eBookWeb is on track for its official launch on the 4th of July. But building and running a large news and community site takes money, and one of our biggest priorities this week has been fundraising. If you or your company believe that there is a promising future for digital publishing -- and that there should be a place on the Web where we all define that future together -- please consider becoming an eBookWeb Supporting Member or Sponsor.
posted by Wade Roush at 2:21 PM

Articles about eBookWeb's debut have been turning up around the Web this week. Check out M.J. Rose's Wired News article from June 12, the full text of Rose's interview with Glenn Sanders and myself, and a radio interview with Dustin Revin of eBookAd.com.
posted by Wade Roush at 12:39 PM

Well, a lot has happened since my last posting! I've been so busy launching our new eBook site, eBookWeb.org, that I haven't had time to post regular updates. As things turned out, eBookNet's shutdown was the best thing that could have happened to Glenn and me. It spurred hundreds of people who are dedicated to the idea of eBooks to contact us with offers of collaboration and support. And thanks to the contributions of one very generous company, Rolltronics Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., we've been able to get to work building a new, improved online eBook community. The official launch will be on the 4th of July -- our own special Independence Day.
posted by Wade Roush at 2:21 PM

eBook fans: Don't worry. A new eBook news and community site to take eBookNet's place will be coming soon to a URL near you. In the meantime, please take a look at Moon Rock Remembrance, a little autobiographical episode that I penned last week.
posted by Wade Roush at 8:57 PM

I promise to lay off the eBookNet talk soon, but I just had to post this link to Bill Amos's latest column at KnowBetter.com. Bill was one of eBookNet's finest columnists, and has now found a home at Kelly Ford's excellent site. His new column, "Goodbye to a Good Friend," was quite moving for me. (And I thought I would get through this week without misting up!) He says eBookNet felt like "a cross between a neighborhood Starbucks, a branch library, and a community center," which is exactly what we were trying to do with the site. Thanks for the kind tribute, Bill.
posted by Wade Roush at 10:38 AM

Many thanks to everyone in the eBook community for your kindness and encouragement in the wake of eBookNet's demise. Your support has made this week a lot easier.

A story published two days ago on eBookAd.com sheds a little more light on Gemstar's decision to close down the site... Lauren Snyder, a company spokesperson, said: "We really felt that it was important to adopt a more focused approach to marketing the Gemstar eBook platform instead of promoting the eBook category in general. When the eBookNet site was conceived and launched, the eBook industry was barely visible in the consumer entertainment and new-media technology landscape. At the time, the site served a unique and useful purpose in increasing the awareness of, and generating interest in, electronic reading. And so, we feel the work done to date by Glenn Sanders and Wade Roush has certainly played a significant role in establishing the electronic reading category and we're so grateful for that. Today, due to their efforts and due to enormous press coverage, awareness levels of the eBook category in general is very high. We therefore feel that our resources would be best used by focusing on our content and technology licensing tasks."

I appreciate Gemstar's kind words toward Glenn and myself, but I hardly agree that awareness of eBooks has reached such a high point that a site like eBookNet was no longer needed. I'm thinking hard about whether and how eBookNet's mission can be carried on. Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone who has written so far with offers of support and cooperation.
posted by Wade Roush at 12:37 PM

In the Moving On Dept....I was as startled as the rest of the eBook community to learn yesterday that my (former) employer, Gemstar, has shut down eBookNet.com and phased out my job. I've temporarily joined the legions of Silicon Valley unemployed. The company told us that the move was a business decision. eBookNet was always a neutral, technology-agnostic site, and Gemstar couldn't see a way to support that while also marketing their own eBook devices and content. I regret the sudden disappearance of a site that executive editor Glenn Sanders and I spent so long building, but it was time to move on. I'm confident that eBooks will continue to infiltrate the culture, and I think that in some small way eBookNet helped to nurture this important technology and community forming around it.
posted by Wade Roush at 8:47 AM