| CARVIEW |
Recommended Reading
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
October 16, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (3)
|
Listen 
In Defense of Piracy (Lawrence Lessig, Wall Street Journal)
The return of this "remix" culture could drive extraordinary economic growth, if encouraged, and properly balanced. It could return our culture to a practice that has marked every culture in human history -- save a few in the developed world for much of the 20th century -- where many create as well as consume. And it could inspire a deeper, much more meaningful practice of learning for a generation that has no time to read a book, but spends scores of hours each week listening, or watching or creating, "media."
Where is everybody? (Joe Wikert, TeleRead)
"If you build it, they will come" only works in the movies. If they really want to succeed Borders needs to do something beyond just making all this technology available in the store. Where are the in-store events (e.g., come let us help you research your family name, come see the latest e-book technologies, etc.)? How about signage in other areas of the store that promotes the tech kiosk area?
Mass book digitization: The deeper story of Google Books and the Open Content Alliance (Kalev Leetaru, First Monday)
Both projects offer the ability to search within a particular work, but only Google offers the ability to search across its entire collection. A search across the OCA archive only searches titles and description fields, not the full text of works. The OCA system thus offers a document-centric model, while Google offers both document and collection-based models, allowing broad exploratory searches of its entire holdings: the equivalent of being able to "full text search" a library. The importance of this difference cannot be understated in the limitations it places on the ability of patrons to interact with the OCA collections.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
October 9, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
The Future Is A Foreign Country (Timo Hannay, Nascent)
As with my journey to Japan, my personal response to all this internet-enabled weirdness was one of almost unadulterated joy. The fact that it is disrupting publishing is, I think, the single most important reason that I've come into the industry. How boring the last 550 years since Gutenberg have been. Until now.
Ok Entrepreneurs, Time to Step Up (Brad Feld, Feld Thoughts)
When I look back at the dotcom apocalypse that was 2000 - 2002, I realize some of the best companies I've ever been involved in were created during that time. In the midst of this, I remember the endless stream of "the Internet is over" and "the information technology business in now a mature business and there will never be innovation again." Yeah - whatever.
Watching Books (Richard Curtis, TeleRead)
As successive generations accustomed to being diverted by watching, rather than by reading, enter the editorial workforce, impatience with printed text is demonstrably increasing, as we can see in the sharp decline of newspapers and magazines. Books require a commitment of time and attention that we either don't have or aren't willing to give. The temptation to skip or skimp is strong. One editor confessed to me, "I tend to scan manuscripts on screen rather than read them the way I do a printed text." We must therefore ask ourselves whether instead of reading books on screen, we are watching them.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
October 2, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
The Live Web (Doc Searls, Doc Searls Weblog)
The Web isn't just real estate. It's a habitat, an environment, an ever-increasingly-connected place where fecundity rules, vivifying business, culture and everything else that thrives there. It is alive.
Putting the "book" back in Facebook (Dan Piepenbring, if:book)
Despite the presence of "book" in its title, few critics to my knowledge have construed Facebook as the ultimate electronic yearbook. They focus instead on its broader "social network" applications. That's all well and good, but what is Facebook if not the quintessential model of an electronic book done right? Like its conventional print brethren, Facebook chronicles the lives of a certain network's members. It's teeming with photos and groups; its wall posts are the digital equivalent of those slangy well-wishes from your friends and acquaintances (and maybe a stranger or two).
The Origin Of The CD-Keys, Part Three (Daniel James, Penny Arcade)
Nobody added your business to the list of protected species, despite what your lobbyists and lawyers say. Find a business model that's actually appropriate to the 21st century, and perhaps scale back your expectations of vast profits accordingly (oh, and fire some lawyers and lobbyists, too, please).
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
September 25, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Listen
Direct-To-Fan: Radiohead, Marillion And The End Of Labels (Robert Andrews, paidContent.org)
80s rock group Marillion, hardly a Top 10 draw nowadays, engages its fans so closely that they funded its latest album to the tune of £360,000. Erik Nielsen, who masterminded the strategy as MD of Marillion's Intact Records business arm, told our London EconMusic conference: "About a decade ago, we set out to release the bonds of the record companies over the artists. We worked out that we needed 5,000 fans to finance an album - when 12,000 did, we thought 'well, we can do this now'. We've continued to do that since 1999." By releasing the digital version of that album specifically on to P2P networks this month - "just to see what might happen, because we knew it was going to happen anyway" - the band has tripled its normal sales of physical deluxe copies.
