You could say the publishing and technology industries are shrugging off conventional wisdom that says e-books have failed to spark a connection with readers.

To wit: Adobe Acrobat says usage of its eBook Reader software has jumped by 70 percent within a year and that about 300 retailers, distributors and libraries vend or loan Adobe PDF e-books today.

AOL Time Warner's book group says it's now up to about 520 e-book titles for sale in various e-book formats. HarperCollins' PerfectBound e-book imprint says it sold more e-books in the first 5 months of 2002 than in all of 2001. Simon & Schuster also says it is seeing double-digit growth in e-book sales.

Then there's Microsoft, whose MS Reader software is now sitting on an estimated five million desktops, notebooks, and Pocket PC systems. That's without even mentioning the software giant's recently-unveiled Tablet PC whose platform was built with e-books in mind.

These statistics are from the above-named companies who also happen to be founders of the Open eBook Forum, a group trying to advance the nascent sub-sector of the publishing world.

Herding everyone in the same direction on standards, which can be like herding cats, is part the charge for Nick Bogaty who recently joined the forum as executive director.

AtNewYork chatted with the former president of Rightsworld.com about his goals with the gig.

Q: What's the mission of the Open eBook Forum?

The OEBF is a standards and trade association for the e-book industry which was originally created and funded by tech companies such as Microsoft and Palm in order to create standards in the e-book creation process. We're working on issues such as the structure involved in publishing an e-book and digital rights management technology that everyone can agree on -- agreeing on features and characteristics that ensure a consistent product.

Q: How has your experience with Rightsworld (which shut down last fall) informed your work with the Open eBook Forum?

Rightsworld was trying not to be a DRM (digital rights management) company but rather was facilitating a marketplace for the exchange of rights.

Q: You don't see rights issues as being an impediment to the growth of e-books?

I don't see vast impediments personally. Publishers want to protect their content from piracy and tech companies want to build a system that satisfies the needs of both the publishers and consumers. So it's sort of finding a balance between those two things which we're trying to do.

I think that technology companies and publishers need to agree on a consistent set of ideas, which would result in the standards that have the effect of giving consumers a very clear idea of what they can do with an e-book when they buy an e-book. That needs to happen and it is happening. I think that's one of many things we're trying to solve that can help grow this industry.

Q: What are some of the other issues the forum is tackling?

First, we have a group addressing only DRM issues. We're also trying to develop a set of standards in the industry so that when a consumer buys an e-book it will be used in a consistent way. So if they buy from one publisher they have the same usage rights as they do when they buy from another publisher and in another format.

Another area is cost. We're trying to create a structure where production companies or production companies that work with publishers can have a set of standards on how to create an e-book. We've published two specifications along these lines. The ultimate goal is to make it cheaper to produce an e-book.

The third area we're working on is metadata and identifiers. And the goal there is to have consistent metadata so publishers can send one version of their book, with one version of metadata which distributors and retailers will be able to use. As you know, all print books have an ISBN number. A number system is what eBooks need to standardize too.

On the marketing side, we need to publish more books and provide more supply. We need more places to sell e-books and we need more ways in which consumers can read books, whether on handhelds, phones, Tablet PCs or whatever.

And really, these are obstacles no different than those facing any other industry. This is just another channel for publishing books. It won't replace paper, but will have a place alongside books, especially in the technology trade and education markets.