Here is an animation of the latest layout for “Rosencrantz” which is the next major version of the Exbiblio portable scanner prototype.

The team had a great time last week at the career fair, a huge thank you to Lauren who pulled everything together on our side, and to Redfin for coordinating the event. We were asked great questions, people had good ideas, and we received much encouragement for both our product and our business philosophy. We’ll definitely be planning to attend and potentially facilitate some our own recruiting events in the future!

by Edward Mahlum

One of the many unusual attributes of Exbiblio that struck me on my recent visit to Seattle, is that this company is truly averse to anything that smacks of consumerism. This is quite unusual for business that is about to offer up a product to the public.

While talking to Ed Mahlum and Martin King about marketing the Exbiblio oPen, I asked how they were gong to “position” it in the market. Martin winced. He doesn’t like the connotations of the word – nor any of the usual marketing spiel. The Exbiblio philosophy is that if the product turns out to be great, and if it can secure a place in people’s every day lives, then the sales will come right in the end.

I would agree that much of the language of business is lazy, and that the meaning is often unclear. Business lingo is mostly about making the speaker sound savvy. On further questioning, Ed and Martin say that there will be an initial target market (students), an initial price (around $99), and that it will be necessary to emphasize some of the potential uses of the oPen, of which there are many to choose from.

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By Ariel van Spronsen

Today is my first day back to school, entering the second and final year of my Master’s degree at the University of Washington.. The energy on campus is amazing, especially as compared to how quiet it was the week I was here for the Information Architecture Summer Institute. This feeling of starting anew every fall is one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about returning to school after 10 years. There is a cycle to it, a sense of beginning and end. I remember transitioning into full time work after I finished my undergraduate degree, and after a year or so, realizing that there was no end. I would work for the rest of my life. These days I’ve found work that I am happy to do for the rest of my life, but at that time it was a depressing thought.

I’m going to be doing things a little differently this year – I’ll be working with Exbiblio part time and taking only two classes per quarter. It’s going to be interesting to see how I manage shifting gears between my student and professional lives. Fortunately I have strong role model in john durand, who is currently doing his MBA while working full time at Exbiblio. Another difference for me this year is that I will be carrying my sexy Exbiblio-issue MacBook Pro to school. I have a laptop PC at home, but it’s large and powerful and not meant to be portable on a daily basis. The Mac, so far, has been much more convenient. I’ve already used it to catch up on Exbiblio email and blogs, as well as review course syllabi in advance of my first classes, and also to type this post while eating lunch in the HUB.

I also just spent several hundred dollars on books for my classes. One of my books, “Looking for Information” by Donald Case, was nearly $100 on its own. When I spend this much money on books I always have a little inner struggle over marking them up. Highlights and notes make a world of difference to how I review information that I’ve read, and also help me to set knowledge in my head. Effective highlighting can mean a huge time savings when I sit down to write papers and have to go back to original sources to locate support for my points. I think I’m going to be an interesting test case for the oPen. I’m going to try using it to highlight and annotate virtually. The important thing is that this be easier than I’ll be a very happy camper. It will have to be easy enough that it weighs positively against marking up my precious, expensive books.

Wish me luck!

Just a quick note to let you know that Exbiblio is participating in a career fair tomorrow evening in downtown Seattle. It is hosted by Redfin and features several Seattle based tech start-ups. If I was looking for a new job, I’d totally be there.

A variety of folks from the Exbiblio will be attending so come say hello, whether or not you are looking for a job. We’d love to meet you.

Click here for more info

Today I came across this archived thread from MacRumors.com. I remember that day back in 2001, I was lurking on this thread… All the Mac geeks (at least the vocal ones) were dissapointed in the iPod. Check it out, it is funny reading it knowing how the iPod actually performed in the market and shaped culture.

One of the things that is facinating about Apple is that they can ignore popular opinion, chart their own course, and end up shaping popular culture. Something to think about as we begin to share early versions of our own products with the public. When should Exbiblio listen to feedback, when should we ignore it, and how do we draw that line?

Yesterday, the Exbiblio team had our first working demo of the assembled “Falstaff” prototype!

All the standard disclaimers apply here, there is much optimization to be done and several more months of hardware and software improvements before we are ready for our public beta, but it is actually coming together!

By the end of the week, we hope to have the new prototype integrated into our Exbiblio software application prototypes, so stay tuned for more news soon.

Check out the video:

Hugh and I had a fun visit to the office of JMK Industrial Design last Friday to interview the industrial design team working on the Exbiblio portable scanner. We discussed the story of the Exbiblio scanner, Apple’s influence on the industry, and what it is like to work for a client who turns conventional thinking on its head.

Hugh is planning to post details from the interview this week, but I thought I’d get some images from our visit up on the blog today. Including, if you look closely, the first image of the scanning device (model) that we have ever shown to the public! Stay tuned for more details.

On my visit to Exbiblio last week, I intended to ask some straight questions about the bottom line. Most of my questions were answered when the whole team was called together for what was billed as the first in a regular series of updates on Exbiblio’s progress. We met in the newly opened “wing” of the already quite extensive office. Martin King was in the chair, and his relaxed demeanour and quiet voice belied the starkness of the situation which he outlined.

Here’s my summary of what he said: Exbiblio has been spending money faster than originally planned. The money can be stretched out, just about, until next March when the product launch is due – the product being the oPen scanner. There will then be a pressing need to find outsider investors. If enough sales can be generated to show that there is demand for the oPen, then the founders or Exbiblio’s bankers might extend a loan for six months to allow it to raise capital. However you look at the situation, it’s going to be a close call.

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Here are some of the mp3 devices that the design team looked at before working on the Exbiblio scanning pen: