Bedtime-Story™, LunchBOOK™, Illumination Thoughtware™
The SummerWood Partnership

JUST ONE QUESTION. The Topic is: E-BOOKS Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

This e-book is #3 on M.I.T.'s Invention Dimension!

The INVENTOR 1. Click on book name The Inventor, save to disk (it arrives in mere seconds) 2. Open 3. Your screen will pause briefly until the second box appears, saying "Installation Complete" 4. For future reading: Start, Program, Bedtime, Book Name; inventor or.....Start, Find, File Name; inventor.bat

The facts:

PUBLISHING PLATFORM FOR A DEDICATED READER

WHAT IS ILLUMINATION ?

Illumination is an electronic publishing program, designed with a very simple premise in mind--- the creation of self-reading, fully-illustrated electronic books.

WHY IS THIS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT? Illumination is the ONLY software designed to protect the interests of both the publisher and the publisher's customer, the end-user.

IS THERE A TRACK RECORD? YES!. Development of Illumination began ten years ago. Though today's features are more sophisticated, (we're now up to Version 7), not only today's books, but even the very earliest books ever created in Illumination can be read equally well on EITHER a vintage computer, or a brand new computer. No special software is necessary to read an Illumination book. You may either download a book from the web, receive it as an e-mail attachment, stream it from a server, or simply pop a floppy (or any other storage media) into your computer, and that's that.

HOW AND WHY IS THIS SOFTWARE DIFFERENT?
Most importantly, while it IS Windows™ compatible, it is NOT Windows dependent . It is not HTML dependent. Unlike Adobe or other such programs it REQUIRES NO SOFTWARE WHATSOEVER TO BE DOWNLOADED IN ORDER TO READ THE BOOKS.

It NEVER NEEDS SOFTWARE UPGRADES to continue reading the same e-book over the years. Each book is complete with its own reader software. This ALLOWS BOOK COLLECTIONS TO BE BUILT IN LIBRARIES, SCHOOLS, BUSINESSES AND HOMES. Consumers can be confident that the e-books they purchase today will not be rendered obsolete by tomorrow's technological advancements.

(Windows™, which is constantly changing, and the staggering array of XML and HTML add-ons and browser plug-ins, such as JAVA, Shockwave and the like, require a viewer to constantly upgrade computer software, just to be able to view websites or archived word processor files. Such is not the case here. Improvements, are simply incorporated on new e-books, without affecting viability of earlier e-books).

Illumination e-books can be read equally well by any IBM compatible computer, going as far back as a 386, and having absolutely minimal disk space. Users may expect no loss in speed. A 400 page novel with one hundred illustrations will fit on a standard floppy disk or can be transmitted by e-mail nearly instantaneously.

Would you like to see that sample Illumination BOOK first, and THEN learn more?

CAN'T BEAT THAT!

WHY ILLUMINATION™ IS TOTALLY UNIQUE.

  The specific design goals set forth by the program's creator back in 1989 were considered lofty.

The average Illumination books' content length was to be able to match books found in traditional print format, say, four hundred pages of fully formatted text, which would equate to a 90,000 word novel, with maybe fifty color illustrations. OR perhaps, a wholly-pictorial graphic novel or comic book of at least 100 pages. OR, a medium-sized, fully-illustrated textbook or technical manual. OR, an equally heavily-illustrated play by Shakespeare. (Yet, unlike traditional books, a significant number of the illustrations could also be animations.) 

In the beginning: It was decided that the entire contents of the electronic book and illustrations, along with the books' own self-extracting reader software, would have to comprise no more than 1.3 megabytes. Which is to say, the whole thing would have to have such a sophisticated compression ratio that the book, the graphics, and the software to read it, must all fit comfortably on a single, standard, inexpensive floppy diskette.

It would have to possess the capability of being distributed over a telephone line, as a simple e-mail attachment, and it would be expected to travel at 100k or better per minute.

The contents of each electronic book would have to be instantaneously viewable, without any wait for pictures to appear.

Each Illumination book was to be viewable on virtually any age PC, the same equipped with nothing more complex than DOS 2.11 or higher, 1Mb internal RAM, a 16-color VGA video card and monitor, and a hard disc of almost any capacity.

A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT DOS & CE machines: Almost all of the computers already in use all over the world have DOS installed. Illumination e-books can be read on all of those machines. Microsoft is now aggressively pursuing the ebook market, where it anticipates earning a percentage of each e-book sold. MS CE equipped machines are not compatible with the world's existing computers, nor have they been equipped with DOS. Instead, Microsoft's proprietary e-book reader software is being included in the software bundle for CE operating system handheld.machines. Microsoft's e-books are not backwards compatible. Illumination e-books are, they can be read on, and are compatible with, more computers than any other e-book platform in existence, anywhere in the world. TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS & COMMON SENSE: Imagine you have an executable PC program that you wish to download and run on another computer (for example, a Windows CE H/PC). If you try to run this program on the Handheld PC (H/PC), it will not work for the following reasons: Different operating system: PC-compatibles run an operating system known as the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS or DOS for short). H/PC's run Wndows CE which is incompatible with MS-DOS. Different processors: The processor in the H/PC is unlikely to be an Intel x86 compatible chip and hence will not be able to understand the machine code instructions contained in the executable program. Different machine architectures: The H/PC has a totally different machine architecture. That is to say, the memory will be laid out differently, the peripherals will be different - both in the chips used to control them, and the addresses and commands they respond to. What is needed is something to provide a bridge between the PC program you wish to run, and the machine you wish to run it on. What is needed is an emulator. The emulator should be able to take your program and make it generate the results you would expect had you run it on a standard PC, thus effectively turning your H/PC into a PC. This rather begs the question 'Why bother?'. The answer is that there is a lot of software available for the PC, a very large amount of which is streets ahead of its Windows CE counterparts in terms of usability and often functionality (Source: XT-PC.com). DOS emulators are now being independently developed. One such emulator (a 640 x 480 color DOS emulator) has been developed by XTM for the Psion NetBook.

