eTextbooks - Who's working on what

Interesting recap of eTextbook players and directions in the Sri Lankan Sunday Times. Much more going on in this area than meets the eye.

Industries experiencing disruptive change

Locating disruptive change is a big deal when investing for growth; it's become a catch-phrase for investors and a holy grail of sorts for the shrewd. From my perspective, I see a number of industries undergoing disruptive change and with the spread of technology, there will be others, too.

Some to watch right now:

• Learning - What it means to get an education, how it happens, availability to learning resources, and cost are all factors ramping up disruptive change in the learning industry. MOOCs (massively open on-line courses) are gaining traction (Coursera, Khan Academy, and Udacity). Helping students connect to colleges, learning resources, experiences, and each other is another area to watch (Chegg, AfterCollege, Zinch, Facebook, etc). Publishers and distribution networks (No Starch Press, Packt Publishers, O'Reilly, Amazon, Apple, etc) are experiencing and injecting change, too.
• Ticketing and Entertainment - the high cost tickets and events is another area ripe for change; new players such as Brown Paper Tickets are taking a fresh approach, which will inject change in this marketplace.
• Nanotechnology and Materials - There are so many emerging possibilities that it's hard to appreciate them all. The implications to the medical field (diagnostics, treatments, prostheses, augmentation) and industrial fields (electronics, batteries, sensors, solenoids, monitoring devices, 3D printing) are staggering, not to mention what will happen as small amounts of intelligence get added, too; enabling devices to report, confer, and decide.
• Food production, distribution, and nutrition - Initiatives to buy and eat locally (farm to fork), to take control of preparation, to use fresh and simple ingredients, etc are all introducing positive changes. New styles of farming (smaller scale, organic, specialized, and strategic) are making a difference, too. Some examples: Farm Fresh to You, Polyface Farms, Full Circle, Jacobs / Del Cabo, local farmer's markets, etc.
• Software Development and Computing - How it happens and the tools to make it efficient, productive, inherently secure, and sustainable continues to evolve. The Agile Manifesto started a revolution that's still in progress, as it requires dedicating significant resources (an organization must maintain a continuous integration / delivery process, implying significant computing and staff resources, although I suspect virtual machines and cloud computing are lowering cost barriers, too). The tooling now available to software developers is amazing (Eclipse and other IDEs, build management, defect tracking and database systems, testing frameworks, native language presentation and translation technologies, and multi-platform support). Where I think growth is needed is seamless support for multiple displays (web, mobile, and tablet) and efficient and affordable team management tools.

Optimal settings for better PDF presentation on a Kobo eReader

Through experimentation, I found a set of MS Word 2007 settings that will allow a PDF to be generated with optimal presentation and pagination experience on the Kobo eReader.

My eReader Choice

I'd been watching the eReader market for a while with interest. At first, it was only Amazon and Sony, then Barnes & Noble jumped in. I didn't like the complexity of the Kindle, although I had to admit it has awesomely crisp and readable print.The Sony units would handle PDF documents, but they were pricey and were too bulky for my backpack.

One day, I visited a B&N store and handled a Nook live. I was surprised at how thick and heavy it felt. Silly me, I was also expecting a full color display, not realizing that only the small navigation LCD can do color. I liked the combination of features, but Nook and the other candidates were pretty pricey for me. So I passed on it and decided to wait a while longer.

Then, a month ago, I found out that Borders was jumping in to the fray with the Kobo eReader. I was immediately intrigued by the Kobo, as it seemed to offer simplicity, a comfortable feel, and was thin and light as well. Although it lacked wireless connectivity, I didn't care, because I usually have a laptop handy anyway. And the price (at that time) was half the cost of the others! So, I visited my local Borders store and ordered one; and it arrived at my door within ten days. Now, I'm happily eReading books and PDF docs that I wouldn't have been able to truck around in my backpack otherwise! SWEET :-)