The underlying drive behind the Internet is the speed at which information can be retrieved — especially at little or no cost. People can literally find out pretty much anything about anything at the simple click of a mouse. They are more informed, more educated and certainly more sophisticated than ever before.
Electronic currency using SIM Access Profile
You might remember an ad campaign in which a woman approaches a soft drink vending machine alongside a young male executive. The executive rummages through his pants pocket to find, to his dismay, that he has no change to purchase a cool drink on a hot afternoon. The woman then pulls out her cell phone, presses a few buttons, and a soda can drops down from the vending machine. The ad was meant to show a future of a seamless, interactive world. The SIM Access Profile, released by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), makes such transactions a reality, allowing a consumer to use a cellular device to obtain, for example, a 50-cent soft drink without spending 25 cents on a cell phone airtime charge.
Print Publishing vs Electronic Publishing
Actually, “versus” isn’t the best word. The two mediums are different, but they’re not mutually exclusive. Meaning, you can publish the same book in both mediums. In fact, that’s my goal. Each attracts a different group of readers and I want all the readers I can get.
The Future of Electronic Publishing
UNESCO’s somewhat arbitrary definition of “book” is:
“”Non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers”.