I’ve just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s novel “Little Brother”, which was an interesting experience for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it’s a great story.  In the aftermath of a 9/11 type attack on San Franciso the the Department of Homeland Security institutes draconian measures for spying on American citizens, using technology to track their every movement and detaining people on the slightest pretext.  The “Little Brother”, a tech-savvy high school student and his friends, fight back against “Big Brother”, using encrypted communications over the Internet to rally support (see this video on how protesters in Iran use technology to communicate).  The book contains extensive appendices on encryption technology and resources.

Secondly, I read the entire book on my iPhone.  I think that ebooks are going to be the way we read most books in the future, and the EPUB standard for ebooks is going to be increasing important, especially now that the new EPUB3 standard addresses many of the deficiencies of the previous version.

Thirdly, I read this book for free - as Cory Doctorow, a seminal contemporary science fiction writer and thinker, has made all of his works available for free in their ebook versions.  In a fascinating introduction to the book he argues, correctly I believe,  that “For me - for pretty much every writer- the big problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity” and “If you’re not making art with the intention of having it copied, you’re not really making art for the twenty-​first century”.