Fortunately, Illumination's visionary creator also prudently planned ahead.

Should the world's operating systems ever begin to change, he reasoned, (from DOS to CE or to Linux or to GEOS, for example), Illumination would simply have to possess the ability to render that change irrelevant.

Which is to say, we can do darn near anything with it.

The original version took well over 36,000 hours of programming of course, but, not only does it work, it's been working quite nicely thank you, for several years now, and we keep improving it without disturbing access to existing books.  

In November 26, 1999, SummerWood was pleased to announce that
ILLUMINATION NEEDS NO EXTERNAL OPERATING SYSTEM.

The SummerWood Partnership is a joint venture between Illumination's U.K. based developer, Dr. MartinWoodhouse, and the the U.S. based engineering firm The Summerland Group. Until inception of the SummerWood Partnership, Illumination had been employed for the most part, in a geographically controlled market, where it was used to create the occasional technical and service manual for a handful of smart companies who were absolutely delighted to discover that Illumination both enhanced and increased productivity of their representatives and engineers. It did so by permitting those employees to access vast quantities of data and diagrams on their notebook computers, for the benefit of themselves and their customers, instead of forcing them to drag around several hundred pounds of paper in three-ring binders.

Once an accord was reached between Summerland and Woodhouse, members of the new venture, SummerWood, began implementing directional strategy, evaluating potential program enhancements, and drafting a procedure for practical implementation.

LunchBOOK ! TOMORROW'S TECHNOLOGY + COMMON SENSE

The SummerWood Partnership also took on the task of designing moderately priced, user-friendly, single function reader products named LunchBOOK™ .

LUNCHBOX? NO ... LunchBOOK

LunchBOOK has a rugged, colorful and kid-proof lunch-box style chassis, easy viewing screen, along with point and shoot simplicity of operation that even non-computer users will enjoy.

Smaller, pocket-sized versions were also envisioned.

Universal appeal pocket versions are similar to handheld game units, having slightly larger display areas. Illumination's full screen display, its brightly colored illustrations and Bedtime-Story fonts will make this compact, inexpensive little unit enormously appealing, as well as reader friendly. An amazing number of DOS based games will fit on a standard floppy disk. The exact same reading unit could also be imprinted with an alternate name, to provide additional appeal to game playing boys. This unit allows a user to read comic books and adventures, and play games. Illumination e-books of course can reside on virtually ANY type of electronic storage media, including GameBoy type cartridges, CD ROM, Flash, etc.

The primary imperative in the logic behind creation of the single purpose handheld, is the realization that reading is not computing, and a book or a catalogue for that matter is not a computer database.

As pioneering experts in Virtual Officing, Telecommuting, and Home Offices, and possessed of a very great commitment to Education through computing, The Summerland Group had a highly-developed awareness of consumer habits, practices and attitudes, derived through research for its line of award-winning computer furnishings known as The OFFICE® and The Learning Station™.

Summerland had learned early on what computer users do, why they do it, and how they feel about what they are doing while they are engaged in the task.

LunchBOOK™ will complement the practical function of Illumination. It embodies the elegance of simplicity, and possesses an intuitive nature, which, like the most basic television remote control, will permit even a five year old to just push a button to make it work.

You don't need a lengthy tutorial to pick up a book and read "The Cat In The Hat", do you?

Hewlett-Packard is just one of the manufacturers who have been evaluating the commercial potential for handheld readers for the past several years:

Today's consumer is significantly different than the consumer of five years ago.

In 1995, a consumer was forced to accept what his local retailer had to offer.

In the year 2000, as a direct result of the internet, today's consumer has the tools with which to instantly evaluate products and make informed decisions. More importantly however, the consumer has the ability to instantly act on those decisions, by keying in an electronic check or credit card number.

Access to a library which never closes, the ability to share thoughts and ideas and experiences with total strangers anywhere in the world, has never before been available to the masses.

Electronic books and electronic book reading devices must be appropriately responsive to actual consumer needs.

It is important to remember that the consumer has the ability to evaluate an electronic book from the comfort of his own home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

At the same time, traditional book publishers must be sufficiently confident that books, their intellectual capital, and hence their company's respective financial futures, will not in any way be placed in jeopardy, by embracing electronic publishing.

That most serious threat facing the traditional publishing industry today is the potential for its decision-makers to fail to heed the lessons of the music industry and the software industry.

Case in point; If you own 8-track tapes, you can no longer access the music on them. If you visit a web site and do not have the latest plug-in, you can no longer experience what lies within. HTML standards are frequently ignored in the quest for personal or corporate techno-glory. Were this type of situation to be permitted to cross over into the traditional publishing arena, the outcome would be predictable.

RECOGNIZING THE NEED FOR A COMMON GROUND

Products such as Softbook™, Rocket e-Book™, Glassbook™, EveryBook™, and the like, are each dependent upon software technology which by its very nature, is subjected to constant change and prior version obsolescence.

The initial monochrome e-book offerings by NuvoMedia, for example, could only be read if one happened to own a Rocket eBook reader mechanism. NuvoMedia next began experimenting with books readable over the web, but in the style of the original hardware configuration. Thus, Rocket eBook text is displayed within the borders of a decorative online graphic, a "skin", and occupies only a portion of the viewers actual computer screen. Because of the vertical page configuration, the user is typically required to either scroll downward in order to view an entire page of a book, or rotate viewing angle of the hardware graphic, which in turn slightly skews page layout. Rocket eBooks are engineered to be read on IBM-compatible computers having a 486 or faster processor running Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0. Some 10 megabytes of hard-drive space are required for the software, but 16 megabytes of RAM are recommended. Unlike Rocket eBook, Illumination books are in color, and are viewed full screen. There are no browser or word processing toolbars which command part of the screen, no redundant graphic distractions, or reduced viewing areas. In other monochrome entries, Softbook™ employs HTML and Windows compatible technology, and EveryBook™ relies upon Windows and Adobe technology.

