David Rothman

I'm a writer in the Washington, D.C., area.

As a newspaper reporter, I held down the poverty beat, one reason why I'm keen on the economies of e-book tech as a way to help close the gap between the haves and have-nots.

For the past two decades, I've been advocating a well-stocked national digital library system for the U.S.

I've appeared as a freelancer at one time or another in places ranging from The Nation to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

I write for the TeleRead.org e-book site and LibraryCity.org.

Years ago, I joined a friend in creating the OpenReader Consortium, which in turn helped prod the International Digital Publishing Forum, the main e-book industry trade group, into getting more serious about e-book standards.

The result was ePub format used by major publishing and tech companies ranging from Random House to Sony. Maybe someday Amazon will catch on.

I'm also the author of The Solomon Scandals, an uppity D.C. newspaper novel reviewed favorably in the Washington City Paper, and six other books.