History of eBooks: From Dreams to Reality
It's amazing what a dreamer can pluck from their imagination and make a reality. In 1948 science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein wrote a book called Space Cadet in which he described students getting information delivered to them from information spools displayed at their study desk by projectors. Heinlein was dreaming about a technology that would make a book more than just words on paper. Heinlein dreamed of books becoming electric.
Decades later, 1971, Michael Hart, had a dream that computers could do something more than just "compute". He imagined that computers could be used to store and retrieve the information that we find in books. The first document he choose to digitize was the Declaration of Independence.
As the founder of Project Gutenberg, Hart liberates literary works with the help of volunteers who digitize and upload texts to the internet for anyone who wishes access to these works. To date, there are over 33,000 texts that can be accessed on the Project Gutenberg website.
How did the eBook move from being just a dream to becoming a reality?
I look forward to finding the answer with you.
Sincerely,
eBook-mom