The blogosphere has been buzzing about the e-book phenomenon for some time. One question that publishers are thinking about--but writers may not be--is how might we harness technology to make books something MORE?
At a conference I attended last fall, a panelist discussed the "enhanced e-book" model publishers hope will make children's books "value-added." By this, they mean embedding added features--glossary links to difficult vocabulary, pop-ups that provide educational information on the history or science of a story, illustrations that can be explored in three dimensions.
The possibilities of marrying story worlds with technology are frankly mind-boggling. An essay I recently edited at work led me to discover how even poets are exploring techie enhancements. Think of it as "concrete poetry gets its groove on."
The piece I read looked at work by poet Oni Buchanan. Some of her poetry is created using Flash animation so that the poem morphs and evolves, the letters exploding and reforming into new phrases and forms. It's one of the most astonishingly cool things I have seen in some time.
Take a look at her poem series "The Mandrake Vehicles," which Buchanan calls "installations"--a term performance artists use. Prepared to be amazed. It's freaking brilliant.
What enhancements would you love to see in e-books of the future?
At a conference I attended last fall, a panelist discussed the "enhanced e-book" model publishers hope will make children's books "value-added." By this, they mean embedding added features--glossary links to difficult vocabulary, pop-ups that provide educational information on the history or science of a story, illustrations that can be explored in three dimensions.
The possibilities of marrying story worlds with technology are frankly mind-boggling. An essay I recently edited at work led me to discover how even poets are exploring techie enhancements. Think of it as "concrete poetry gets its groove on."
The piece I read looked at work by poet Oni Buchanan. Some of her poetry is created using Flash animation so that the poem morphs and evolves, the letters exploding and reforming into new phrases and forms. It's one of the most astonishingly cool things I have seen in some time.
Take a look at her poem series "The Mandrake Vehicles," which Buchanan calls "installations"--a term performance artists use. Prepared to be amazed. It's freaking brilliant.
What enhancements would you love to see in e-books of the future?
