Your favorite author’s new masterpiece in beta? Hiptype provides some really interesting analytics on e-books (sorry, not print). What chapters do users read? Where do you lose them? How many buy the book after reading the sample? Collecting both demographic info and reading habits in a small app, Hiptype supports “data-driven publishing.” Aside from the “cut chapter 20 from Moby Dick. It is way too boring” factor, it is an interesting concept.
Some of the criticism of the tool has been that it will result in homogenous, bland literature. (My favorite comment is: “mashed-potato clone books that no none will want to read.”) But all Hiptype does is provide information – how publishers use it will determine the starch level.
What if this type of technology were applied to e-textbooks? Could you extrapolate where the 10th grader is dozing off when studying chemistry? Or how many students quit the foundational physics video before the end? Hiptype also can support A/B testing. That could be pretty useful info.
There’s not much of a down side to collecting usage data, especially as media formats evolve. It doesn’t have to be used to modify the pivotal chapter in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It doesn’t have to, but it could. And it might make the material even more breathtaking. (Okay, not with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.)