On-screen Viewing Comparisons Below: RocketE-Book Below: RocketE-Book on a PC Below: Illumination on a PC Illumination displays full screen Below: Illumination on a Toshiba Libretto handheld Below:Illumination on a Ricoh Magio mini

When Windows evolves, as it must continue to do, what happens to the customer's e-book library?

The recently proposed EBX system proposed to define the way in which electronic books are distributed from publishers to booksellers and distributors, from booksellers to consumers, between consumers, and between consumers and libraries. It described the basic requirements of electronic book readers (the hardware), electronic book reader software and the electronic books themselves (the content). It also described how these "trusted" components interact to form a comprehensive copyright protection that both protects the intellectual property of authors and publishers, and described the capabilities required by consumers. (I.e.- backward compatibility, etc.) In addition, the model described in general how products and revenue for those products are generated and managed.

Illumination long ago addressed and has already implemented and/or devised practical solutions to issues which were only recently being raised as possible concerns by proponents of EBX.

Unlike Gemstar's Rocket eBook & SoftBook, or MS Reader, or others, every Illumination book contains its own built-in reader software.What this means for consumers, is that Illumination is in no way dependent upon operating platforms such as Windows™, thus, it remains totally unaffected by whimsical ego-vagaries, and the downside of software developers intellectual "one-ups-manship" which continues to plague the software industry.

In their zeal to add even more complex bells and whistles, thereby dazzling their peers, hardware and software companies routinely fail to take the practical concerns of their customers into consideration. The result is near disastrous.

The majority of the business world, for example, has important files which were created in programs designed for an earlier version of whatever their present operating system might be. In almost all cases, those files were automatically rendered inaccessible to them, once they upgraded to the current version of their operating system.

Yes, a handful of those two or three or five year old files could be made available to their creators again, for the moment anyway, providing of course they agree to purchase and download yet more software.

The question is, why should they have to? And more importantly, how does one today gain access to a ten year old Windows based file? What happens when the next software version is introduced. Or the one after that?

But right this moment you could pop an Illumination book nearly a decade old into your computer, and it would still read beautifully.

That's a track record that cannot be matched.

Think about it.

LunchBOOK™, unlike sophisticated multi-tasking computers which require vast quantities of constantly upgraded software in order to function and keep pace, is simply designed to complement and enhance the electronic reading experience.

Illumination, (quite logically) employs a horizontal display, which mirrors the shape of a traditional book. The shape of a traditional computer screen was itself designed to mirror the shape of a book. The content of an Illumination book can make use of a line graphic in order to simulate a book style display. The purpose of columnar text separation book style, is to require minimal eye movement. This permits maximum content retention by the individual reader, while simultaneously preventing eye strain.

Horizontal electronic displays avoid the distracting mid-scene crease which disrupts a dual page graphic display in traditional, hard copy book versions.

Consumers eschew mutually exclusive on-screen electronic viewing platforms becauses they are illogical.

Portrait style desktop computer screens were long-ago introduced and rejected by the computing public. Scrolling is required to view a large image in a static PDF page. The larger display is also needed to view text in readable size fonts.

Miniscule print results when a PDF document is displayed full-page on a computer screen.

Portrait style e-book displays therefore would be counter-intuitive to the end user market for ebook hardware and software.

Illumination books can be viewed on a PC, on a Notebook, or a Laptop, on an ancient PC or Laptop, even on a marginally functioning computer.... SO old you figured you'd just give it to the kids to play with. The book will perform superbly on each of them.

With Illumination, even the poorest of schools in inner-city neighborhoods will have the ability for their students to read e-books and e-text books on donated computer equipment, regardless of the equipment's age or implied technological obsolescence.

Think about that too.

No other e-book contender can do this.

Developers of electronic publishing programs such as Adobe Acrobat™, (whose program is Windows dependent), could easily find themselves up the proverbial creek, should Microsoft do something wonderful, but commercially destructive, with Windows 2000, or Windows 2010 for that matter.

Illumination, however, would simply go right on publishing user-friendly, universally accessible, 8086-based books. As technology progresses, its capabilities will increase exponentially. But without users losing access to data created in earlier versions.  

Which brings us to our point. The world cannot afford to lose creative literature, medical or science textbooks, instructional manuals and the like, simply because the platform under which the information was created, was, like Egyptian hieroglyphs, eventually superseded. To permit such a thing to happen would be tantamount to intellectual suicide.

Creators of The Gutenberg Project, begun in 1971 to translate and preserve a significant portion of the world's greatest literature in electronic format, had earlier reached a similar conclusion.

Electronic Texts (E-Texts) created by Project Gutenberg were mandated to be made available in the simplest, easiest to use forms available. They employ "Plain Vanilla ASCII," meaning the low set of the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The reason for this is that 99% of the hardware and software a person is likely to run into can read and search these files.

Illumination follows a similar thought process. And since Illumination runs under and requires the standard ROM BIOS system, LunchBOOK™, which is designed to run Illumination, will also be able to produce plain ASCII on screen.

While ASCII preserves text, it does so without the ability to convey or display the author's original literary emphasis, ( i.e. - italics, underlines, and bolds) By contrast, books created in Illumination, similarly accessible by the overwhelming majority of the world's computers, whatever their age or memory constraints, can replicate not only the original text, and emphasis, but the original illustrations as well.

From illuminated manuscripts, to children's literary classics, illustrations which accompany a book's text are, and have always been, an integral part of the book.

As earlier noted, the contents of Acrobat™ documents are inaccessible without the current version of software download. The download reader itself exceeds 5 megabytes. The execute program alone is 2.1 megabytes. So, it takes the better part of THREE floppy disks just for the Acrobat™ program - and that is what's required before you can even to begin to access the text of a book or article.

The earliest books and texts created in Illumination remain as attractive, and as readable today on any PC, as they were back in the late 80's.

Big Blue : Illumination publishing pioneer. IBM published its first Illumination e-book, entitled EXPLORE DIAL IBM back in June of 1993. The ebook, in color, and with animations, published on a standard floppy disk, was a manual with a clever 20-page color cartoon introduction, followed by roughly 300 pages of hard-data instructions. The user-friendly e-book captured and held the readers attention, then told how to connect your IBM PC to a mainframe in an emergency, for diagnostics and instructions when your own mainframe went down. The introduction was all about a spaceship, a bit like the Starship Enterprise. The ship's (animated) Matter Transporter is disrupted by the electric storm from a nova, just as the ship's computer spares are in the midst of arriving, so the crew is lost in space and can't contact Command's computer. Panic ensues, and there's an Artoo-Deetoo-like character called Coffee Bot whom they strip down to build an emergency communicator, with which their engineer contacts base, and, well....you get the idea User-friendly, practical, quite brilliant actually.

Software product improvements and refinements are simply incorporated on subsequent Illumination ebooks, without in any way compromising the validity or continued usability of the initial publications. It's a bit like a publisher discovering and implementing a better glue for the traditional binding process, or switching from offset to digital printing methods. Neither would concern the consumer in the slightest, as long as the valuable content of the book already on his shelf is unaffected.

The idea makes sense, doesn't it? We certainly thought so.

You also don't need a mouse to read an Illumination book. Why should you? You don't need a mouse to read the latest Ludlam novel, or an issue of Scientific American, or a volume of Shakespeare, right? When you read a book printed on paper, you turn the pages. You use the contents page or the index, and you either fold a corner down or stick a bookmark between the pages as a reminder of where you left off, if you are interrupted.

 Now, because it makes sense, you can do all of these things on an Illumination book. No mouse is needed, you simply press a button to turn the page. You can flip through the book to any section you'd like to read, and you can slip a bookmark between the pages.

Again, the supreme Elegance of Simplicity.

CREATING AN ILLUMINATION BOOK  

An Illumination book can be written on any IBM-compatible machine with 640k of memory, a hard disk, and a 16-colour VGA screen, (which must by now cover nearly every such machine in the world). This gives us, to say the least, a large user-potential. Windows, of course, can't do quite a lot of the things which Illumination takes in its stride.

Illumination will next offer 256 colors, but we've been able to do some pretty impressive stuff with the 16 color palette for the past decade.

16-COLOR IMAGES, 3-D and ANIMATIONS could be chosen from any of 262,144 tints. Any number of images could be in the same book. Each new page could even use a different palette from those on prior or subsequent book pages.

Almost every graphic on this page is a mere 16 colors. A variety of different art styles are represented as well.

The little bear? Ah yes. Well, he was told to sit there quietly, but of course, bears will be bears.

Animations can demonstrate blood flow in a medical textbook, engine function in a technical textbook, assembly instructions in product manuals. They also permit virtual dissection of frogs in a science text. The animated frog which appears to have gotten loose here, is a mere 7 colors. The little animated train, is only 11 colors.

There is also no reason why Illumination cannot eventually use any number of colors you can think of.

An Illumination book or other document can be written for distribution or archiving on today's standard floppy disk, a CD-ROM, an LS-120 disk, or on virtually any electronic storage device. The standard floppy disk however, is inexpensive, user-friendly, and practically every computer has a floppy-disk reader built-in.

The 3 1/2" floppy disk lends itself particularly well to the needs of the millions upon millions of businesses for whom creation of a CD-ROM catalog, or high-end multi-page digitally printed product brochures, might be cost prohibitive.

The cost of a CD-ROM in large quantities exceeds a half dollar each, while the cost of a floppy disk is measured in pennies.

Because virtually every business today has a computer, and because Illumination produced books do not require acquisition of special software to read them, cost-savings for a company using Illumination can be substantial.

Companies who are currently forced to decline provision of an expensively produced catalog to what might have been a new customer, (simply because it was cost prohibitive to take a chance on what might not be a sure sale), or companies who routinely have to charge customers for their catalogs, (thereby significantly lessening the possibility of gaining that customer's business), would suddenly find not only reduced marketing costs, but new avenues for revenue.

The same holds true for the creation and distribution of educational materials and teaching tools. The popular Weekly Reader, for example.

COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL

 The commercial reality of Illumination does hold staggering import.

The ability to simply click on an e-mail attachment, save it to a file, double-click on the self-extracting .exe program and in approximately 5 SECONDS have a complete book, along with "a blue million" color graphics, animations and photographs already fully loaded, is nothing short of mind-boggling.

Visualize, if you will, a scenario. A traveler, between flights. In search of something to read. A novel perhaps. The traveler approaches a giftshop or stops at a kiosk, developed perhaps for Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, or Borders.

The screen displays an overhead rendering of the familiar store layout. The traveler can visit the book section of his or her choice, select from author or subject matter, view the book's color cover art and read a brief review, swipe a credit card, make a selection, and, as simply as operating a candy machine, purchase the book of choice.

Note: A second style Illumination book-vending kiosk for use in locations where online ability is unavailable, actually will make use of candy style vending machines to dispense a selection of Illumination book disks.

Blank or prerecorded disks are restocked periodically. Title popularity/customer preference and royalty information is easily tracked and computed from online download records.

The kiosk is online. The books are Illumination. There's no two or three day wait for "fast delivery". The entire book can be purchased right then and there. There is no possibility that the kiosk will be out of a particular title, because the book is downloaded on demand. A keyboard permits the traveler to request a featured title, or search, if the exact name escapes him, or the traveler can browse all titles in that category. The Illumination books can be read on a notebook or on LunchBOOK™. Both the books and LunchBOOK™ itself can also be available from from airport newsstands/bookstores.

Did the traveler forget someone's birthday? Not a problem. A book would make a wonderful gift. But one needs a card. Again, no problem. Just touch the screen's Hallmark card aisle, select a category, view cover art and interior text, and make a selection. A signature and short personal note can be inscribed via the keyboard.

A gift really should be packaged, so Illumination will offer the purchaser a selection of paper and ribbon in which to virtually "wrap" the book. There you are, a lovely gift wrapped present, complete with card.

