I was reading this blog post recently on Enhanced eBooks on idealog. Part of the blog post was familiar, having lived through the technology-days of the early 90s, and part was brand spanking new to me. For example I did not know of Expanded Books. I was surprised that these expanded books worked on HyperCard because as a Mac owner (in 1994...or was it 1995?) I had not seen any of these expanded books. I guess the fad must have passed me by by the time I got my own computer.

The blog post was an interesting read. I guess my objection to eBooks stems both from a usability point of view (how we use them when we have them, compared to real physical books), and from a posterity point of view. Formats change, computers get upgraded, backward compatibility is shed, and of course there is always the issue of DRM. I can still go to an archive and see a book from 100, 200, or 300+ years ago. Handwritten, printed, etched and colored, those books are available. Yes they've been preserved in some fashion (they weren't just left out in the sun or in humid environments), but the point is that they exist. Knowledge is not lost or locked up in a format that no one can access. I guess we'll see how this eBook thing pans out in 2010 :-)