The Book 2.0

I was reading Henri Kaufman's book about the Ego marketing, and it reminded me about one of the topic we discussed in class with him while I was a student of the retailing and customer relationship master in Dauphine about the future of the book industry.

Indeed, Internet and the Web 2.0 have deeply changed the newspaper industry. Sales are decreasing, as new free competitors showed up, and some new way to inform yourself showed up (blogs, websites, peer2peer online news...).

But Henri, as a forerunner and an opinion leader, totally understands the changes. Thus, he asked us in class how we would picture a book on the web 2.0 using the new techologies.

This would be my answer. We could picture a book that would not be sold printed, but accessible via a USB key. The key would of course be designed according to the book (shape, color, picture on it). This book will have tags and a browser, to easily get information on a specific issue.

But there will be two dimensions very interesting.

• First, it will be an evolving book. Depending on the news, if new example shows up, or if an event has changed dramatically the vision of the author on a specific issue, the author will be able to add some content to keep his book up-to-date. The reader will be informed of the last articles and changes via a RSS feed, or an email.
  
  
• Secondly, it will be a community book. That means readers will be able to participate, leave comments, or even in a certain way add content. Moreover, we can imagine the author discussing with his readers. It could be via forums, but also via instant messenger, webcam. We can also imagine that the book invites readers to attend some on line seminars.
  
  
• Lastly, it will be a multimedia book. We will be able to get some audio content, for example to show examples of podcast, some videos, links to interesting websites. The book, as a USB key, could also be used to get invitations to conferences and salons, or also contain some softwares.
  

Wouldn't it be great? Do you know any other cool features this book would have? Anyway, the picture is a prototype of the electronical paper. This kind of paper already exist, but won't be available for mass production before the end of 2010.