Re: [announce] Invented Languages magazine

Hi.

As some of you may know I'm in training as a publishing
clerk at the moment. However, we have discussed the issue
paper vs. ebook in (vocational) school, and besides the
conclusion that print products have a higher prestige value,
some of our group said that reading on a computer screen
strains the eyes faster than paper. Also, we learnt that
humans enjoy haptics, so many people *want* to have physical
contact with the medium they're reading from. That is,
holding something in their hands. A computer screen or an
ebook reader just doesn't have the same feel as a print
product. However, although I too prefer stuff to be printed
on actual paper, I *am* courious about the development of
electronic publishing means, such as the mentioned
"electronic" paper¹. That's the haptics of paper combined
with the possibility of electronic storage and dynamic
contents after all, so both parties should be satisfied. I
still wonder what newspapers and especially books would look
like then. Would we still have tens to tens of thousands of
books on our shelves, or rather just a dozen of reading
devices connected to our computers via Bluetooth or
something like that? However, when electronic paper should
get established at large scale some decades on from now, I
think the prestige of paper products will rise even more.

Another two cents ...

Carsten

¹) That doesn't mean publishers will lose their jobs. Both
electronic and static contents need to be published. Only
the means of production and distribution change.

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Venena, Lahang 10, 2317 ya 17:23:27 pd
Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 06:52:19 pm