Why Digital Monkeys Don't Get Books

Waiting to get into a session at the Apple Developer's conference, I heard the group in front of me talking about "full text search" in video, and how it would revolutionize *everything*. I can't imagine that they had seen a Virage demo from a few years back (their heads would explode most likely).

One pronounced: "Books will be dead in 10 years!".

I rolled my eyes.

He went on. "I took a class on publication, and loved goading the class! They didn't get it! Books are dead! You can't do full text search!"

Another chimed in: "Yeah, I had a friend that took a course with an open book final exam. He had the digital version of the book, so he was able to finish it in half of the time of everyone else in the class!"

Hoo boy. I would not hire that guy to build a bridge. Searching does not replace deep understanding of content.

I stepped in at this point. "Have you read any Tufte?" There was a blank look.

"He talks about information design. His content is in a book. It will never be digital, because digital is a poor representation of his work. It demands high resolution, and a specific layout that digital does poorly."

"Hmmmm, well....haven't you seen DIGITAL PAPER?"

"Yes, I have. It is a compromised experience. You trade off a rich experience and high resolution for search ability and portability. Two page layouts (image one page, text on the other) are removed. You don't get full color plates. The user experience of books is effectively destroyed."

More....

"Imagine a map that fills a wall. A digital, zoomable version is a distinctly different experience. One is not necessarily better than another. One immerses you senses in a panoramic data representation that exposes relationships that may be masked in a lower resolution digital version. But the digital version allows for a different, but as valuable experience."

I forget the rest of my rant. I doubt I made an impression -- I probably came across as a gray-haired luddite. This is a shame, because here at WWDC I see the usual trap that a generation falls into (and I have fallen into myself). The dominant technlogy tends to inform all things -- remediation (aka bolter et al). It prevents people from seeing the compromises that exist in adoption -- the things that are left out. It prevents people from seeing beyond what is in front of them. These people will be temporal innovators - better software.....but will never make that dramatic leap to the next great thing. We have to forget what we know now when looking at what came before, what was compelling about it, what was left behind in the compromise to adapt "old media" to the shiny new. Books and digital representation of text are quite different things. They only have text and images in common -- the user experience can be aped in technology -- but in the transition it becomes a different thing -- again -- not necessarily better or worse -- different. Too many times we think in either/or.

I write this as I sit here in a session on Podcast Producer at WWDC, and as I look at the audience, I wonder who here thinks about this as I do, and how many cannot make the connection between the books on their shelf, and the text in a web page.

I hope we learn from the past.