(2007-10-01) Meade Ebook Ecosystem

Chris Meade, joining the IFBook, considers the place of the book/EBook in a Multimedia EcoSystem. A future book will need to be worth sticking with, the product of some serious thought and time, a carefully constructed whole. It will be rendered using the extended palette of multimedia possibilities open to makers, may be a team effort or the work of a solo author, may incorporate space for reader response and links to other sites, may use a range of delivery methods, be porous and evolving, but if it doesn't have the integrity and quality we expect from literature then something far more important than the nostalgic musty smell of old paperbacks will have been lost. Where do literature and stories fit in our lives? That's the question I've always been most interested in.