Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do. Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”

These are the introductory words to Alice in Wonderland, and I can’t think of a better way to start my eBook story. It all started off with a conversation around the question of “what’s next?” It happened just over 2 years ago at the Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Conference with a group of innovative educational leaders. I had just shared with them about my school’s iPod program, and the question was posed as to where we should go next. The issue was that iPods were transforming from MP3 and video players into  mini touch screen computers. Kindles and other eReaders were entering the market at the same price point, and there was the dawn of the netbook computer. All these affordable tools brought about an interesting idea. If they could publish your favorite New York Times best seller as a eBook, why not a textbook?

We began to look at the possibilities – no backpacks, students just walking around with an eReader or laptop. If there were web enabled eBooks, they could be truly interactive including Alice’s wish of both pictures and conversation – in real time on the web.

In the digital age doesn’t everything start off as a digtial copy anyway? This should be easy! Then I fell down the rabbit hole.