Want to include a bouquet of virtual flowers with the book and card? You're in luck. It's available. Here are the bouquets. Just take your pick. Type in the e-mail address to which your selection is to be delivered, your return e-mail address, and press "send". A receipt for your purchase will be e-mailed to you.

Oh yes. Have a nice flight.

Remember, theres was no wait for any of the graphics to appear, no requirement to go somewhere else to purchase or download a plug-in in order to read it, the book is simply there, in its entirety, ready to read. That's all there is to it.

The "green" concerns for newspapers and the like, can overnight become a non-issue. No trees will have been destroyed, and the growth of the world's landfills would slow measurably.

Additional forms of revenue?
There are multiple licensing and publishing opportunities.

Bedtime-StoryCard™

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Illumination disk inside

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New Toy from Manufacturer

We Create Custom Story

Promotional Stories w/Product Ads Stories to Accompany Products Marketing Mailer for Product Cereal Box Premium McDonalds Giveaway Each story has an ad page at end.

Swell Story Related Downloadable products Get the Music - See the Movie Buy the Toy - Get the Game! Impulse Sales Revenue from last page Ad.

Characters Use A Product Lets make a card for Grandma! Advertising Revenue

Bedtime-Story and New Products. We can create a custom story to tell about something interesting (the history of band-aids, for example), - (Learning Adventures - Ordinary things, Not so ordinary backgrounds. Cool!) . We can also integrate a product into an existing story which has an ideal opening to use that product, then linking to Learning Adventures.

Fortunately, Teddy Bears are remarkably resilient and there was no permanent damage. AG Bear was rather looking forward to sporting a tiny Band Aid on his head, though it was mostly going to be a badge of courage for the one weensy little stitch he had required. Fortunately, Miss Amanda’s Mommy always carried needle and thread inside the family’s first aid kit .

Little kids love to get their own mail. Annual Subscriptions make great gifts. eBook of the month club type stories can arrive with the postman. So can the child's very own book reader. eBooks can also arrive at school with the Weekly Readers. More exclusive stories and games can be ordered and delivered online right away, with no wait at all.

Traditional Publisher Book

Converted to Illumination. Sold by the publishers authorized retailers. Acquired via download or sold anywhere that traditional retail cards, gifts, or books are sold. Illumination disk Bedtime-Story Collection from Scholastic, Golden Books, Pocket, etc. Retailers authorized to market companion handhelds

Publisher's Featured Bedtime-StoryCard™

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Illumination disk inside

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The world already has computers, and there's no point in reinventing the wheel just to read an e-book, so LunchBOOK™ for Illumination is single purpose. That's because it needs to be reasonably priced.

As time goes by, SummerWood not only projects, but expects the typical family to have several of these devices in the same household, perhaps with magazine-size as well as book-size viewing screens. The logic; More than one person reads at a time, and consumers are accustomed to the convenience of different sized pages. Multi-function computers are expensive. Single-function readers are not.

SCHOOLS

Efforts have been ongoing to make changes and develop educational standards for all Americans since the publication of A Nation at Risk, which stated that if something wasn't done to change its educational system, the United States would lose its role as a world leader.

The national Educate America Act has provided individual states within the U.S. with the opportunity to further their respective reforms by funding plans for change and improvements. Specifically, Section 317 in this Act requires state planning for integrating technology into the curriculum in order to improve student achievement. The Educate America Act has been welcomed as a partial funding mechanism to continue planning and implementation of educational improvements.

Even the most educationally and financially challenged of states have recognized and seized upon this opportunity to propel their students into the future with greater opportunities for success than might ever have been envisioned without computer technology.

It's evident that paper based versions of books and newspapers are heading the way of the dinosaur. Not tomorrow, of course, but in the immediately foreseeable future. The impetus which will fuel the change is that ;

1. The technology exists
2. It's better
3. It makes sense economically to begin the shift.

Which is to say, that to be considered "something better", the product to be adopted must demonstrate a high degree of consumer acceptability, it must save the company money over their present mode of operation, it must offer new avenues to make money, and it must be viewed by their stockholders as the virtual equivalent of having just struck gold.

Something better has just arrived.

This ALSO means that cutting edge learning materials are about to become available to all students, at a fraction of their former cost. Gone will be heavy, bulky paper volumes, torn pages, and age-old problem of not enough books to go around.

Illumination electronic versions of textbooks and literature coupled with Donated* computers, can bridge the gap between "have" and "have-not" school districts, until there is sufficient funding available for each and every student to have access to a new computer. When that happens, the exact same Illumination library can simply be transferred to new machines.

In the meantime, the limited number of new computers in a classroom, can be augmented with older, but perfectly usable computers, equipped with Illumination based learning materials. *Computer donations originating from Corporate replacement of older machines with new, cutting-edge technology models. At right, children are using The Learning Station, another of Summerland's products, which was awaraded International Grand Prize at NeoCon, the World's Trade Fair, in June of 1999.

THE REST OF THE STORY

AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE: The Summerland Group created, and has been the primary sponsor of "Bedtime-Story", for Busy Business Parents", which is the Number One Children's Story Site on the Web. Bedtime-Story, which has garnered an impressive awards collection, is second only to Disney in the number of tales recommended to readers by About.com's guides.

HIGH QUALITY CONTENT: Since Its Debut in 1996 - Bedtime-Story has functioned as a cooperative effort, giving talented authors and illustrators, both published and unpublished, the opportunity to familiarize traditional publishers, as well as the parents of young readers, with the quality of their creative work. Bedtime-Story has been staffed by professionals as well as other dedicated volunteers. The site is a front page feature on the highly traveled, award-winning business web site, Home Office Mall, which was named by Windows Magazine to the 1999 list of 101 Best Business Sites on the Web.

Bedtime-Story has content which is designed to encourage literary and artistic creativity. Its all-volunteer staff mentors, and provides editing as well as encouragement, to talented authors and illustrators, whose works will undoubtedly influence young minds. We support and encourage a strong parent-child relationship. We select works for publication which are judged to be as entertaining for the adult as they are for the child, with the intent of fostering a positive shared experience that will remain in the child's memory for years to come.

