Nimble Books LLC » Google Book Search

Book Kismet: you hold the fate of books in your hands

Fred Zimmerman — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:54:45 +0000

I’ve started working on a project called Book Kismet. The initial seed for the idea was this message I posted to a Google Group devoted to an innovative “social books” project housed at the University of Toronto, and it’s my hope that BK will wind up being a useful tool for them.

The functionality I want to see in version 1.0 is as follows:

user supplies author name, book title or ISBN

system provides list of ISBNs & titles from one of:

Amazon API
Google Book Search API
LibraryThing API
OpenBook API

user selects either author or book (by ISBN)

system provides (some of):

cover image via one of {Amazon, LT, GBS, Open}
link to Amazon detail page; link to Amazon reviews for boook
link to GBS title page; link to GBS reviews for book
link to LibraryThing detail page for this book (all ISBNs); link to LibraryThing book reviews
link to Google API answer set on “author lastname” “author firstname” “discussion forum” “booktitle”
embedded Google Trends widget with book title and author name as keywords
Google Groups (old Usenet) search results

etc.

Book Kismet: an open, platform-agnostic architecture for social books

Fred Zimmerman — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:40:30 +0000

I have been thinking about the challenge of integrating physical and digital worlds via [social books] and I have a suggestion. I think you need to be designing at a higher level of abstraction: really, designing a standard instead of a device.

Think about it this way.

Class of bibliographic entities:

printed book (i think “codex” is too jargony)
journal article
report
e-book

Class of physical Enablers

CueCat
Kindle 1 & 2, Kindle DX, etc.
Sony E-Reader

Class of entity-level citation schemes, e.g.

APA
Chicago Manual
BibTex
EndNote
Digital Object Identifiers

Class of “pinpoint” citation services, e.g.

Legal standards (West, F.2d 1033)
Scientific standards: Nature 355:321 12 October
Paragraph and line numbering schemes

Class of web resources

Single purpose websites (1 per book)
Google Book repository
Amazon catalog
LibraryThing

Class of web services

Annotation
Discussion
Recommending

Right now, we have a variety of entities pursuing efforts to connect all these classes with single threads e.g. Amazon connects e-book documents with Kindle with the Amazon catalog with recommending. Kindle is a closed system so that thread is the only you one can follow if you own the Kindle class of Enabler. the proposed sBook would connect codex books using a custom-built Enabler with some undetermined citation format with purpose built websites and offer Discussion and Recommending services.

What is really needed, IMHO, is an open, platform-agnostic architecture that allows mix and match of all these classes. I believe Kindle is eventually going to be a limited success (not a failure, just a 10% of the market type thing) because it locks the reader into a single thread of classes. I’m more optimistic about Google Book Search because I think their physical enabler will be any device that can read a PDF and I think they will eventually ave a good citation standard and robust discussion services at GBS.

Integrating physical books and electronic services

Fred Zimmerman — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:26:36 +0000

From an email to a guy who’s got a project to integrate the world of physical “codex” books with electronic resources.

I have been thinking about the challenge of integrating physical and digital worlds via tools like the sBook and I have a suggestion. I think you need to be designing at a higher level of abstraction: really, designing a standard instead of a device.

Think about it this way.

Class of bibliographic entities:

printed book (i think “codex” is too jargony)
journal article
report
e-book

Class of physical Enablers

CueCat
Kindle
Sony E-Reader
the sBook enabler

Class of citation services, e.g.

Legal standards (West, F.2d 1033)
Scientific standards: Nature 355:321 12 October
Digital Object Identifiers

Class of web resources

Single purpose websites (1 per book)
Google Book repository
Amazon catalog
LibraryThing

Class of web services

Annotation
Discussion
Recommending

Right now, we have a variety of entities pursuing efforts to connect all these classes with single threads or paths, e.g. Amazon connects e-book documents with Kindle with the Amazon catalog with recommending. Kindle is a closed system so that thread is the only you one can follow if you own the Kindle class of Enabler.

