rEDesign Education

While the nation has recognized the need for public education reform, students at the University of Michigan have decided to take matters into their own hands. Looking to reshape K-12 education from the bottom up, the student group rEDesign are seeking input from students. Let your voice be heard. Tweet your ideas to #rEDesignMyEdu @umichrEDesign.

Our Bookshelf: The DRM-free Ebook Lending Social Network – Guest Post by Greg Belvedere

Even with the rise of e-readers and e-books, there are unresolved issues such as the use of digital rights management (DRM) files that affect the sharing of e-books. Here is a guest post by Greg Belvedere about Our Bookshelf: The DRM-free Ebook Lending Social Network.

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Like many I have grown frustrated with the lack of convenient ways to share ebooks. Companies like Amazon claim to offer ways to do this, but they use DRM files and place so many restrictions on how you can share ebooks that few have taken advantage of them. On the other end of the spectrum sharing ebooks via Bit Torrent and other file sharing methods amounts to little more than piracy. Although very convenient, these file sharing methods do not respect the copyrights of authors and publishers. If these people can’t make a living we can’t expect them to keep producing quality ebooks.

In response to this problem I have found a way to make sharing ebooks as easy as sharing regular books, maybe easier. At the same time my method will respect copyright holders. I’m doing this by creating a DRM-free ebook lending social network. I have a clear concise explanation of how this will work on our website Our Bookshelf. In addition to this novel way of respecting copyright in a file sharing setting, I plan to build some interesting features into the site. I hope you will check it out and follow us on twitter @ourebookshelf and like our facebook page, so we can keep you updated and let you know when we launch the site.

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Greg Belvedere is the founder of Our Bookshelf, the DRM-Free ebook lending social network. He is also an adult librarian who works for Brookyn Public Library.