Since the unfortunate demise of Noble Beast, I’ve gone back to the drawing board in search of\u00a0a technology platform\u00a0for Statisticity. There appear to be four\u00a0broad categories to choose from, each with\u00a0its own set of pluses and minuses. A quick summary:<\/p>\n
Ebooks<\/strong><\/p>\n The “traditional” ebook is the original\u00a0digitized book. The main advantages include\u00a0ease of creation, inexpensive production,\u00a0and readability across\u00a0platforms.\u00a0The main disadvantage is that, apart from very basic features like hyperlinked table of contents, ebooks\u00a0offer very little of the functionality I hope to incorporate into Statisticity.<\/p>\n Enhanced Ebooks<\/strong><\/p>\n Also called Fixed Layout Ebooks, these are basically new versions of Epub and Kindle that\u00a0incorporate\u00a0additional features like\u00a0audio and video. There are a few\u00a0startups\u00a0that provide authors with tools and services around these formats. The main advantages include ease of creation (no coding skills required), inexpensive production, and readability across platforms (although more limited than traditional ebooks), along with the aforementioned features. The main limitations are the slow adoption of these new formats and the limitations on look and functionality\u00a0when contrasted with applications.<\/p>\n Standalone Apps<\/strong><\/p>\n These custom-made applications (also called Native Applications) allow the author to incorporate just about any feature imaginable. However, they come with a host of disadvantages. First, they are expensive to make, and require advanced coding skills. Next, they generally work on\u00a0only one platform, and must be updated every time that platform undergoes significant change. Finally,\u00a0distribution is difficult and can generally be done only through specific app stores.<\/p>\n Web apps<\/strong><\/p>\n This form of application is\u00a0generally coded in HTML5, thus\u00a0avoiding some of the disadvantages of native apps (including the single-platform restriction, difficulty of distribution, and need for regular updates). However, web apps\u00a0are still expensive to make and require advanced coding skills, and they’re more limited than native apps in the features they incorporate.<\/p>\n Noble Beast’s platform was a standalone app framework that could be customized for each new project’s content, along with a dedicated team that promised to remove\u00a0many (but not all) of the disadvantages of this approach. With\u00a0NB\u00a0out of the picture, I’ve been flirting with the idea of using their platform anyway. But the difficulty of doing so has already become clear, and I am now\u00a0leaning towards one of the enhanced ebook formats that are gaining currency. Ultimately, this shift may prove to be a blessing in disguise…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since the unfortunate demise of Noble Beast, I’ve gone back to the drawing board in search of a technology platform for Statisticity. There appear to be four broad categories to choose from, each with its own set of pluses and minuses. A quick summary: Ebooks The “traditional” ebook is the original digitized book. The main advantages include ease of creation, inexpensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n