The Next Threat: The Vook

As I follow the progress of the Digital Revolution & the Book, it seems there is a new challenge around every corner. The newest one is the Vook.

A Vook is, "a new innovation in reading that blends a well-written book, high quality video, and the power of the Internet into a single complete story." This allows you to enhance the story as you read with the video, connect with the author(s), and tie in your friends through social media, all on one screen, without switching between platforms.

The nice part is that it can truly enhance the reading experience, adding not only more pleasure, but helping retention in a learning situation. Another upside is that it will probably increase the amount of reading, especially in the lower grade levels.

Concerns, for me at least, are there as well. My first question is how can the intellectual property issue be adequately handled at $2 & $3 a copy in some cases? Secondly, my laptop is not a book, or even an e-book, let alone my Blackberry. It's a very cool thing, but how will the use of it actually shake out? How much availability of authors will there really be on-line at any moment in time? And will this be another technological development that serves to reduce the actual amount of reading and books in circulation?

If you go to vook.com you can at least familiarize yourself with what Vook is and how it works.

Let me know your thoughts; it will be interesting to see how this develops.