Although our Technology (Relevant Knowledge) short courses are delivered largely online, they still have a surface mailing associated with them. In the case of the course I work on (T184 Robotics and the Meaning of Life: a practical guide to things that think) the mailing includes the two set books and a couple of CD-RPMs - the ever present online apps CD and a course specific one which contains our robot programming environment, the larger PDF files and some of the video resources that are linked to from the online course materials.
One of the things that has been mooted on and off, most recently in the last couple of months with the preproduction of TU120 Beyond Google: working with information online, is the idea that we should deliver course resouirces via a USB memory stick.
The cost has to date been the major reason against this, but as the price of Flash memory comes down, perhaps we aren't so far off seeing the first OU Course on a Stick!
Anyway, related to this theme are what are possibly the first 'audio books on a stick', or at least, the first I've seen - Playaway self playing digitial audio books.
These come pre-loaded and ready to play (headphones and AAA battery are included). Digital copying of the content is not supported:
In order to protect the copyrighted works of authors and publishers as traditional books do, you are unable to make copies of Playaway. But you can share them with friends just like you would lend your new bestseller.
However, to offset the pain of the cost ($35-$45) it's recommended that you share the book by passing it on:
Good stories should be shared. Here's how you can share your Playaway: - Donate it to Project Learn (projectlearn.org). - Give it to your local children's hospital. - Plug it in your home stereo and listen with your whole family. - Drop it in your kid's backpack to listen to on the bus. - Give it to your kid brother or sister as a hand-me-down. - Make it your holiday gift exchange. - Donate it to your neighborhood nursing home. - Start-up a Playaway Book Club with it. - Send it with money, beef jerky and a special note in a college care package. - Hook it up to your car stereo for a road trip with friends. - Switch it with your kid's video game for 10 minutes of something new.
They also suggest leaving it on a parkbench, in the Bookcrossing style, I guess...
What I'm waiting for now is an audio+ebook vending machine, with a touch screen menu that lets me choose my book in audio format and/or as an ebook, pay for it, wait or second or too as the machine fetches the book and installs it on a memory stick with a colour/design of my choosing, and then vends it to me!
The combined book should, of course, have chapter bookmarks, as well as a bookmark that placed wherever I stop off reading/listening. For the dual purchase (audio and ebook) it would also be neat if cross-bookmarking were supported - so I could easily pick up reading at the point I stopped listening, and vice versa.
This would tie in well with the Caravan Project, which I stumbled across today:
The idea is this: publish the book in five formats (audio, chapter, hardcover, digital, and print-on-demand) and let customers decide which one(s) they want.Posted by ajh59 at April 21, 2006 08:18 PM