alt.books
a column by M.J. Rose

It’s an e-book web

Once upon a time there was a wonderful site for people interested in thesubject of electronic books. It was called eBooknet.com and backed by the makers of an e-book reading device which was called The Rocket Ebook.

Are we going to enjoy the same kind of access to e-books that we currently have to our print books, or will content owners and technology developers impose all sorts of new limitations on that access?

But as it happens alll too often in the dot com world... The Rocket Ebook was sold by its owner, NuvoMedia, to Gemstar International. Gemstar in turn changed the name of the reading device to REB1100 and REB1200 – and closed down eBooknet.com

eBooknet editors Glenn Sanders and Wade Roush, suspected part of the reason was that Gemstar wasn't happy with the site's less-than-glowing reviews for Gemstar's revised and revamped e-book reading devices. But now, eBooknet has risen from the ashes of eBookWeb.org as a better, more independent site.

To ensure editorial autonomy this time around, Sanders and Roush have created a nonprofit entity. The Electronic Publishing Resource Center (EPRC) will accept contributions and in turn host eBookWeb. In a recent email interview, I asked eBookWeb director Glenn Sanders and editor in chief Wade Roush about their goals for the site and the events leading up to its creation.

Signum: How much or what did it take in a non-financial way to get eBookWeb going?

Glenn Sanders: On Monday April 2, when I learned that eBookNet had been shut down, I reacted with anger and resentment, and felt like I wanted to get out. I told myself, "That's it. I'm outta here. No more eBooks for me." I wrote an unauthorized message to our newsletter subscribers and syndicators entitled "Sayonara eBookNet." (I mean, what could Gemstar do, fire me?) And I really felt like saying sayonara to eBooks too.

But the next day hundreds of email messages of encouragement came flooding in from site visitors, and from companies offering financial support. By Tuesday night, I called Wade and said, "Lets do it!" So, it really took the outpouring of support, encouragement, and imploring of hundreds of eBook friends to convince us to fulfill our vision. To complete the mission I set for myself in early 1998.

Once we saw the overwhelming support and demand for what we had been doing, we decided, Lets build it again! Since then I haven't looked back. We began to rebuild our relationships, design the new site, search endlessly for a suitable name, and think about how we wanted to do things better this time around.

Wade Roush: Financially, we simply needed money to cover our living expenses and lift us out of unemployment. I came close to accepting a different position unrelated to eBooks, but the contribution from Rolltronics, our founding sponsor, allowed me to commit full time to building eBookWeb. With Rolltronics' support we've also secured some office space in Menlo Park, Calif., and rounded up some basic computer equipment and software. Beyond that, the entire operation will be bootstrapped using contributions from future sponsors.

In a non-financial way, it was really the outpouring of support and encouragement from former eBookNet readers in the first days after the shutdown that convinced us there was still a demand and a role for a site like eBookWeb. eBookNet seemed to validate for a lot of e-book enthusiasts that they weren't nuts – that this technology is really coming and that it is going to change the world. They're eager for a central source of information to stoke their passion, and for a place where they can mingle with other people who are excited about digital publishing. That's what eBookWeb will be.

 

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