by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Director of Audience Development, Digital Book World

Yesterday’s webinar, The Truth About eBooks: Devices, Formats, Pirates (Oh, My!), included informative, insightful presentations from Samir Kakar, CTO, Aptara and Joshua Tallent, Owner, eBook Architects, and they’ve both agreed to let us share them with a wider audience via SlideShare.

Kirk Biglione, Oxford Media Works, moderated a brief Q&A session after their presentations, and we also had some attendees live-tweeting the session, with some of the highlights including:

#dbw Kakar shows alphabet soup of ebook formats; notes challenges of formatting, charts, consumer expectations: multi-media, interactivity.

RT @slipdown: “Soon all ebook formats will move toward a standard” Really? Sounds like wishful thinking to me. #dbw

#dbw Kakar: “XML to EPUB is much easier because you’re not dealing with content inconsistencies… But QA must be done for every device.”

#dbw Kakar: “XML-first workflow is a must. Automation in digital workflow is critical.”

#dbw Tallent: “ePub is a good format, but it is not perfect. No automated conversion process is publishing-quality.”

#dbw RT @libraryhead: @jtallent DRM is not helpful for the long-term growth of the eBook industry (Kakar agrees.)

RT @EileenPaulin: My take on @jtallent #dbw Inconsistencies in ebook conversions guarantees job security for proofreaders.

RT @libraryhead: XML-first means massive retraining for production editors #dbw (New skill set needed; ambition helps, too.)

RT @jtallent LOL, of course developer will tout need for his services. However, most pubs are not able to do quality eBooks in-house #dbw

Search the #dbw hashtag on Twitter for more tweets about the webinar.