BOOKSTONE CONCEPT
The Bookstone concept embraces the now with a weather eye on the future. It provides a cultural bridge between the love of a good paper book and the speed and utility of digital data transfer. Much of the old tactile experience is present, with new and engaging additions that clearly signify this as the next logical step. Bookstones allow us access to the world’s library and the freedom to share not only our favorite books but our thoughts, as well.
FORM
The Bookstone concept is comprised of five distinct facets:
- Traditional hardcopy books, as we know and love them.
- Digital books (e-books), existing solely as data in the electronic medium.
- Digital reader unit (DRU), fully connected to the internet, cloud, and personal data devices. Capable of much more than simple reproduction of text. Designed to display e-books, bookstone content, web content, etc. Contains modest memory and computing capacity for basic features.
- Personal archive unit (PAU), a module designed to work with any digital reader. This unit expands the functionality of the base reader unit by adding iPod-like, open-ended capability. Enables use of apps and further leveraging of reader unit technology beyond the simple “book experience.”
- Bookstones, discrete units containing both read-only content (i.e. the book) and flash memory for user-interactive content (i.e. notes, highlights, hypertext links, audio/visual content, etc.). Content may only be accessed by plugging bookstone into reader unit or adapter dongle for other devices (such as a personal computer or netbook).
So how does this “bookstone” work, exactly?
People read all manner of different things: paperback novels, hardcover books, periodicals, textbooks – the list is nearly endless. Therefore, it would be impractical to assume that one DRU form factor would suit all reading experiences. Therefore, the bookstone concept integrates total freedom to choose your own DRU(s) to suit your own preferences. DRU’s could be the size of a pocket novel, bound in leather and attractive brass. They could be magazine- or newspaper-sized, shaped like a textbook, or even a small tablet as in the Kindle. They could be manufactured by any company, from any material, to suit any taste.
The DRU are designed to interface with both bookstones and personal archive units. The interface, much like USB or IDE connectors, would be standardized worldwide, thus allowing any bookstone or personal archive to be used with any DRU.
The PAU is a small device, designed to slip into a pocket. It may have a screen and/or controls to allow access to some basic functions, but the form factor must remain very small. Think of this as the “brain” of the bookstone concept. It contains all of your personal data, apps, digital books, notes, etc. It would be plugged into the DRU, via the appropriate dock, or into any other device with a suitable dongle. Any company may produce the PAU, thus opening up the field for innovation and consumer choice. The only constant would be the standardized data interface format. Publisher-provided e-book content would be sequestered from other data, preventing transfer, copying, or redistribution of the e-book.
Bookstones are small, durable units that contain fully-formatted digital books, likely along with other associated metadata such as reference links, video, study guides – the possibilities are endless. The bookstone also contains flash memory to enable users to store their own content on a given bookstone, such as layers of margin notes, highlights of book text, hypertext links to external content, etc. Thus each bookstone develops its own discrete history as it is used, sold, traded, and shared.
SENSUAL
When the paper book was invented, it quickly surpassed the scroll as the medium of choice for storing and disseminating text around the world. It is likely that some scholars and other users of scrolls preferred the “old way of doing things” and, perhaps, continued using and collecting scrolls for the rest of their natural lives. This in no way devalues the book as a technology, but does illuminate our current shift from the hardcopy book to a digital medium.
Some tactile changes are to be expected, and where we may lose many of the old tactile and sensual experiences we associate with books, the new paradigm will bring with it a host of other experiences that will, in time, hold the same associations for us with the pleasure of reading. Whereas before we may have loved the smell of paper pages, the crisp turn of the page, or the heavy solidity of a real book in our hands, we as a culture will in time come to love the haptic experiences of the bookstone concept as the old associations find new expression.
The vast variety of DRU form factors available enables users to completely personalize their reading experience. If the user is an “old-school” book lover, they may favor a personal DRU that closely resembles a book, with “bound” cover and screens with textured nano-coating resembling paper. Forward-looking users might embrace stainless steel tablets, or totally new form factors such as head-mounted laser displays or AR interfaces.
