Are we over-thinking EPUB? - Tools of Change for Publishing

The future of the book is inherently linked to the browser. Discussion of EPUB as a technology somehow ‘separate’ from browsers is not helping us see that very rich and quite unbelievable future, one that is entirely different to what is in front of us now. If we see EPUB as something other than a subset browser functionality we are not seeing the present or the future clearly.I’m not sure what is holding us back from this way of seeing things. It could be that we somehow consider the browser too mundane to be the future of the book. It could be that the browser is too scary as it gestures strongly in the direction of ‘the web’ and content out ‘in the wild’. It could be that all of this triggers challenges we don’t want to consider – challenges to current business models, the status value of the book, professional pride, roles, and infrastructure. Whatever it is, I am sure it’s there; legacy ideas that prevent us from understanding what is actually going on, from understanding that an EPUB is nothing special.We could perhaps clarify this by calling EPUB a standard for ‘portable websites’ and stop talking about books altogether.

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