Apple iPad and a look back at the first ebooks, 1983

Master's thesis, Boston University, 1984

Steve Jobs demoed the Apple iPad today, which although not available for several months, promises to take us closer to e-book reality.

Master’s Thesis

I first researched e-books in 1983-84 as part of my master’s thesis at Boston University’s College of Communication. The project analyzed what was then an emerging communications technology, driven through the videotext channels at the time.  Videotext is a two-way interactive system which transmits information on telephone or cable lines to a specially adapted television set or home computer. Book publishing stood to be affected by videotext because it offered an important alternative to the familiar physical book that we all know.

Back then, future based institutes were predicting that by the year 2000, 35% of all households would have videotext. It was seen even back in the 80s as a trend toward media that are more specialized and less indistinguishable, a divergence from the truly mass media of before and occurring at a rate rapid enough to cause great confusion among media professionals.

Videotext for timely information

Videotext focused on distributing timely, as opposed to timeless, information. It was a sister companion to teletext which was broadcast over the airwaves as opposed to telephone or cable lines. Videotext offered the capability of two-way communication, allowing the user to interact and actually manipulate the information.

It was difficult back in 1983 to project how well e-books would be adapted because the screen technology was so primitive at the time. Since videotext was carried on (non hard-definition) television sets which have poorer qualiy than video display units, there was more of a jittering effect because of the different refresh rates. It was a challenge to read text off the screen. We know now that with the development of technology, screen readability is no longer an issue.

Costly distribution
In the early 80s, the distribution cost of data was also formidable. Source Telecomputing Corporation was founded in June 1979 in McLean, Virginia as a way to give the public affordable access to updated information. Daytime rates were over $20 an hour, and nighttime rates were $7-$10 an hour. The Source offered featured news, research, shopping and transaction, and education although limited.

Blind Pharoah – first electronic novel or ebook

The Source also had the distinction of offering the very first electronic novel, which later changed in nomenclature to “e-books.” At a Toronto computer show in early 1983, Burke Campbell wrote a suspense novelette at on an Apple III and sent it to The Source, which then edited it and had it online for Source subscribers only three hours later. Subscribers had the choice of reading “Blind Pharaoh” on their video display terminal, printing it, or storing it on a floppy disk. To download the story into computer memory was over two dollars at nighttime fees, which was still considerably cheaper than a paperback novel. The book had 20,000 words and 19 chapters.

Other services such as CompuServe, which was formed in 1969 as a time-sharing service and then as an information service in 1979, offered distribution rates for information at much lower fees, such as six dollars per hour during the daytime. Over the last 27 years, since I first researched electronic novels, there has been a lot of debate in the publishing world about where and how they can best be distributed.

Universal formats will bode well for e-books, so that users can ultimately choose the electronic version of their favorite book no matter what device they are carrying.  The publishing world is still settling the issue of digital piracy, and that will remain a thorny issue.

What hasn’t changed is that people still like the ease and portability of traditional book formats. In 1983, I predicted that this wouldn’t change. I still support that notion, but have backed off it a little bit because of the dramatic improvements in technology in terms of the look and feel. Society has also changed in terms of its consumption of information and its demand for immediacy of content. It may be that as generation outgrows generation, those of us who grew up with physical books are replaced by younger generations who have only known electronic media, and eventually the traditional book will only become a curiosity in a museum.

Technology has made ebooks more palatable

In the thesis, I described how unstable the refresh rate of characters on the screen were and how annoying they were to the eyes for any extended length of time. I concluded it is difficult to conceive of a scene where a user decides to call up the latest novel on his videotext terminal and read it on the spot. The issue then also was that the computer-like typeface of the medium when printed did not approach the sophisticated, readable typeface found in traditional books. I theorized that videotext equipment would have to be improved substantially to achieve this goal which seemed unlikely because it would undoubtedly mean higher prices.

Since directories are updated continually, I wrote, it is reasonable to expect that perhaps videotext will eliminate the traditional print formats of highly timely material if only to save printing costs such as scenario is in no way detrimental to book publishers as electronic transmittal in this particular case is much cheaper than print production. The experts I interviewed in the early 80s at different publishing houses, videotext service companies and cable companies felt that partnerships were the way to go. In the early stages of an industry, commented Shelley Isaccson, partnerships make sense.

The future as predicted in 1983

Obsolescence is defined as the situation occurring when a new product performs functions more effectively than the old.  Videotext, now in the form of ebooks are not a threat to printed books, nor vice versa. Each medium has particular instances where its convenience outperforms the other. For e-books, the selectivity of timely information is its major advantage. Books are more appropriate for portable and lengthy “escapist” material. The two forms are merging and moving toward coexistence. It remains to be seen what the final arrangement will look like.

Note:  It is interesting that I typed the thesis, rather than used a computer, as I did not have access to or own a computer in 1983.    I owe a debt of gratitude to my three expert readers for the project, including Professor David Sykes at Boston University, Analyst Berge Ayvazian, and Computerserve Branch Support Manager Antonio Dutra.