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I enjoy browsing reading books from when I was child.  You remember the one’s with illustrations on every other page?  It brought the story to life.  And it’s still a great idea; combining books and illustration.  Did we ever call them bookustrations?  Or illustrooks?

I saw the term Vook used for the first time this week.   Publishers have been rolling out mobile and browser-based apps that integrate text and video for some time.  But to go so far as to call it a Vook?  It’s seems about as strange as the first time I heard the word Blog.

So what is a Vook?

A Vook is a concept for combining a book, a video and the internet into a continuous experiential event.  You read the ebook, watch videos that enhance the storyline, and connect with others via social media all in one application, on one screen without switching mediums.

Verdict?

This could be just anther gimmick; exploiting the natural progression of integrating technology with traditional human interest, or is it a viable progression which demands such strange new nomenclature?  Will readers or watchers be called vookers?  Is anyone else bothered by the fact Vook rhymes with crook?

If you haven’t seen some of the new technology combining print and video, like augmented reality, you just might not be keeping up.  Combining print and video was certain to happen.  Or did it already happen.  CDRom’s combined text and video via the small screen in the 90’s.  I thought the original value of the world wide web was all about the ability to combine text, graphics, and video into navigable pages?  Sounds like a Vook?  A world wide Vook?

Surely, the real issue here is both mobility and ability.  Mobility in that you can take it with you via a mobile device.  And Ability in that you can combine mediums.  Sound like just another bet placed on a paperless society to me.   With or without Vooks, a paperless society will be a reality once our planet is covered in wireless bandwidth. Load’s of it.  Give me that and I will call it anything you like.

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