As far as media delivery goes, e-books are pretty flat. You get the book and maybe some notes or background info from the publisher, and that's pretty much it.
That's not good enough for Amazon. The company was just awarded a patent, which it originally applied for on November 24, 2010, describing a way to enhance your electronic reading experience with more personalized content -- not just from publishers, but from your friends as well.
The online retailer was granted a patent today outlining a "Customized Electronic Book with Supplemental Content" (Patent #8478662). It describes a way to enhance Kindle e-books by tacking on supplemental material provided by publishers or reputable sources. The e-books would be personalized by adding additional content within the specific interests of individual readers, or reader types. So, you could be reading A Game of Thrones and an additional story line or illustration (for example, a map) could be accessed from within the book, sort of like a DVD extra.
The additional material could come from the publisher, or from "trusted contributors." For example, a book that has been made into a TV series or movie could have additional story lines from those mediums, and this would allow the rights-holder to add them to the book. And while fan fiction writers would have a field day adding additional story to their favorite books, readers will only see suggestions about that additional content if they follow the creator of the extra material -- either as an Amazon author or contributor, via a friend relationship on social media, or if the reader has expressed interest in similar content created by similar contributors.
In other words, you're not going to be served random Brony fan fiction in your copy of Black Beauty. Unless you're down with that.
Fan-fic aside, this could be a great way for educators to add additional content to texts. A teacher could annotate an assigned bit of textbook reading or a piece of literature with notes that their entire class can access. Or, an expert in a field of study could add notes to a textbook that puts the material in a new perspective.
The patent outlines a way to manage this extra content via a multi-level e-book framework to be built by Amazon. The core content would live on one portion of the framework while secondary content would be added to other portions. Only the extra content relevant to your interests would be delivered to your copy of the e-book.
According to the patent, "content providers are looking for ways to enhance an individual's experience when reading a media item." If this is true, be on the lookout for enhanced e-books in the future from Amazon's Kindle store.
