OT: You’ve described pageramming as “3G publishing.” What did you mean by that?

WF: I think I said “I don’t know whether it’s 3G publishing” which is a bit different. But, if you look at the web as a publishing medium, it contains words, images, music, video plus a host of other things that I can’t be bothered to think of. Pageram just brings these together in a different way.

OT: “Different” or “better”?

WF: Well, I just said, “different” so that is probably what I meant. There’ll be times that you want to read a book, times when you will want to watch a film, and times when you will want to rampage.

OT: That’s what it is called, is it? Reading a pageram is called “rampaging”?

WF: It is now because I just made it up. But, I want to make it clear that Rob and I both love books - we read a lot. Pageram.net is just a different approach to telling a story. Some people will like it - like we do - and others won’t.

OT: So, if it is “different” what are you doing that hasn’t been done before.

WF: From a technology viewpoint we are doing nothing new at all. From a story-telling viewpoint we are doing several things. For example, background and backfill can be added continually. And, you can interact with the characters.

OT: You’re using Facebook for that, and sites like Google and Amazon are quite prominent. Is there any tie-up with any of these?

WF: Only in my dreams. I feel a loyalty to sites that I like and use, such as Amazon and Ebay and iTunes. In a way, they are part of my life - and Rob’s - so it is natural that they should feature in pageram. Rob could have given them fictitious names but that is distracting to a reader. Rob says nothing defamatory about any of them - quite the opposite - so the real names are there.

OT: Is there not a danger that future pagerams could become overtly commercial - just an advertising vehicle?

WF: They could if Rob and I surrendered our principles and wanted to destroy pageram.net. The bottom line is that any story that appears on the site will have to be a story first and foremost. The links will be to whatever is relevant. If there is a brand or product that complements a page, then great. But anybody that tries to write a story as an advertising vehicle will be told to go away.

OT: So, coming back this “3G publishing” idea. If you haven’t done anything new, how can it be next-generation?

WF: I’ve never said it is - but anyone can see that it is different from current eBooks. If it is a step forward then it might be the next generation, but if it is just something new, then it is just “pageram”. Does this make it clear that I don’t care? All I will say is that I think e-Books sell people short. Publishers took a perfect item - a book - and produced it in digital form without adding any value. The fact that you can have hundreds of books in your reader is neither here nor there. I have never found taking several books on holiday a problem, so why did they bothered to solve it?

OT: So, nothing new and nothing different from a technology viewpoint?

WF: If you say so...........This interview is going nowhere, but I am going somewhere. Bye.

Will leaves and interview ends.