State of the Blogosphere: The How of Blogging (Technorati)
One in four bloggers spends ten hours or more blogging each week. The most influential bloggers are even more prolific. Using Technorati Index data, we analyzed the posting and tagging behaviors of bloggers according to their Technorati Authority. Over half of the Technorati top authority bloggers post five or more times per day, and they are twice as likely to tag their blog posts compared to other bloggers.
Why the Financial Times can charge for metered content (Jason Preston, Eat Sleep Publish)
Those people who are just passing through and "joining the conversation" can be given free access, while those people who are your actual customers will be asked to pay for their content. By metering their content instead of simply throttling it like the New York Times did, FT is able to keep their content out from behind a wall while still charging for it. [Emphasis included in original post.]
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
September 18, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
The End (Boris Kachka, New York Magazine)
The kind of targeted, curated lists editors would love to publish will work even better in an electronic, niche-driven world, if only the innovators can get them there. Those owners who are genuinely interested in the industry's long-term survival would do well to hire scrappy entrepreneurs at every level, people who think like underdogs.
Part Three: Bookstores vs. Online (Joe Wikert, Publishing 2020 Blog)
Why do loyalty programs always just have to be about one store/chain? Why can't there be a loyalty program that includes two or more stores I shop at most frequently? One might be a bookstore but others might be a grocery store, an electronics retailer or maybe a gas station. Points accumulated at all these locations would be pooled together so that one month I might redeem them for a book and the next month I might use them on my gas purchase.
The Future Of Media Round Table (Media Magazine)
Esther Dyson -- I think part of what's happening is that as more and more media becomes possible, different kinds of information find their most suitable venue. Yellow pages are stupid on paper and they make more sense online. Whereas a book, that's linear; you're supposed to read from beginning to end, so it's fine on paper. So I think they'll persist in those forms. And a sort of visual-display kind of magazine makes a lot of sense. Anything that is interactive, where the data changes, like stock prices, again, makes no sense on paper.
Related:
News Roundup: Sony Reader Arrives in UK, Google Scanning Newspaper Archives, Blanket Copyright Licenses vs Fair Use
Mac Slocum
September 12, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
UK Reaction to Sony Reader Release
Sara Lloyd discusses the impact of the Sony Reader's recent release in the United Kingdom:
Anecdotally, Waterstones store staff report a great deal of interest from customers, and the rumour mills (or well-planned leak??) put a 6 figure number on the Sony Readers sold by the morning of Thursday 4th September.
As I'm sure all of those working in the digital publishing departments of trade publishing houses will agree, it's nice finally to have a major high street bookselling brand pitch itself into the ebook ring so wholeheartedly - and the Sony device is the most compelling (and competitively priced) there is of the dedicated devices so far available here in the UK. I must say it did make my heart leap just a little bit to see huge POS displays promoting the Sony Reader and the associated ebook catalogue from Waterstones in the Tottenham Court Road and Picadilly branches, and it was fun to go in and do some underground detective work to discover that the Waterstones staff seemed quite clued up about it all. (Continue reading)
Google Scanning Newspaper Archives
Google is extending its scanning efforts to newspaper archives. From the New York Times:
Under the expanded program, Google will shoulder the cost of digitizing newspaper archives, much as the company does with its book-scanning project. Google angered some book publishers because it had failed to seek permission to scan books that were protected by copyrights. It will obtain permission from newspaper publishers before scanning their archives.
Google ... will place advertisements alongside search results, and share the revenue from those ads with newspaper publishers. (Continue reading)
Colleges Weigh Blanket Copyright Licenses vs Fair Use Rights
The Copyright Clearance Center is extending its offer of blanket licenses to larger universities. In a 2007 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), some school administrators expressed concern about the implicit waiver of fair use assertions:
But some librarians are ambivalent about blanket licenses, Mr. Rehbach [Jeffrey R. Rehbach, the library-policy adviser at Middlebury College] says, because they fear that colleges will pay for copyright licenses instead of asserting their rights under fair-use doctrine. "We debate back and forth whether this is the best model for us," he says. "As we move toward more licensed products, are we giving up basic rights under the law?"