Tthe proposed sBook would connect codex books using a custom-built Enabler with some undetermined citation format with purpose built websites and offer Discussion and Recommending services.

What is really needed, IMHO is an open architecture that allows mix and match of all these classes. I believe Kindle is eventually going to be a limited success (not a failure, just a 10% of the market type thing) because it locks the reader into a single thread of classes. I’m more optimistic about Google Book Search because I think their physical enabler will be any device that can read a PDF and I think they will eventually ave a good citation standard and robust discussion services at GBS.

Clear as mud?

Hastily,

Google Books Fairness Hearing is June 11

wfz-admin — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:18:32 +0000

The Court will hold the Fairness Hearing on June 11, 2009 at 1:00 pm EDT in Courtroom 14C of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, United States Courthouse, located at 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York 10007. The time and date of the hearing may be rescheduled by the Court without further notice.

via FAQs – Google Book Settlement.

Median online Google Book will be $5.99

wfz-admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:39:11 +0000

For readers who might want to buy digital access to an individual scanned book, Mr. Clancy said, Google was likely to sell at least half of the books for $5.99 or less.

via Google Hopes to Open a Trove of Little-Seen Books – NYTimes.com

This is a key factoid because under the master settlement agreement, Google has the right to automatically set prices unless publisher overrules.

Top 7 Applications to Build Using the Google Book Search API

wfz-admin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:54:31 +0000

Huge news!

http://code.google.com/apis/books/

Here’s what I’d like to see:

1) a “review shell” for all books in GBS — I note that one of the API commands enables developers to submit reviews for any GBS book
2) an “annotation shell” that provides page by page displays of books with page by page community annotations
3) A “slate ready” version of the book reader that prepares the book in PDF format for an E-Ink reading device (not the HTML-dumbed-down Kindle)
4) A “print me” application that works with the Espresso Book Machines deployed at my friendly neighborhood University of Michigan Library
5) an online reading application that lets publishers sell online access to 100% of a book’s content
6) a “mashup” tool that combines public domain maps and public domain text
7) a topical mashup tool that puts together everything GBS has on a topic (e.g. Napoleon’s victory at the battle of Marengo)

Keep working on Popular Passages

wfz-admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:21:08 +0000

I’ll be really happy when you can limit searches to results that occur only in Popular Passages.

Inside Google Book Search: Meditating on books
The concept of transience and impermanence runs through Kenkō’s work, but the book has been given a long life by other authors who have cited him. Here you can read all the instances of the above quote on Book Search. I would guess that Kenkō never imagined this blog-rebirth I have granted him, but he would know that as blogs become passé, antiquated and finally forgotten, he’ll still be there to be found by unknown friends.

Now

Publish your Google Knol with Nimble Books

wfz-admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:08:35 +0000

Nimble Books specializes in micropublishing timely, relevant information in slender paperback formats that are available via Amazon.com. If your Knol would make the core of a good 32 – 48 page “nimble” book, let us know!

Inside Google Book Search: Do you Knol the ledge?

A few months ago we announced on the Official Google Blog that we were testing a new product called Knol. Today, we’re making it available to everyone. In addition to our official announcement, we wanted to tell you about it here because we think that Knol could be a powerful tool for publishers and authors. Knols are articles about specific topics written by authoritative sources, so if you’re an author, writing a knol is a great way to raise the profile of a topic you care about.

Why aren’t GPO documents in full view in Google Book Search?

wfz-admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:38:08 +0000

This is a public domain publication. Why isn’t it available in full view in GBS?

C VAN-70 Aircraft Carrier: Joint … – Google Book Search

CVAN-70 Aircraft Carrier: Joint Hearings, Ninety-first Congress, Second …
By United States Congress. Joint Senate-House Armed Services Subcommittee on CVAN-70 Aircraft Carrier, United

Update: apparently this issue has been around for a couple of years. There is (justified) concern that there may be a (small) percentage of copyrighted material inside GPO publications. Bottom line: Lame-o!