Besides, we like to read the stories ourselves

Stories Accepted For Inclusion Receive prominant exposure along with a short bio of the author/illustrator, live contact e-mail link, (and, if the book is in print, a hyperlink to the book's purchasing location).

PERMISSIONS - Permissions for Bedtime-Story website publishing, cassette or other style recording, or reprints of submitted works in Best of Bedtime-Story Collections are automatically granted by each Author/Illustrator, in exchange for professional mentoring, editing, and showcasing the submitted representative sample(s) of the Author/Illustrator's work.

A Word About Qualifications for Submission Acceptance. Anyone can write, and many sites will accept and publish literally anything that's offered to them.

Bedtime-Story chooses to accept works by those who write well.

Bedtime-Story requires its authors to think their stories through. Plots must make sense. Rules of basic grammar must be applied. Writing is expected to be cohesive, with the train of thought flowing smoothly from one paragraph to the next. And because many of the tales are read as Bedtime-Stories, we request satisfying endings, which encourage pleasant dreams. Lastly, the tale must be as pleasant for the adult to read as it is for the child to hear.

A featured section on Bedtime-Story, entitled Stories Worth Talking About, is designed to assist individuals, families, psychologists, and educators to open a line of dialogue with children, family members, or often with their own hearts, about any event, any situation in life found deserving of our thoughtful contemplation.

Authors whose stories have been selected for inclusion in the Stories Worth Talking About section, have displayed the ability to quietly impart and encourage wisdom, sensitivity and understanding. Stories may touch on the loss of a princess, a parent, a friend, even a much loved pet. Characters may deal with a family's relocation, the sadness of leaving friends behind, children in foster homes, or families struggling to work things out. Stories selected for inclusion in this section are part of an exceptional, but more importantly, a healing collection of tales, which may be read and clearly understood by visitors as young as 6.

TOP NOTCH ILLUSTRATORS: llustrators requesting inclusion of their works encounter similarly high expectations. At Bedtime-Story, illustrations are expected to not only compliment, but to concur with the story line. Characters and scenes must be portrayed as originally envisioned and intended by each Author. The world's best illustrators take the time to not only read a story, but to make themselves aware of subtle details and portray them accurately. We consider this the mark of a professional.

MAINSTREAM POPULARITY: BEDTIME-STORY'S VISITORS SHARE THEIR FIND WITH FRIENDS, AND THEY TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE US AND SAY THANK YOU!

I work for Girl Scouts of Gulf Pines Council in South Mississippi. One of the programs we are presenting this year is called "Read to Lead". We serve about 5000 girls in a program during the school day. We are using short stories with this program. I came across your web site. It is wonderful!!! Everyone in our office who has children is going straight home and put this on as one of their favorites. Diane W. I have found this site one of the best and most family friendly sites I have visited in my four-plus, years of using the internet. I would like you to know that I have submitted your site to Apple Computer for review and, hopefully, inclusion in their iReview portion of their web site. I feel that this is a site that anyone should have on their toolbar for everyday use by all who use their computers. Stephen H. Just to say "thank you" for the fun you have given us and our 7 year old daughter, Lauren. It is so hard to find different stories for children, which are not scary or frightening in any way, and in which good always triumphs over evil. It will take us a long time for us to read all of them, and then it will be time to start all over again. You may like to know that Lauren's particular favourite is "The Pig Who Wanted To Fly", I know that I am not alone in crying buckets of tears over some of your stories - "Rainbow Bridge..." for one. Keep up the good work. From Linda, Andy and Lauren Fisher Swindon Wiltshire UK Your stories and your web site are beautiful. It's so hard to find quality material for children. It's even harder to find stories for children who have lost pets and friends or family members.(see: Stories Worth Talking About ). In February, my student Jorge died suddenly, within nine hours of meningitis. [Students read the Bedtime-Story tale, The Rainbow Bridge-for Michael at the school's memorial service for the popular fourth grader]. They loved The Rainbow Bridge so much. Again, thank you. You have and are providing a wonderful service. Sincerely, Denise Doherty - Kevin K. Coleman School - Woonsocket, RI Hello. I am a foster parent in Ohio and would just like to tell you that I am sitting here with tears streaming down my face. Thank you for such a wonderful story (Billy's New Home - For Foster Children Everywhere) . I am sure it will be a real blessing for many foster families to read such a book to all children. May the Lord Bless you. Ann Had to drop a note to you to express my delight and admiration for your wonderful stories. I am a grandmother and am so impressed with the concept of this Internet site. It surely will benefit all the overly busy dual duty parents in today's hectic world. My oldest son has been working 70 hour weeks, with lots of travelling, leaving too little time for his 5 year old son. This is a worthwhile solution to keep this computer-oriented pair in touch. Keep up the good works. Gratefully, Jerrie Kane My son and I read a story from your website every night; we think its great! Would you let me know when we can expect Peter Pan (Classics) on-line. We are really looking forward to it..........Thank you! Hello all I just happened upon your site today and it's just the best! I have added it as a link in my personal website and being a principal of a K-6 school I have also sent the link home in my school newsletter's great website section to 500 families. Just wanted to tell you what a great job you're doing for kids and parents. Regards Diane THIS IS GREAT. WE NEED MORE CLASSIC STORIES. ALICE IN WONDERLAND WAS GREAT. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. ONE SUGGESTION, NEED MOREPICTURES, AT LEAST FROM MY PERSPECTIVE AS A SECOND GRADE TEACHER AT STORY TIME. YOU GUYS ARE A THREAT TO THE BOOK BUSINESS, IN THE BEST WAY. REAL COMPETITION WITH A SUPERIOR PRODUCT, BOOKS ON SCREEN. I AM USING WEB TV SO I CAN PLAY IT ON A 27 INCH SCREEN IN MY CLASSROOM, AS SOON AS WE GET A PHONE LINE. WHICH WE HAVE BEEN PUSHING FOR OVER THE DECADES. MUCH LUCK AND PROSPERITY. DAN ZIFERSTEIN LYNWOOD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT LYNWOOD CA 90262 Hi. I work at an elementary school and have often used your site with small reading groups. Reading fun stories on the computers is a treat for our children -- they love it. Jill - MD Dear Bedtime-Story, Hello. I checked out your website and I really like it, especially the Alice in Wonderland. What a nice and pleasureable way to combine the different illustrators of this tale all together. I wanted to know, are you going to publish any of these stories? If you could, please e-mail me back because I would really like to order a copy. Thank you for your time, Erin Kant Subject: WOW. Dear Bedtime-Story, "The Cat Who Cried Oh-Wow!" Is one of the most wonderful stories I have ever read! I am a nurse and worked with Alzheimers patients and families. Your ablity to bring the respect and love to both the cat and the Grandmother is wonderful! You truley have a God given gift please continue this work! Thankyou, Stephanie Broome Thanks for the stories! I know that my children will enjoy them, too. Tonight I read them for my own bedtime stories. Maybe we read bedtime stories to our children as much for ourselves as for them. My dreams are always better if I've had a good story before I sleep. Again, thank you! - Joe Sands