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
September 11, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Digital Newspapers and Digital History (Adam Hodgkin, Exact Editions)
A Kindle for books, a Plastic Logic napkin for newspapers, and no doubt an iMag reader of some kind for magazines. That way lies madness. Google have a better plan [to] try to deliver everything through a web browser. That should work in the direction of universal access. I hope Plastic Logic realise that their device needs to run a standard web browser before they commit everything to a Kindle-like proprietary device.
I Am Trying To Believe (that Rock Stars aren't Dead) (Jim Stogdill, O'Reilly Radar)
... "sell records" was not some complex business model come down from on high. I can't help but think that if there was an equally effective replacement someone would have thought of it by now. That's not to say I don't think new and better music distribution and monetization models won't be invented, I just don't think they will capture and concentrate as much value as the one that is dying before our eyes did. I suspect the balance between linear (touring) and leverage (selling stuff while you sit at home) has simply and irrevocably shifted toward the linear.
A unified field theory of publishing in the networked era (Bob Stein, if:book)
Reading and writing have always been social activities, but that fact tends to be obscured by the medium of print. We grew up with images of the solitary reader curled up in a chair or under a tree and the writer alone in his garret. The most important thing my colleagues and I have learned during our experiments with networked books over the past few years is that as discourse moves off the page onto the network, the social aspects are revealed in sometimes startling clarity. These exchanges move from background to foreground, a transition that has dramatic implications.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
September 4, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Create Digital First (Martyn Daniels, Brave New World)
Today we are the start of a digital consumer offer but it is in the main based on yesterday's physical cost model, processes and perceptions. Merely taking the finished book and generating a digital rendition that mirrors the physical one is what music did with CDs. Is it logical to merely replicate the book and create just another rendition? We don't envisage the same demand change as music experienced in selling just fragments (tracks), but it is possible to see the selling of installments or part works, where all the complete 'book' may not be bought.
(Via the Reading 2.0 list)
The Elements of a Perfect eReading Device (Dear Author)
I think that there is a technological gap between what readers would like in the perfect ereader and what can actually be done. If you don't like LCD screens, then you are limited by refresh rates and the inability of eink technology to actually perform some multi function device programs. If you don't like to be limited by refresh rates, want a backlight, and ability to play video, browse the web, and even do a lot of typing (or editing of manuscripts), then eInk devices aren't for you.
(Via Electric Alphabet)
Google Chrome is Bad for Writers & Bloggers (Edward Champion, Edward Champion's Reluctant Habits)
Anyone who uses Chrome will technically own the copyright, but who needs copyright when the Chrome user effectively gives up her right to distribute this content in all perpetuity and without royalties? So if Joyce Carol Oates is using Chrome and types an email to someone, she "owns" the copyright. But Google has the right to use anything that Ms. Oates types into Chrome for any purpose. Google responds. (Via Jose Alonso Furtado's Twitter stream)
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
August 28, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Transforming American Newspapers (Part 1) (Vin Crosby, Digital Deliverance)
Contrary to myopia of many newspaper executives, advertisers aren't newspapers' primary customers. Although advertising revenues may be sunshine for newspaper executives, the roots of their business are readers. A newspaper with readers will attract advertisers but a newspaper without readers will not. Readers ultimately support and sustain the newspaper business.
(Via E-Media Tidbits)
The Customer is Always Wrong (Richard Nash, Ecstatic Days)
... there is a real tendency in our business to treat the customer as this perverse, mysterious, gullible, arrogant, narrow-minded, slightly thick, imperceptive lug. We largely talk down to him, dumb down for her, expect the least, fear the worst, and generally leave it up to the retailer to figure out how to reach him or her -- we'll get the book onto their shelves, we'll pay them some payola, and then it's their problem. Of course it's not, and not just because we're in the only business where 100% of the product can be returned for full credit. It's because fundamentally a publisher's job is to connect the writer to the reader. Not the book to the retailer, but the writer to the reader. (Via Jose Alonso Furtado's Twitter stream)
On Writing For "Free" (John Scalzi, Whatever)
... the point to make, again, is that "free to the reader" is not the same as "unpaid to the writer." I have gotten paid for the fiction I've put online. I do get paid for it. And, barring a sudden windfall of cash that obviates the need of me having to worry about money ever again, I will continue to make sure I get paid for it. And naturally I encourage other writers to make sure their own economic interests are served when they have stuff put online that is free for readers to view.
(Via TechDirt)
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
August 21, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
On Being Positive in August (Adam Hodgkin, Exact Editions)
Publishers need to consider the possibility that anything that can be published, will certainly be published digitally, and will, in principle, be available anywhere from many devices. That does not mean that it all will be free (why should it mean that?). But it does mean that it will either be available for free (sponsored by advertising) or because someone wants to buy, give, or rent it.