The bookstone itself might be thought of as the primary new addition to the sensual reading experience. For the purposes of this concept challenge it is assumed that the bookstone would be a small rounded stone, with pleasing weight and surface texture. It could just as easily be a stick, wedge, tab, or button – final standardization of the data interface architecture would ultimately dictate form factor constraints, but one need only look to the current market of USB “thumb drives” to see that endless variation is possible. Imagine lending a friend a handful of bookstones, or carrying a reading selection as a pocket of slick pebbles. Each book might have its own bookstone design, much like traditional books have cover art or are made with different materials. Distinct design allows for easy identification and selection of a particular bookstone from a collection. It would follow that collectors might have an array of different options, from the cheapest plastic disposables to fine editions made from high-end materials.
ECOSYSTEM
There will always be a market for the traditional printed word. Readers love books, and low-tech is sometimes the best for certain uses and situations. This said, the business of the bound book is changing swiftly. It is now possible to order, print, and ship books-on-demand, as opposed to the traditional publishing paradigm of large scale production runs. Brick-and-mortar booksellers are suffering as more and more readers turn to online sources for their reading materials.
The bookstone concept seeks to revitalize the ecosystem of the bookseller and provide comfortable niches in the market for online sellers, franchise sellers, and mom-and-pop stores. A typical book purchase might consist of any or all of the following:
• Traditional paper book – Buy a book, get the e-book free as an optional instant point-of-purchase download to your PAU. This allows a user to have the hard copy book and the electronic version, thus allowing the reader to annotate their copy within the bookstone system while keeping their hard copy pristine (or, of course, annotate and share the hard copy as is their preference).
• Bookstone – Buy a bookstone, get the e-book for free as an optional instant point-of-purchase download to their PAU. Since users are not able to redistribute or copy e-book content from the PAU, publishers do not lose revenue by providing the free e-book. Some bookstones might even contain entire collections or series of books for a higher price.
• E-book – The digital version of the book would be less expensive than the hard copy or the bookstone, could be purchased and downloaded online, and would automatically pre-qualify the user to purchase the hard copy and/or bookstone version later at a discounted price, should they change their mind. Users are able to delete e-books from their PAU when they are done reading them, if they choose to do so. This would generate further revenue from favorite titles and also provide a very distinct, real-world indicator of a title’s true popularity amongst the reading public.
• Full package – includes hard copy, bookstone, and e-book for a premium price. The ultimate collector experience! Allows total freedom to collect, annotate, share, and gift books.
By introducing modern, attractive products (bookstone, PAU, DRU) into the ecosystem of the book, consumers are driven back to the brick-and-mortar seller. Users will want to get a feel for DRU’s from different manufacturers, browse through books (hard copy or bookstone), and generally partake of the “bookstore experience” that the current e-book selling model does not facilitate.
SOCIAL
Readers of books often find ways to enhance their enjoyment or understanding of a book by discussing and sharing it with other readers. Some people collect books as a hobby, reference library, or in the course of their learning or business. Book clubs turn the act of reading into a directly social event, formalizing their discussions and enjoyment of their hobby. Many have incorporated modern technologies into this practice with blogs, forums, mailing lists, and social networking. Many readers simply share their books with friends or with other students, in the case of textbooks and reference materials. The bookstone concept not only encourages these practices to continue, but in fact adds infinite layers of meaning to all social interactions around the written word.
The bookstone concept enables users to annotate their own copies of a book (any format) and save/copy this “user-generated content” to a DRU. This saved content can then be shared, posted online, or otherwise disseminated. Multiple users can add content to a single bookstone, for example a textbook that passes through a number of students’ hands. Furthermore, user content could be shared and layered, so groups of readers might have running commentary and content accessible by the group while they are reading their own copies of a given title.
RITUAL
Variety in the DRU and PAU markets would allow consumers to tailor their reading experience to suit their own personal reading rituals. A typical reader might use small tablet-style DRU’s for interstitial reading during the workday or their commutes; a larger, periodical format DRU for at-home reading of magazines or newspapers, and a leather-bound DRU for their nightly before-bed reading. Children might use large-format, durable-design DRU’s for reading and learning. College students might have larger, multi-purpose DRU’s for homework and reference reading.
The bookstone plays a large part in the ritual of reading and book collection. Small, durable bookstones develop their own unique patina of age over time, and the user content stored within becomes a living legacy of the book’s path from hand to hand. User content available on the web would allow celebrities, authors, or prominent personalities to post their own notes and associated content, thus enriching the everyday reader’s appreciation of a book. Bookstones act as a connector between the static text of the book and the infinite universe of context surrounding that title.
