Future Think
What's a publisher to do? Democrasoft, a Santa Rosa, Calif.-based software company that specializes in collaboration and engagement solutions, thinks it has an answer. In May, publisher Rosetta released Kurt Vonnegut's collection of commencement speeches, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young, as a WeJIT-enhanced ebook. A WeJIT, as it's used in an ebook, is essentially a landing page for a question embedded in text. Asking a question and popping a link into an ebook might not seem groundbreaking, but what lives at the end of that link is. In order to take part in the discussion introduced in the ebook, the reader needs to sign into the WeJIT platform via Facebook, Google or a WeJIT account. So the publisher finds out some useful data about its readers, as well as what those readers think is, say, the best Vonnegut witticism or, as per JD Messinger's WeJIT-enhanced 11 Days in May, if they believe in angels, or miracles, or a sixth sense.