I was extremely pleased to participate in the Internet Archive’s BookServer announcement and press event. (The Register has the best coverage, but also see CNET and ReadWriteWeb).
Our part of this open ecosystem is Ibis Reader, an in-development digital reading system for a range of internet devices that provides access to books both online and offline. Like Bookworm, it provides ePub support and a traditional web interface. But I’m really excited about its unique features:
- A total commitment to giving readers what they want.
- For platforms that support it, HTML5 offline storage. This means that when you’re not connected, your library is still available. Other web-enabled devices will also work but must be online (Google Gears also supported).
- A mobile web architecture, allowing new devices running iPhone OS, Android, or Palm webOS to be immediately supported. (And no App Store censorship.)
- All of the cross-device syncing and bookmarking that customers are coming to expect from multi-platform reading systems. Start reading on your iPhone and pick up where you left off on your computer.
- A great shopping experience with no DRM. Ibis Reader uses the BookServer ecosystem to help you find, download, and buy books, and none of the books we sell will have DRM. Guaranteed.
- Ebook portability means that all your DRM-free library can be exported out of the “cloud” and onto any device that supports ePub.
- For publishers, an attractive revenue split, real-time sales reporting, and help with getting into the BookServer ecology.
We’re not launching for several months, but we’ll be posting updates as we get closer. It was exciting to demo an early version of the reading client at the BookServer event, and it’s only going to get better.
