Great to see B&N finally joining Publification and Kobo in leading the HTML5 cloud-based reading experience. This is the first step, but further democratization is needed for authors and readers alike. It not just about abandoning hardware and software restrictions (like with digital music)– its about delivering a totally new reading experience.
Publification allows authors and readers to interact with each other in the book directly. Social eReader lets you to see who is reading the same book along with you and to interact with them. This is the key to creating valuable discussions, community building, improved content. It is amazing to see UK Author Alan Moore interacting directly with his readers in his book “No Straight Lines” http://goo.gl/36ihm. There is no need for Amazon or Apple to serve as the middle man for the discussion, or to try to up-sell readers to movies, TVs or tablets through the proprietary reading platforms.