So, here is my un-staged desk as of 5 min ago (for scientific observation).

The are 5 types of documents that I notice at first glance.

• Digital documents on my screen (web site, e-mail, etc…)
• Printed web pages (technical tutorial from stepwise.com
• Printed PDF manual (from Apple)
• A Post-it with some to-do items
• A book (Practical C Programming)

What kinds of documents on your desk right now?

Welcome to the future of book technology! In this blog entry we will show hackers like yourself how to build your very own interactive book using supplies that are probably already in your home or office. Let’s get started.

Step 1 – Upgrading an Existing Book

Because interactive books are a cutting edge technology, books published with interactivity built in can be very hard to find at your local book store. However, this fact will not discourage the enterprising hacker from upgrading their own books (also known as “modding” a book).

First, find a black permanent pen (Sharpies are a hacker favorite). Then write “Interactive Book” on the cover of the book you would like to upgrade.

Warning: Be careful to use proper penmanship and spelling as the pen you are using is PERMANENT!

That’s it! Now your book is interactive! To make the best use of your interactive book you will want to gather some useful accessories including:

• Highlighter Pen
• Comfortable writing utensil.
• Small pad of paper (Post-Its work too).

When your kit is assembled, you are ready to begin interacting with your book.

Step 2 – Select Some Text

Start by reading the book. When you come across a phrase that you would like to make interactive, highlighting the phrase.

If you have more than one interactive phrase on a page, use a pen to write a unique number next to the phrase. These numbers only need to be unique to the page, because the page number can also help identify a phrase (for example: page 42, #1)

Step 3 – Adding Annotations

To add an annotation or comment, simply write your text in the margin of the page. If the margin does not leave enough room or you would like to attach multimedia content (like a photo), add your comment to a separate piece of paper and staple or paperclip your annotation to the page, as shown below.

Write your initials, date, and page number on all annotations. This will give important context to all future readers.

QUICK TIP: Good annotations will be useful to all future readers. For example, related URLs, insightful comments, or questions are all useful annotations.

As your book gathers more meta-data, it may be full of clippings and marks. Do not worry, this is a sign that your book is becoming more valuable! If the interactive elements make it difficult to read the original text, you may want to purchase a non-interactive book to use in parallel with the interactive version.

Step 4 – Publishing your Annotations

The most important capability of any interactive book is its use as a collaborative medium. Good annotations will breed other good annotations and fruitful discussions may be a positive side effect of well considered questions. To publish your interactive book, hand deliver or mail the book to other readers. It may be helpful to send them a link to this tutorial as a primer if this is their first foray into interactive literature.

QUICK TIP: Choose carefully who you send your valuable book to. A good collaborator will add great value to the book, a bad one won’t read your book, and might not even return it! However, no great reward was ever gained without great risk. Go ahead and send you book to friends, family, strangers you meet on the bus and people you admire (authors may be good collaborators).

Finally, remember to affix the correct postage to your interactive book!

Step 5 – Hacking the Hack

For those who are not afraid of living on the cutting edge. There are even more daring experiments that haven’t been tried yet. You are encouraged to think of your own variations, but here are a few ideas to get you started.

• Make a newspaper interactive
• Send your book to a celebrity
• Begin a relationship by giving an interactive book to an attractive stranger (not recommended for those in committed relationships)
• Start a web site dedicated to interactive books
• Build multi-national business to serve the needs of interactive book enthusiasts.

People ask me all the time if books will ever become obsolete. I don’t think so. There is something unique and personal about a book that it’s digitization can never duplicate. Our culture still values whats original and unique. And books are some of the most unique creations of civilization. They are little mind bombs set to go off in your head when you least expect it.

I found this nice quote on the Booklad blog, where Dan Poynter discusses some interesting statistics on book reading. Check it out.

Jeff Jarvis also links to the Booklad post and provides some additional book stats (like 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year).

Tim O’Reilly blogged last week about the relaunch of Rice University Press in an on-line centric model. It looks like all of the content will be available for free on-line and readers can pay to order a print copy (which will be printed on demand). According to the original article, authors will be able to amend and annotate their books as well as chat with readers.

Ultimately, cutting edge publishers are giving away more content because it sells more books right? It allows people to preview works they might be interested in purchasing, obviously… My question is, how can the on-line content increase the value of the print copy after they are purchased?

The Exbiblio vision which is about adding value to both printed and on-line content by streamlining the connection between the two. Imagine being able to read a printed work without sacrificing the interactive nature of the on-line edition (the discussion, multimedia content, etc…). Imagine the book as an interface to the rich content.

So, news of rich digital content based on paper documents is exciting for us and we wish Rice University great success!

Welcome to the Exbiblio blogs!

I’m Adam Behringer, and I’ve been asked to throw open the doors of Exbiblio, introducing you to our team and the work we are doing. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to dive into our ambitious plans to transform the experience of interacting with paper documents, but if you want a sneak peek, take a look at our website.

I would describe myself as an entrepreneur and a creator. I also play piano and I like to apply the improvisational and collaborative ideas of a small group jazz ensemble to business and software design. For the past month or two at Exbiblio, I have been a part of a software team that is rapidly prototyping sample applications of our technology for our internal use as we quest to find the critical utility that will be the core of our future product.

We’ve also engaged british business journalist Hugh Fraser to blog his perspective of our work. Hugh is a fabulous writer and it will be fun to have an outside perspective represented on the blogs.

I also wanted to send a shout out to Timothy Appnel for handling many of the technical details in getting this blog system launched. Thanks Tim!

Lastly, I believe I speak for all of us when I say that the “success” of this blog will depend on the quality of the conversation we can have with our readers and the community. I encourage you to ask questions, challenge our assumptions, share your experiences, and join us in the quest to bring new life to paper documents.