A New Model for News (pdf) (Associated Press Report)
A key question for news planning today is "How can this story be told?" Increasingly, the answer can be found outside traditional storytelling formats. In one popular example in the 2006 U.S. elections, an AP multimedia producer "mashed up" excerpts from political attack ads with a musical mix. The result garnered more than half a million hits after going viral and getting passed along from the customer sites that displayed the piece. (p.61)
Mygazines.com: The Magazine Industry's "Napster Moment"? (Joe Wikert, Publishing 2020)
This is a golden opportunity for the magazine industry to see how a Napster-like platform for periodicals could and should work effectively. Mygazines is essentially doing e-content R&D; for the entire magazine industry; I just hope the industry takes the time to study and understand the results before they look to kill the service.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
August 14, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Could the iPhone be a Kindle Killer? (Bill Trippe, Gilbane Publishing Practice Blog)
Here's a project I would love to do if I had the time--a face-off between Kindle, the iPhone, the Sony Reader, an eBook Technologies ETI-1, and a few other devices. Take a few book types--novel, textbook, graphical book, business document to begin with--and create a feature matrix and evaluation criteria.
Random Ebook Thoughts From A Jetlagged Mind (Kassia Krozser, Booksquare)
Here's a truth: ebooks sell far better than numbers from traditional publishers indicate. This is because there's a huge market for erotica out there. Women buy erotic ebooks instead of purchasing physical books because, well, if you're female and over thirty, you've been taught that good girls don't go there. Actually, good girls do. They just do it under the radar.
Why blog publishing 'failed' in the UK (Ashley Norris, TechCrunch UK)
... many brands and their agency planers have chosen to play it safe and will work with established media brands or mega portals like MSN, even when the ads themselves will be seen by a less focussed and often an inappropriate audience
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
August 7, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Listen
What's Really Killing Newspapers (Jack Shafer, Slate)
Other institutions do far better jobs at issuing social currency these days. What is Facebook but the Federal Reserve Bank of social currency? And it's all social currency you can use! Like cocktail chatter, a Facebook posting--be it a link, a list, a photo, or travel plans--conveys the message, I am here. Listen to me. A well-executed Facebook presence, like a superb pontification at the bar or a great phone-in to sports talk radio, demonstrates one's status within one's existing social network. If skillfully wielded, a Facebook page can increase a person's status by attracting "cooler" or more influential friends. These days, you can't raise your status more than a bump by carrying the Wall Street Journal under your arm.
The Plight of Politico -- And Everyone Else (Ezra Klein, The American Prospect)
A year-and-a-half after launch, [Politico is] getting 3.5 million unique visitors per month and 25 million page views. And yet not only is it unprofitable, but 60 percent of its revenues come from advertising in the 27,000 circulation print version. In other words: Politico got the online readership it dreamed of, but it hasn't come even close to figuring out how to monetize it.
Secrets of book publishing I wish I had known (Mark Hurst, Good Experience)
Publishers and bookstores are in it for the money. But you, the author, can't be in it for the money - it doesn't pay enough. You should write a book because you believe in it. And that's the trouble: what you love isn't necessarily what publishers believe will sell. If you can find a topic that you love and that will sell in the market, well then, go forth and type. You're one of the lucky ones. [Emphasis included in original post.]
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
July 31, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
This is Not a Comment (Derek Powazek, Powazek.com)
Chastising all internet commenters for the actions of the loudest, craziest ones is no different that swearing off all newspapers because of Jason Blair.
Silicon Valley's benevolent dictatorship (Rebecca MacKinnon, RConversation)
The guys running Google, Apple, Microsoft, and many other companies represented at the Fortune Brainstorm are the benevolent dictators of the global information and communications system. But can we assume they will always be benevolent? What happens when they roll out services in not-so-benevolent authoritarian regimes?
Once More With Feeling: The LATBR Publishes Its Last (Kassia Krozser, Booksquare)
... I still maintain that a book review section in a major newspaper should be reflective of the subscriber base, even if it's trying to maintain a certain level of discourse; you have to bring the larger audience in, even a little bit, if you want to expose your conversation beyond the choir.
