On October 19, 2009, Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive Founder and Chief Librarian, introduced what he calls his “BookServer” project. Why should you care?  Because this is quite possibly one of the most revolutionary moments in publishing since the advent of the printing press.

The project founders say “The BookServer is a growing open architecture for vending and lending digital books over the Internet. Built on open catalog and open book formats, the BookServer model allows a wide network of publishers, booksellers, libraries, and even authors to make their catalogs of books available directly to readers through their laptops, phones, netbooks, or dedicated reading devices. BookServer facilitates pay transactions, borrowing books from libraries, and downloading free, publicly accessible books.”

The project’s goal is to create an open web of books where anyone can publish their books and make their content available via search. It allows publishers to set their own prices, going around companies like Amazon and Google, who have tried to demand price points that are often untenable and have kept some products off the e-reader market.

It avoids the DRM that have plagued readers like the Kindle.  DRM has kept many people away from purchasing books they “don’t own”.  It seems ridiculous that I can lend a hardback to my friend, but I can’t let him read a Kindle book that I’ve purchased, unless I give him my Kindle.

So far, only a few booksellers have partnered with the BookServer system including Feedbooks, O’Reilly, Adobe, and the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project, but I think moving forward, we can expect a lot more publishers to see the groundbreaking change happening with this project.