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What I Learned Today… » Blog Archive » The Return of Everything is Miscellaneous:
…Weinberger touches on the future of the ebook. He talked about how we could collect data from how people read books, the passages they highlight, where people read books and so much more using wireless enabled ebook readers (p.222) – and while it sounds like science fiction – we’re almost there. Kindle has the power of wireless technology – meaning that in theory, Amazon could connect to our readers and collect data. While this sounds scary and like a huge invasion of privacy – imagine the power that this data could provide. Some examples Weinberger has is that you could create a list of books that people most often read at the beach or a list of books people stopped reading 1/2 way through – how cool would that be?
Well, because the only people I can think of who would find that data valuable would be marketers. So I don’t think it would be that cool. And it is scary and a huge invasion of privacy. When the government starts asking Amazon for tracking data on where you and your Kindle were last Tuesday, you probably won’t think it’s very cool either. Especially if you can’t turn it off.
Technorati Tags: amazon, digitization, kindle, ebooks, writing
Weinberger does of course mention that this would be with the permission of the reader – but I am no marketer and I get excited about people being able to combine information from several sources and provide better services to me. I don’t care who knows what I’m reading – while I understand the potential concerns of others – I think it’s cool that I could avoid wasting time on a book that others like me have only made it half way through.
I think you put a good more deal of faith in recommendation engines – which is I how I read “others like me,” or more accurately, “people that bought the same things I did” – than I do. I’m not entirely certain that I’m about to let that sort of data start having much of an influence on what I read. Then again, I’m also not sure how interested I am in a culture that seems determined to abolish serendipity, in the name of not “wasting time.” “People like me” should be based on more than raw consumerism. If all more interactive e-books do to further reading as an activity is make it easier for Amazon to narrow its niches to needles (“hey! here’s what other people who bought Croatian sci-fi last year also bought – would you like to buy the three sentences they chuckled over in the bathroom?”), then it will have not done very much at all.