On Tuesday evening, we hosted the fifth installment of the monthly Science Online NYC (SoNYC) discussion series at Rockefeller University in NYC. The topic for debate this month was “Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils” and the panel featured:
• David Dobbs, moderator (As well as an author, blogger, and ebook experimentalist).
• John Dupuis, science librarian at York University and blogger at Confessions of a Science Librarian.
• Evan Ratliff, co-founder and editor, The Atavist.
• Amanda Moon, senior editor, FSG/Scientific American Books.
• Carl Zimmer, author, journalist, and blogger.
• Dean Johnson, creative director of Brandwidth, developer of The Exoplanets, an iPad book/app to be published this fall by Scientific American Books/FSG.
As is our usual format, following short introductory talks from the panelists, we invited attendees present in person or watching online to take part in a wider discussion.
Some questions that the panel discussed included: How do we develop AppBooks or enhanced eBooks that make the most of the technology without locking the contents in proprietary formats that may be hard to crack open in 5 or 50 years? How can we reconcile the desires and agendas of authors, app developers, publishers, librarians, archivists, and readers?
To read what people on Twitter were saying about the event, check out our Storify of tweets at the bottom of this post.
Photos
Have been added to our Facebook page. Do let us know if you’d like us to link to any of yours.
Live-streaming and video archiving
We do also live-stream each SoNYC event to give as many people as possible the chance to take part in the debate. Check out our livestream channel where the archives of the first four meetings are currently hosted.
Other blog posts about #sonyc 5
Do let us know if you blog about the event and we’ll include a round-up of links here.
SONYC Presentation: Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils
Ebooks and science: Livestreamed tonight
Finding out more
The next event will be held in October, keep an eye on the SoNYC twitter account for more details and/or watch the #sonyc hashtag. If you have a suggestion for a future panel or would be interested in sponsoring one of the events, please get in touch.