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To: chaz who wrote (15881)	1/22/2000 12:12:00 PM
From: erickerickson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

GMST - e-books, newspapers and the cost of paper and electronic ink. About the look-and-feel of paper. An article in "Science News" some time ago was about making ink "re-configurable". Now, this technology is nowhere near ready to market, but I can imagine "intelligent ink" that could reorder itself on command to be the a page of a book or newspaper. While such a device would undoubtedly be fatter than a sheet of paper, it might work out. About publishing costs. As I remember, when I was working on the editorial system for the Chicago Tribune, the cost of paper was roughly 40% of costs. I don't remember (and my memory isn't what it used to be, anybody else out there with any other data? What about the cost of printing books?) whether that was just the raw cost of the newsprint or included financing and running the printing plant. The point is there's a powerful incentive for newspapers to move to a paperless delivery system. I've thought for years that it would be useful to have a configurable newspaper. Say three levels of news 1> all the headlines of "major importance", as defined by the editors. 2> all the news that some person (say particular editors or reporters) thinks is important. 3> all the news that mentions whatever I'm interested in. This could be continuously updated via cell phones in metropolitan areas or downloaded over the net to my personal device. If the device could have "smart ink" on top of it, then being tied to my computer to read the newspaper would no longer be a problem and the print would be much, much easier to read. Picture a thick clipboard that would be your e-book/newspaper displaying something close to a printed page. Picture lots and lots and lots of trees left standing (little green pitch here). Anyway, a bit of musing on where this could go. Definitely a bit of technology that's a few years out. Still keeping up with my list Erick

To: chaz who wrote (15881)	1/24/2000 9:34:00 AM
From: Mike 2.0	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 54805

Chaz, re ebooks. Academic textbooks are insanely profitable for publishers. And rarely does the "new" edition have any more useful or meaningful content than the "old" one. But students must pony up the $$ for required course texts. You can expect the publishers to fight the ebooks concept kicking and screaming every inch of the way. They will not give up their cash cow without a fight. It almost seems they would have veto power over such an idea since they own the proprietary content.