All of which helps explain why Bedtime-Story is the web's premiere children's story site.

View a few of Bedtime-Story's AWARDS

CONTENT INVENTORY: There are currently better than two hundred tales in the combined online and in-process stages at Bedtime-Story. Many of those stories are multi-chapter tales.

New stories, and requests from artists to illustrate Bedtime-Story tales, continue arriving every day.

The Owl and the Pussycat, The Little Lame Prince, and Bedtime-Story's treatment of the classic Alice In Wonderland, into which the artwork of 9 of the original ( 1865 - 1920) illustrators has been woven, has sparked continued requests from readers for more of the same. Classic stories include fascinating backgrounds, (i.e.- the "making" of the tale) as well as capsule biographies of authors and illustrators. The number of tales in the pending classics section has not been tallied.

The popular Bedtime-Story will be used as the online test site for downloadable Children's Literature, published in Illumination.

LunchBOOK™ Get Comfortable.
The Future: CHANGING THE WAY THE WORLD READS

LunchBOOK™, lightweight, book-shaped, and user-friendly, in a familiar-looking, brightly colored rugged plastic case. We will have the opportunity to monitor use and consumer reception/acceptance of the units by not only students, but their parents as well, and within a tightly controlled environment. 

It's important to reiterate the fact that access to Illumination books is not limited to current model desktop PC's, Laptops, and LunchBOOK™ .

Instead, Illumination books actually have the ability to restore value to products widely assumed to have been rendered worthless by virtue of technological advancements.

There are a multitude of older Laptop and notebook computers gathering dust on closet shelves all over the world, simply because they are no longer considered powerful enough to function adequately in Windows 95 (and onward) computing environments.

They are, however, perfectly usable for reading anything created in Illumination, and can provide an immediately available piece of hardware on which an Illumination book may be read in comfort, while sitting at a desk, on a couch, an easy-chair, or reclining in a hammock, for that matter.

Since an out of date laptop on the top shelf of a closet is relatively valueless to a business professional who requires Windows 98 or beyond, it provides an ideal electronic library for a child.

Since Illumination e-books can be read off-line, this also negates a parents concern that a young child might inadvertently wander into an inappropriate online location, in search of reading material.

Once color display prices drop to a more manageable level, LunchBOOK™ will simply introduce a lighter weight, more familiar feeling reading tool for Illumination ebooks.

The Best Protection For Traditional Publishers

COMMON SENSE INITIATIVES IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Over the past few decades, electronics manufacturers, as a whole, have collectively rather failed to appreciate the fact that planned obsolescence of a particular piece of equipment, has the tendency to infuriate, as opposed to motivate the overwhelming majority of their customers.

How old is the oldest television in your house? How old is your VCR? How old is your microwave oven? Your refrigerator? Suppose you found yourself forced to keep upgrading these appliances every few months, simply to be able to continue to use them?

Suppose you couldn't read a book unless you had the latest version of the hardware and the software?

Literacy would plummet.

The goal here is that any Illumination book, in any language, anywhere in the world, will be able to be read on any computer, any LunchBOOK™.

The intent is not to in any way compete with or inhibit the technological advancements of Microsoft, Adobe or the many other fine software companies whose products are appreciated, but whose business success depends upon continually adding layer upon layer of bells and whistles in order to force customers to continually upgrade to their next version.

The purpose is simply to keep both the traditional publishing industry, and their book-reading customers, from being held for ransom by those same software giants (who quite logically have their own best interests at heart).

The SummerWood Partnership offers traditional publishers the means by which to seize control over their own destiny.

Over the years, both LunchBOOK™, as well as Illumination itself, will receive upgrades. None, however, will be permitted to destroy the viability or accessibility of preexisting books.

The book reading public, and Library professionals, reassured by the guarantee of "E-Books You Can Read Today AND Tomorrow" will be reassured as to the logic in making the transition to electronic versions, and thus will continue to add to their extensive book collections.

Common sense. We make use of it in everything we do.

