Evaluating the relevance of eBooks to corporate communication

Abstract

Once one realizes that eBook formats (and particularly the EPUB3.0 format) are portable websites that can be carried on virtually any digital reading device, it should be self-evident that in the future eBooks may play an important role in corporate communications. This is especially true if one considers that eBooks solve important problems such as website passivity (websites are only useful when readers actually come to the site). Rather than wait for readers to come to them, corporations can send the websites to their readers (e.g., marketing, training updates, contact information, documentation). This may become especially true of the new IPUB3 format. Because e-reader devices have become so ubiquitous and because most new devices can read most formats, corporations can count on their audiences being able to access the content. This paper examines many of the positives and negatives that eBooks in general and the EPUB format in particular might bring to corporate communication. In the end, corporations will almost certainly adopt some eBook technologies. The questions become which ones, for what uses, and how? This paper addresses these questions.