital goods that are sold online.

A new concept, introduced by Ted Nelson has emerged on the internet, transcopyright:

"The on-line copyright problem may be resolvable by a simple, sweeping permission method. This proposed system, which anyone may use, allows broad re-use of materials in exchange for automatic tracking of ownership. Payment goes to the original publisher and credit to the original author. Nothing is misquoted, nothing is out of context (since the original context is immediately available), and users are not spied upon".


Related link:
Generalized Links, Micropayment and Transcopyright

Is that the way to do it?

Or is there other ways to do it? Is there a way to identify an online shopper like you identify an person in a real shop?

OpenID is a free way to use a digital identity accross the internet. Is that the way to do it? Shall the eShopper first sign up with such an ID before he buys the book? How secure is that? You can of course give away your ID and may be sign up again for a new one n times? Who will do that so that another person can save 10 or 20 dollars? Is that the way to go? Combine an digital Identity with a password secured eBook in PDF or another format?

Example:
Here is a site with Norwegian text and a password protected PDF eBook.

http://home.no/kjellbleivik/

Click on the left menu link "Hele diktsamlingen."

So my proposal is:

Combine a Digital Identity + A password protected file + PayPal (or another online Payment method).

Related links:
http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

http://safari.informit.com/home

http://www.docbook.org/

http://www.openebook.org/

http://www.idpf.org/

http://www.webproworld.com/ecommerce-di ... post350122

Related book:
Merc Mercuri (latest edition): "Beginning Information Cards and CardSpace: From Novice to Professional"

http://www.apress.com/book/view/1590598075

Qote from the book's page:

"If you work at all with Internet-facing solutions, you know that the lack of an identity metasystem is a critical vulnerability in the design. Various consortiums have worked to define a system of identitya platform-agnostic way of communicating and validating claims of identity. If you work with identity solutions or structures, you will find Beginning Information Cards and CardSpace: From Novice to Professional essential to understanding and successfully implementing CardSpace solutions.

Topics range from fundamental discussion of identityincluding identity concepts, laws of identity, and the identity metasystemto comprehensive coverage of Windows CardSpace. Youll learn what CardSpace is all about, where you can and should use it, and how you would implement it. Additionally, multiple case studies showcase different scenarios where the technology is employed."
Kjell Gunnar Bleivik
Make it simple, as simple as possible but no simpler: | DigitalPunkt.no |

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