Kindle thoughts/questions

You ask interesting questions, but way too many for a Monday morning
(for me at least). Might I suggest that you turn this into a "Monday
Morning Kindle Question" and ask one question a week for the next
several weeks. You will probably get more response and better
response as the group will be able to digest the questions and
discussion in smaller chunks.

I have a KindleDX and CALI is experimenting with ebooks, authoring and
open access materials in law - all of these issues are inter-related.
I don't know exactly how they will play out. I have a pretty good
idea what I WANT to happen - here are some goals...

1 - let faculty create exactly what they want for their students.

2 - let students decide how they want to get the content (paper,
ebook, various forms)

3 - let education be the goal, not profit - these are not necessarily
mutually exclusive, but be careful about letting one override the
other.

4 - build a sustainable system for the above.

John

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Andrew
Plumb-Larrick<calarrick@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> A few folks suggested that this group might have further thoughts about
> Kindles and other readers in the context of law school and university
> technical infrastructures.
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Andrew Larrick <cap95@case.edu>
> Date: Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 4:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [cssis-l] Faculty with Kindles in law schools - survey results
> To:
> Cc: AALL Computing Services SIS <cssis-l@aallnet.org>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Since Lyo's quick survey, and discussion regarding recent CALI and upcoming
> ALA sessions, I've been spending a good amount of attention to e-readers and
> what they may come to mean to our library users.  At Case we debated
> acquiring a couple of Kindles in the "load up and lend" model earlier this
> spring, but rejected the idea on the grounds that we didn't really have a
> business case based on the content available at the time.  We may reconsider
> in the future.
>
> The radical thing here is the untethering of digital texts from the
> networked PC (the subsidized cellular wireless is a big brand advantage of
> Amazon/Kindle, but the point is that compared to reading something on the
> Web it is still a non-continuous connection).  Unless we instead end up with
> a truly ubiquitous, fast, free, universal, seamless wireless network in the
> near future (which seems less likely for multiple technical, economic, and
> social reasons) I would expect that portable devices that can 'carry' an
> un-tethered digital version will be an important part of text and reading
> 'going digital' any time soon (whether through dedicated digital-ink devices
> or not).  I'd put the likelihood that the "flip" will happen soon moderately
> high.
>
> Suppose that what we are seeing now follows the pattern set with music,
> movies, digital photography -- i.e. the digital form of the medium goes
> through something of a slow build for a number of years ( already far more
> than a few for text, of course), there's a lot of skepticism, the economic
> sense of the transition gradually appears to key participants, and then when
> a critical mass is reached the "flip" to digital dominance is very rapid.
> If so, in a very few years we may see most personal, consumer, book
> consumption "gone digital" and the analog medium reduced to a niche product