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From printed books to e-books: (cultural) costs and benefits

From printed books to e-books: (cultural) costs and benefits. Gino Roncaglia Università della Tuscia. An (almost) reassuring view. printed book and e-text are natural allies. An (almost) reassuring view. Printed books offer: best reading experience unsurpassed ergonomics

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From printed books to e-books: (cultural) costs and benefits

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  1. From printed books to e-books: (cultural) costs and benefits Gino Roncaglia Università della Tuscia Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  2. An (almost) reassuring view... printed book and e-text are natural allies... Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  3. An (almost) reassuring view... • Printed books offer: • best reading experience • unsurpassed ergonomics • physical durability (under conditions) • well-established models for rights management • ‘trusted’ source Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  4. An (almost) reassuring view... • E-texts offer: • tools for text manipulation, analysis, search, encoding… • easy distribution and duplication • few physical constraints • digital durability (under conditions) • multimedia integration Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  5. An (almost) reassuring view... ...the pros of one medium are often the cons of the other Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  6. An (almost) reassuring view... a recent (interesting) example... Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  7. The e-book threat... ? e-books seem both to stem from and to threaten this alliance Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  8. What is an e-book? • Four wrong or only partial answers • e-book = electronic text of a book • e-book = electronic text simulating the layout of a book • e-book = portable reading device • e-book = oxymoron Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  9. What is an e-book? • To get a ‘good’ e-book we need • electronic text (encoded, marked-up and with added metadata) • user-friendly (hardware) reading device • user friendly (software) reading interface Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  10. Is the e-book a threat? • the e-book is a challenge to the ergonomic perfection of printed books • the e-book aims to be an evolution of our (book-centered) cultural tradition • if the ergonomic challenge is won, the e-book might actually pose a threat to printed books (not to books as cultural media) Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

  11. Is the e-book a threat? • But there is a real threat: the de-objectification of the book • due to the fluidity of electronic texts (and hypertexts) • due to the perspective of web-based e-books • due to software obsolescence • due to ‘turn-it-into-ebook’ tools • (most important) due to ‘rent-a-book’ policies of Digital Rights Management (DRM) Book? Roncaglia - Roma, 17 novembre 2003

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