October 12, 1998
New file standard should give electronic books a boost
By Bob O'Donnell
As we move toward a more information-based way of life, lots of effort is going into
delivering information as efficiently as possible. Personal computers are, of course, one
obvious result. But there has been a movement toward dedicated information display (as
opposed to creation) products as well.
In the consumer market, set-top Internet terminals such as Microsoft's WebTV are one
such example. Now digital (or electronic) books are poised to make their mark on both the
consumer and enterprise markets as well. As I discussed in a previous column (see "Is the
world ready for digital books?"), the concept of an electronic book is appealing,
but several important technological challenges need to be overcome if electronic books are
to make a significant mark on the information access market.
Last week, at the first-ever Electronic Book 98 conference, one important hurdle was
overcome with the announcement of a new electronic book content standard that is being
endorsed by Microsoft. The new file format, called the Open eBook content structure
standard, is based primarily on the technology developed by SoftBook Press -- makers of the SoftBook. That
company's technology, in turn, is based on HTML 3.2 with certain previously proprietary
extensions specifically designed for electronic books. In addition, the company has been
working toward migrating the format to Extensible Markup Language (XML), and that
development will continue under the rubric of the Open eBook standard.
According to SoftBook representatives, the standard will be published by Microsoft free
of charge and is expected to be available by the end of this year. The new technology
standard is not tied to Windows CE, they pointed out, nor to any of Microsoft's other
operating systems. However, with the publication of an open standard, I'm sure we can look
forward to eBook reader applications for all those platforms, as well as lots of others,
such as the PalmPilot.
On one hand, the timing of the standard announcement is apropos: None of the previously
announced electronic book products have begun to ship yet, although SoftBook said it would
make its first few units available at the Agenda conference later this month. But it's a
bit awkward, too, in that the first version of the SoftBook, NuvoMedia's Rocket eBook, and
Everybook products are nearing completion and probably won't have full support for the new
standard when they first ship.
SoftBook representatives were quick to point out that the standard will be backward
compatible both with SoftBook's own standard as well as the generic HTML format that is
being used in Rocket eBook
so that no one will be penalized for buying early. Because the Everybook electronic book is based on the more
graphically rich PDF format, however, this new standard might cause a problem for
Everybook.
Having an accepted standard should be a good incentive for publishers, however, who
were undoubtedly uneasy with the thought of having to convert their content into several
possible standards. In fact, this is the most important aspect of the announcement,
because it will undoubtedly lead to faster adoption of the eBook format. (To be honest,
though, I still think the readability of the devices will be an even more important factor
in their success or failure than the number of titles that are available.)
In addition, to make electronic books a success in the enterprise market -- which most
of the companies are specifically targeting -- easy, affordable content publishing (or
conversion) tools must support the Open eBook standard. SoftBook has announced tools of
this sort, which is a step in the right direction, but I think a few of them need to be
available before eBooks have a chance of making a big impact in business.
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Copyright 1998, by InfoWorld Publishing Corp., a
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