As useful as you may find Sophie today, the current version contains only a subset of the features we've designed for it. As time and resources permit we have a long list of things we'd like to add, including:

• Hierarchical Library which can be sorted by author and genre
• Automated Updates
• Export of Nobook data in XML and tabular formats.
• Multimedia e-books and Notebooks
• Secure binary formats for commercial publishing
• Online library at RiverText.com for getting new books

Most of these features have already been architected, and some of them have been at least partially implemented.

The trick to giving away free software like Sophie is to find a way to subsidize the development effort. As publishers of commercial products, both of Sophie's partnering companies, Rivertext and Fourth World, rely on sales of those products to fund its development.

If you find Sophie valuable and would like to support its ongoing development, considering purchasing the If Monks Had Macs CD-ROM or one of Fourth World's products.

We can't promise your purchase will necessarily buy the time needed for specific Sophie features, but we can assure you that we feel Sophie has a lot of interesting potential and that your support encourages us to realize that potential. And in addition to supporting our work, you'll also get a great CD-ROM or a useful web publishing tool.

Publishing Tools for Sophie

In addition to expanding the Sophie reader application, we also have designs for publishing tools to convert, author, and publish Sophie e-books online.

Converting and Authoring

It would be feasible to create an application that could accept HTML, RTF, and plain text documents and import them into a specialized editor for marking up. The editor would have tools for applying styles to text, import images, and marking the text into sections and subsections.

Publishing Online Libraries

A specification has been made for Rivertext to establish an online library whose contents would be available directly within Sophie's Library window, as well as on the web. When accessed from the Library window books could be downloaded and automatically installed.

Once a Rivertext online library were completed, it would be a small effort to make a tool to help automate the packaging, uploading, and site management needed to publish your own books at your own web site. Schools and other organizations could publish collections for use among their memos, and Rivertext could maintain a directory of public libraries which could be natigated among within Sophie itself.

At the moment we're evaluating interest in such tools. If your organization has grants or other funding opportunities available for development and could benefit from such tools, let's talk. Click the Contact link above and let's see what we can do together.