ELECTRONIC BOOKSTORE/MAIL NETWORK PROPOSAL

                        by Kief S. Morris

PURPOSE

If we want to make strong strides in advancing Electronic Publishing,
a strong, dependable system for communication and distribution of
publications is necessary. The system must be accessible to as many
people as possible, especially those who are not (yet) seriously
interested in electronic publishing. It must provide a regular
distribution network, and it must provide as few obstacles as
possible for people to become involved.

                   *****ELECTRONIC BOOKSTORE*****

The Electronic Bookstore concept, as discussed by Ron Albright, Del
Freeman, and others (?), is intended to establish a regular
distribution system for electronic publications. This applies to
periodical magazines and newsletters, as well as books, and probably
other miscellaneous types of publications. 

The end-goal is to have BBS's around the country that carry a variety
of publications in their file directories, available for general
users to download. Sysops of these bookstores would be able to choose
the publications they want to carry, and also choose books and other
one-time publications. They must be able to get these regularly and
reliably, and with minimal expense.

Presently, publications are available from the publishers and a few
BBS's and national services where the publishers may have uploaded
them. It is difficult for a sysop to keep track of a hodge-podge of
publications and sources to irregularly get them from. Hence the need
for a single organization to distribute publications.

One option would be to work with one of the national on-line services
such as GENie or CompuServe, encouraging them to provide a place for
people to upload and download files, and message areas to discuss
E-Pub. In fact, the facilities are already there to do this. There
are three main problems with this. First, an organized campain must
take place to encourage publishers and potential readers & bookstores
to use the facilities. 

Second, these services cost money, especially for access to files.
There are much more economical methods available. 

Third, there is the desire not to hand this idea off to a large
company, which is likely to be far less enthusiastic about promoting
the concept. Besides, this is one of those rare opportunities for a
bunch of hobbyists with an idea which, despite its potential to
develop into a major industry in the next century, is ignored by the
big companies because it has little potential for immediate profit.

Instead, we are fully capable of establishing a national, and even
international network for distributing electronic publications. This
would be structured using the same principles, and even the same
procedures, as used by FidoNet. FidoNet is an "amateur" network,
comprised of hobbyists using run of the mill home computers and
software which is largely free or at least inexpensive. The exact
same setups can be used to support the Bookstore concept.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

A FidoNet BBS requires only a Front-End mailer, which is a program
that answers the phone and determines whether the caller is a human
caller for the BBS, or another Mailer calling to exchange mail and/or
files. Messages exchanged by mailers are either "NetMail", basically
personal mail directed to an individual, or "EchoMail", messages
which are a part of a message conference area shared by many BBS's
for public discussion of a topic. Mailers may also exchange files - a
mailer may make pre-programmed runs to send files to other BBS's, or
it may request a file for download from the BBS it is calling.

It is also worth noting than a Front-End mailer may be run without a
BBS. This is useful for users who want to receive echos
automatically, without having to call a BBS and download the latest
messages. It also enables someone to route mail or files as a part of
a network, without actually operating a BBS for human callers.

Note that downlinks will not be required to have a mailer set up, at
least not if the hub they call has a regular BBS running behind their
mailer. They can call the BBS via a normal communications program and
download the files manually.

HOW THE BOOKSTORE NETWORK MIGHT BE SET UP

The purpose of the Network is to provide a link between the
publishers and the Bookstore BBS's who will provide files to local
users. The simplest setup would be to have one BBS as the national
"hub" of the network. Publishers would be heavily encouraged to send
their publications to this BBS so that they could be distributed.
Downlinks would get the files they wanted to distribute from the
central BBS.

There would most likely be regional hubs, which would download
directly from the national hub, and bookstores would then be able to
download their "shipment" from a closer source. Ideally, the central
hub could be done away with entirely - publishers could upload to the
nearest regional hub, and the hubs would distribute files they get to
the other hubs. This presents difficulties in making sure that files
don't get sent to hubs which already have them, wasting LD costs.
Also, it means that hubs will have to bear the cost of sending out
files to each of the other hubs, which would certainly mean uneven
distribution of costs. Hubs which have more publishers in their
region will be making more calls than those who have fewer.

As for who calls whom and pays the cost for distributing the files
from the hubs to the Bookstore BBS's, it would be best for the
downlinks (ie the Bookstores) to call upstream to get their
shipments. It would be feasible for the hubs to call the boards on
their distribution list, but they would probably ending up charging a
fee to cover the costs - why not have the bookstores pay the phone
company direct, and save the hassle of billing? In local FidoNet
networks it is economical to have the hub bill the nodes which
receive files, because they can distribute the cost of calling the
regional hub LD between the local nodes, to whom calls are free. No
such distribution of costs would be available to us, since everybody
is making LD calls.

Technical Note: It is possible to make file downloading password
protected from the mailer. In this way, the average person couldn't
call in and get files, only those who are official members of the
network. This option may not be desired, but if there came the need
to charge a membership fee, or limit the time the phone-line is used
for getting pubs, it might come in handy.

PUBLICATION AVAILABILITY

The hubs would maintain a list of publications available, indicating
those which are regular periodicals, and which are book-type single
publishings. The downlinks could then choose which they wanted to
offer, and put them on the list of files to download from the hub. It
should be possible to have the mail system automatically call the hub
for the latest publications. The sysop configures this as part of a
weekly event. It is possible to set it up so a file will only be
downloaded if it is dated later than the copy currently on the
system.

                        *****E-PUB ECHO*****

Setting up a FidoNet echo on Electronic Publishing will be much
easier to set up - there are already hundreds of echos and a well
established system for distribution. The need is to establish better
communications between people interested in E-Pub, so that ideas can
flow freely. Currently, most of the discussion of E-Pub is taking
place on the DPA BBS in Alabama. In order to participate it is
necessary to call long distance to upload and download messages,
meaning that only those people with a strong interest tend to
participate. 

The quickest and easiest way to improve on this is to establish an
Electronic Publishing echo on FidoNet. Once the echo becomes part of
the main echo feed distributed by Fido hubs, it will be available to
any FidoNet BBS which wants it for minimal cost (My cost is 20 cents
a month). Once it is available on local BBS's, local callers can
participate as easily as they do in local BBS message areas. This
means that many more people will be able to participate in
discussions of E-Pub, and more people will learn about it. It also
means that people already interested in/involved in E-Pub will be
able to exchange info and ideas much more easily, frequently, and
cheaply.

I'm currently looking into the requirements for starting an echo, and
expect to get one going soon. The main requirement is to find FidoNet
sysops interested in carrying the echo, and getting people interested
in participating. 

THE FUTURE

I see strong potential for this to become an established system, and
a cornerstone of the future Electronic Publishing industry. We are
the pioneers of a new field, and although people nowadays have little
respect or knowledge of it, as technology and software advance the
form will become more and more viable as a mainstream industry. In
the 1970's the major computer corporations ignored the potential of
personal computers for the same reasons people ignore the potential
of E-Pub today. As a result, small groups of everyday individuals,
hobbyists like ourselves, developed the idea themselves and were
swept into greatness along with their once-small companies - Apple
being the prime example. 

Someday the publishing corporations will all be electronic, and we
may be the giants of the new industry, hailed for our vision and
fortitude, living in splenderous wealth.

Then again, we might end up living in cardboard boxes. Who knows?