- Crackpot tech: Virtual worlds
- Crackpot tech: Enterprise supercomputing
- Crackpot tech: Direct brain interfaces
- Crackpot tech: The $100 laptop
- Crackpot tech: Wireless power
- Crackpot tech: Pervasive computing
- Crackpot tech: Optical computing
- Crackpot tech: Nanotechnology
- Crackpot tech: Quantum cryptography redux
- Your turn: Predict the next big thing
February 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Crackpot tech: E-books
Remember the paperless office? If so, you may recall a close cousin: the e-book, which promised access to entire libraries of documents in easily readable formats -- an obvious boon to the enterprise knowledge worker on the go. As did many ideas debuting midway through the dot-com boom, it failed spectacularly.
And yet a visit to Sony’s Connect eBooks suggests that rumors of the e-book's demise have been exaggerated. For a cool $350, you can pick up the Sony Reader and start collecting from more than 11,000 titles.
But what does a shelf's worth of Michael Crichton in your pocket have to do with the enterprise? Not unlike the path to adoption taken by many devices permeating today's mobile enterprise, the e-book's "proof of concept" phase will play out on the consumer stage. And it may just be copyright protection and distribution — rather than any paper vs. LCD debate — that determines the technology’s long-term prospects.
"Another issue, besides the prohibitive cost and cumbersome nature of e-documents, concerns the vast portion of the contracts that were signed and agreed upon before e-books came onto the scene," says litigation lawyer Esther Lim, a partner at Finnegan Henderson. "That raises questions not just in terms of what rights the user has, but what rights the publisher has vis-à-vis the copyright holder."
If these issues aren't resolved, the e-book market may fail to attract the kind of vendor investment necessary to overcome the technology’s lingering cost and usability concerns.
So, until e-books have their day in court, the jury remains out on their viability for the enterprise.
-- Richard Gincel
What's your take onthe long-term viability of e-books?
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Posted by Jason Snyder on February 19, 2007 03:00 AM
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Your turn: The next big thing? From the far-fetched to the practical, we highlighted 12 technologies that have a history of riding the thin edge between harebrained and brilliant. Yet each has the potential to significantly shake up some aspect of the enterprise down the line.
So, bust out your crackpot meter and weigh in on whether these could-be pie-in-the-sky notions have a future by commenting on them on this blog. If you don't see a past or present contender you'd like to nominate and want to predict the next big crackpot thing... HAVE YOUR SAY HERE |
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