[Foundation-l] iBooks vs. wBooks?

[Magnus Manske]

Hi Gerard,

if you read my original email, I do emphasise Apple's "walled garden",
and my proposal is specifically *not* to put our contents there.
Rather, I would like us to take advantage of the breach in the
"educational material" monopol that Apple will undoubtedly create, by
generating our own pure-HTML5 books (which I call "wBooks" to
differentiate from Apples "iBooks"), which would work on all tablets
(and probably phones), not just the iPad.

Cheers,
Magnus

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 10:42 PM, Gerard Meijssen
<gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hoi,
> The EULA currently in use prohibits the use of material that is offered
> anywhere except in the Apple store. They have also broken the mold of the
> standard. Consequently adopting the Apple model would technically support
> Apple devices.
>
> Both reasons are enough not to use Apple at all in an education setting and
> for material available under a free license.
> Thanks,
>     Gerard
>
> On 25 January 2012 23:12, Gregory Varnum <gregory.varnum at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm confused by what you mean by "walled garden".  If this were the same
>> as the App Store model where they have a custom iOS app format and their
>> store is the only place to get it - that would make sense to me.  That
>> doesn't seem to be the case here..
>>
>> My understanding was the ebooks created with iBook Author works in any
>> ebooks store that supports HTML5 standards.  I've been testing some ebooks
>> we threw together on lots of devices (almost all non-Apple) with no
>> problems.  We've even turned some of them into interactive web pages.
>>
>> I haven't heard of this software breaking the current standard so much as
>> further enabling HTML5 within it - but I could be wrong.
>>
>> -greg
>>
>>
>> On Jan 25, 2012, at 4:16 PM, Gerard Meijssen wrote:
>>
>> > Hoi,
>> > I think we should not support Apple in breaking the standard and in
>> > preventing us from using our work anywhere else. We take pride in being
>> > freely licensed and there is no excuse for the walled garden approach
>> taken
>> > by Apple. There is also no excuse for us endorsing this behaviour.
>> >
>> > Obviously as what we do is freely licensed or public domain you can do
>> > whatever as long as the license requirements are maintained. I am sure
>> that
>> > as a consequence you cannot legally publish in Apple's walled garden. I
>> > hate to see anything done in this area that is endorsed by the Wikimedia
>> > Foundation.
>> > Thanks,
>> >     Gerard
>> >
>> > On 20 January 2012 10:46, Magnus Manske <magnusmanske at googlemail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> (This mail is focused on books, but the topic is of more general
>> >> interest IMHO, thus foundation-l)
>> >>
>> >> Hi all,
>> >>
>> >> I just saw the "iBooks Author" news:
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/19/a-closer-look-at-ibooks-author-textbooks-and-exclusivity/
>> >>
>> >> Of course, all these pretty books will be only available in the Apple
>> >> paywalled garden.
>> >>
>> >> So I thought: As they use basically HTML5 (plus a few proprietary
>> >> libraries), could we produce such interactive, tablet/phone-enabled
>> >> e-books ("wBooks" as in "Wikimedia":-) from free content? I believe
>> >> the answer is yes, though it might be quite a push technologically
>> >> (just to be clear, I am speaking of the books here, not of the
>> >> authoring software).
>> >>
>> >> Also: Should we? I believe the answer is yes as well, for two reasons.
>> >> One, Apples work here might (yet again) set a new standard, which
>> >> means everything falling short of that standard will be neglected by
>> >> the target audience, which runs counter to our declared goal of
>> >> disseminating free knowledge; standing still might well mean falling
>> >> behind. Another reason is the opportunity that Apple creates for us
>> >> here: Once such e-books become accepted as general teaching tools in
>> >> schools, it will be much easier to switch from Apple-only, costly
>> >> books to run-everywhere, free books; they might just win the
>> >> "technology battle" for us.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> What do you think?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Cheers,
>> >> Magnus
>> >>
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