CONSUMER RESPONSE TO The INVENTOR, ILLUMINATION SURVEY Here's a typical sampling of responses. Note that responses are worldwide. Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being best, lowest score received was a 9. We liked The Inventor very much. The download was good so it could be accessed later and the format was fantastic. When will you have more stories in that format? - Italy Thank you for a site full of new stories. It is midnight now, and my son is (hopefully) fast asleep, and I should be too! I have downloaded 'The Inventor', and we will explore it together properly tomorrow. And I will be back to make sure I have got a grip on the Illumination system. (I am not very good at this downloading lark!) Again, thank you Sara Hawkins & Adam (4 1/2) - United Kingdom I would really like to have a free floppy disk of "The Inventor". I have three boys ages 6,7,8,who love it! - Pennsylvania Other than the inventor, do you have any other downloadable stories? Do you plan on an adult section? - Dallas, Tx. As a grandparent I think this (Inventor ebook) is a great idea. I have sent links to about 15 of my friends and family. Doug - Louisiana I looked at "The Inventor." I am impressed. It was user-friendly even for children, the colors were outstanding, the format was impressive. Great. - (via Yahoo) Excellent story!! I can hardly wait for my grandchildren to get up to see it. I would rate it a 10. - CA. I just read The Inventor and was totally blown away - what a powerful story. I can't wait to share it with my 4th grade class - yes, I would like information on other stories. I am fascinated by the medium of online books anyway since being introduced to Peter Reynolds' The North Star. Thank you for a good read and a valuable contribution to the literary world. - NY I love your story on the illumination. Is there going to be others that I can read to my child from this software. If so could you please let me know when and what. My child is 7 years old. - WV Could you please send me a floppy disk copy of THE INVENTOR? Thank you. - Argentina i would like a A: disk of all the story book storys you have my daughter loves them thanks - UK Would like floppy disc of your bedtime story - Ireland Dear Sirs I have just finished reading this charming story to my 7 year old daughter, who has pronounced the whole Bed Time Story site "one of the coolest" she has seen. It takes the hard work out of finding a book to read together at bedtime, and she enjoys searching for each night's book. It also encourages her to use the computer and brings onher reading skills. It is a pleasure knowing that I don't have to read the book first to check the content, that it will be child friendly. I would certainly be interested in other Illumination E-Books for bedtime. - UK Would like to floppy disk of "Inventor" for my children. Thank you very much in advance. - Madrid, Spain re Illumination - LOVE IT! I'm suggesting it to my daughter-in-law for her three young boys! (via teleport) Hi, I just visited your web site. Amazing! Could you tell how I may be able to purchase these products and what ths likely cost would be. I live in the UK. Many thanks Arapahoe Library District would like to purchase the Summerwood LunchBook. Could you please tell me how to go about this? - Colorado Your product seems to be very interesting, but unfortunately yet to be seen in Israel. We have many reasons to believe that this product could be a big success in Israel, especially in schools and universities (we have wide connections in the education field). In fact, we are interested in distributing your product in Israel and in building Hebrew, Arabic and Russian data bases to be used with your device. - Israel Any word on the eval. LunchBook unit? Roger Yost Government of Manitoba We would appreciate all the additional information that is available. What do you have in your library? What are the costs? - Australia I really enjoyed your INVENTOR book. I liked the style of the writing and the illustrations were a perfect match. So YES I give it a ten, I would buy your ebook if the price were about like Golden Books...The problem is that you got me wanting to produce an ebook with your system.... I have an offer to write an ebook now, but due to the exact problems you mentioned about incompatibility of the readers and downloading large files or the reader I have been putting it off. I keep hoping to find what I seem to have found in yours -- a system that is light on memory and usable without special equipment. ...Please give me any details you can. I am very anxious to use your system. ...Thanks for giving me one of the most important books I ever read. - KY Subject: whoa! That was neat! How do I get more and more, and more and more titles to choose from??? Thanks. Happy Mom (via AOL) PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THE TALE THE INVENTOR TO SANDRA BASS, READING SPECIALIST, REDONDO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, THANK YOU KINDLY. - FL I just downloaded The Inventor and I am completely blown away! This is fabulous! My partner and I are starting an internet publishing company and we've been doing endless research on the best way to distribute our books. I must admit I've been less than thrilled with NuvoMedia and hoping to find an alternative. I want our books to be accessible to everyone, but it's looking like we will have to go with at least three different formats to get them out there! Please send me some information! I hope you can help.- WA Hello! I was fortunate enough to have stumbled upon Illumination while surfing through the web. I'd like to introduce the concept to publishers based here in the Philippines re E-Book survey - fantastic! - LA. Subject: I Rate it a 10 Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2000 22:05:02 EDT From: FHanzl@________ To: ebooksurvey@homeofficemall.com I rate it a 10, but where can i download more????? I liked the Inventor, but try as i may--i could not find anywhere on the bedtime site to download another story (to purchase or download free-either). I have a grandchild and nieces and nephews that i'm sure would like this but i can't find any other than the Inventor Sample. All the ones i'm finding you read online or are hardcopies ordered from Amazon through your site. Could you please give me the exact www. site. Many Thanks, paula

NEWS REPORT: King book shows evolution of e-book market (Reuters) SAN FRANCISCO, March 16, 2000 - The stunning demand for Stephen King's ``Riding the Bullet,'' published online this week, removed any mystery about whether an audience exists for books pushed over the Internet, publishing experts said Thursday...... Two days after its release, ``Bullet'' has been downloaded by a half million readers. ``There is no comparison to any print release I've heard of -- this is probably the most successful book launch of any type in history,'' said Keith Titan, Simon & Schuster's online marketing manager. The electronic book was continuing to generate thousands of downloads an hour Thursday .....The 16,000-word King novel was released Tuesday at a list price of $2.50, and given away free by some sites trying to publicize their electronic book divisions...... "

Continued implementation of SummerWood's business plan will be dependent upon securing adequate funding. To date, all funding for bootstrapping Bedtime-Story™ , Illumination Thoughtware™, and LunchBOOK™ has been provided by SummerWood's creators themselves.

To take any of these plans to the next level therefore, requires an investor (or a group of investor companies) possessed of both financial strength and directional synergy.

What we have makes good sense. It will also make rather a lot of money. Who's Who at SummerWood

If you would like to help SummerWood take to the air, now is definitely the time to talk to us. Come on aboard. It's going to be an exciting ride.

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Please Contact: The SummerWood Partnership in care of
The Summerland Group - Specialists in Common Sense Engineering
3451 SouthEast Court Drive - Stuart, Florida 34997 - Tel: 561-219-0455 - Fax: 561-219-0456
E-Mail: InvestorRelations@the-office.com
Non-Disclosure Document

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Copyright The Summerland Group.
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Innovative, Cutting-Edge Products and Services, Offering Logic, Common Sense, and Economic Advantage