Start a Digital Book Club on Your BlackBerry [APPS]

Who says that reading is for antisocial people? Yesterday, Borders’s global e-reading service Kobo took the stage at BlackBerry DEVCON to demo its new social reading application for the BlackBerry Messenger SDK, which will allow users to do everything from chat with friends while shopping for books to discuss passages in real time.

The announcement came during a presentation detailing how application developers will be able to use the new BlackBerry Messenger Social Platform — from utilizing social aspects to making use of push architecture. It was also announced during the conference that Kobo will come pre-loaded on the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM’s new entrant into the tablet market (which expands Kobo’s already inclusive presence on a variety of devices).

Yesterday, prior to the conference, Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis dropped by Mash headquarters for a chat, during which he told us, “Social is a big category for us…. One of the key things we believe in is the whole culture of reading.” And, according to Serbinis, the social reading application — which will be available early next year — is just the tip of social iceberg. Check out the video below for more info on how it works.

With this app you’ll be able to talk with friends while shopping for e-books, see which books your friends have read, choose who can see your library and which books you read with others, as well as share passages with others and discuss books in real time. According to the folks at Kobo, this new technology will foster a kind of real-time book club culture.

This is a major move in the e-reader sphere, which hasn’t been all that social until now — at least in terms of applications. Probably the closest we’ve come thus far is the ability to access Amazon’s social network,Shelfari, within the smartphone app — basically the equivalent of Ping for books. (The announcement of Kindle for the Web hints at more social things to come, though.) Nook, for its part, basically just has LendMe, which allows you to share books with friends.

The real-time, hyper-social aspect (as well as the smartphone tie-in) of what Kobo is touting speaks to a new kind of social reading that we’re interested to see made manifest.

Would you be down to set up a book club via BB? Let us know in the comments.

[via mashable]

Posted in: BLACKBERRY