University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

Was going to post this as a comment on the BHL blog but they use
Blogger\'s native comment system, which is horrible, and it refused to
accept my comment (yes, yes, I\'m sure it did that on grounds of taste).
I read the recent post [Building a BHL
Africa](http://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2012/07/building-bhl-africa.html)
and couldn\'t believe my eyes when I read the following:  
  

> the \"BHL in a Box\" concept was highly desired. This would entail
> creating interactive CDs of BHL content for distribution in areas
> where internet access is unreliable or unavailable.

CDs! Really? Surely this is crazy!?. You want to use an obsolete
technology that require additional obsolete technology to ship BHL
around Africa? Why not ship relevant parts of BHL on iPads? Lots more
storage space than CDs, built-in interactivity (obviously need to write
an app, but could use HTML + Javascript as a starting point), long
battery life, portable, comes with 3G support if needed. I\'ll be the
first to admit that my knowledge of Africa is about zero, but given that
mobile devices are common, mobile networks are fairly well developed,
and tablets are making inroads (see [iPad has become a big factor in
African
business](http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/24/ipad-has-become-a-big-factor-in-african-business/))
surely \"BHL mobile\" is the way to go to provide \"BHL in a box\", not
CDs.  
  
Why not develop an app that stores BHL content on a device like an iPad,
then distribute those? Support updating the content over the network so
the user isn\'t stuck with content they no longer need. In effect,
something like Amazon\'s Kindle app or iBooks would do the trick. You\'d
need to compress BHL content to keep the size down (the images BHL
currently displays on its web site could be made a lot smaller) but this
is doable. Indeed, the BHL Africa could be an ideal motivation to move
BHL to platforms such as phones and tablets, where at the moment users
have to struggle with a website that makes no concessions to those
devices.  
  
**Postscript**  
Of course, it doesn\'t have to be the iPad as such. Imagine if BHL
published books and articles on Amazon, then used Kindle to deliver
content physically (i.e., ship Kindles), and anyone else could access it
directly from Amazon using their Kindle (or Kindle app on iPad).


Was going to post this as a comment on the BHL blog but they use Blogger's native comment system, which is horrible, and it refused to accept my comment (yes, yes, I'm sure it did that on grounds of taste). I read the recent post Building a BHL Africa and couldn't believe my eyes when I read the following:CDs! Really?

Postagens de Rogue Scholar

Building a BHL Africa: BHL in a box