Why I Joined the POD People (Richard Grayson, Quarterly Conversation)
Eventually, as print-on-demand technology improves in quality and costs shrink, trade publishers will probably rely on POD for all their books, just as some academic publishers have begun to do. Trade publishers waste a lot of money (and trees) by publishing copies of books, even bestsellers in fourth or fifth editions, that never get sold; no matter how many print runs, publishers always seem to have books left over. After my first book was remaindered I bought 400 copies of my first book for a nickel a copy, then discovered the cost of storing them was so expensive that I ended up throwing dozens of copies into a Miami dumpster.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
July 24, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Lessons Learned from myebook and LinkedIn (Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog)
Where are the "view comments" and "send to a friend" buttons on my Kindle? They don't exist, at least not with Kindle 1.0. But why shouldn't I be able to take pieces of the book I'm reading and send them along to my friends with Kindles for their review? And all those notes and comments I've already embedded in some of my Kindle books/newspapers/magazines...why can't I share those with my Kindle friends as well?
Why Abundance Should Breed Optimism: A Second Reply to Nick Carr (Clay Shirky - Britannica Blog)
Every past technology I know of that has increased the number of producers and consumers of written material, from the alphabet and papyrus to the telegraph and the paperback, has been good for humanity.
The founder of ArtsJournal talks about arts and new media (Crosscut Seattle)
As users have more access to more information on the Web, the sheer amount becomes overwhelming. So increasingly you have to depend on curators -- other people -- to find the good stuff that you want to see over time. So you find the curator whom you trust.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
July 17, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Sittin' Here, Watching The Market Go By (Booksquare)
Since there has been significant interest in using the iPhone as an ereader, I was, well, expecting amazing things from the publishing industry. Hopes. Dashed. On a weekend when headlines were there for the grabbing and customers were searching for both toys and content, the publishing industry, perhaps practicing summer hours, was curiously silent. Not a single major initiative, announcement, horns-blaring call to check out these great offerings on iTunes.
Queue and Apple: Excitement over the newest iPhone (Print is Dead)
But when's the last time you -- if you ever have -- saw someone dressed up as a book itself? When's the last time someone posed as a dust jacket rather than as a figure posing on a dust jacket? Of course, this doesn't happen. Why? Because people don't love books themselves; rather, they love the characters and worlds found inside of books. So despite all of the talk of books being amazing technological devices, you never see people waiting outside all night in order to buy a blank one.
You Don't Build Communities, You Enable Them (Techdirt)
What the rest of the internet has shown is that you build community not by building a community, but by enabling a group of people to do what they want. And that can include commenting on the news, creating the news or sharing the news among many other things.
Related:
TOC Recommended Reading
Mac Slocum
July 10, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Ebooks and the Iphone (Publishing Frontier)
So by selling books as $5 iPhone books instead of $7 paperbacks, the publisher makes $0.90 per book. And, of course, if the publisher charged $6.99 for the iPhone book, the numbers would be $4.89 received from Apple - $0.70 royalty - $0.05 PPB [printing, paper, binding] - $0.40 art, promotion, etc = $3.74, or a profit of $2.09 over the paper book.
Wikipedia gets fictional (Seth's Blog)
A consistent rule on Wikipedia has been to rely on edited print publications (the mainstream media) as well as physical or unchanging materials (like the DVD of a TV show). This made sense five years ago, but as the world abandons print reference (which Wikipedia largely relies on for verification), are we biasing the entries in favor of Abraham Lincoln (plenty of printed facts available) and TV series characters (we can prove that George [Costanza] worked for Vandalay Industries)?
The difference between media and comms (The Equity Kicker)
The challenge for socnets [social networks] is that people are getting bored of accumulating friends and profile hopping and there is no obvious new entertainment service to build. Hence the platform strategy.
Related:
- Stay Connected
-
TOC RSS Feeds
News Posts
Commentary Posts
Combined Feed
New to RSS?
Subscribe to the TOC newsletter. 
Follow TOC on Twitter. 
Join the TOC Facebook group. 
Get the TOC Headline Widget.
- Search
-
- Events
-
What Publishers Need to Know about Digitization
Nov. 12, 1PM (eastern) - Liza Daly walks through the digital conversion process in a free Webcast. Availability is limited. Register now.
Tools of Change for Publishing Conference
Save the Date! TOC 2009 will take place Feb. 9-11, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Sign up for the conference newsletter to hear about important dates and developments as the show approaches.
StartWithXML One-Day Forum
Jan. 13, 2009, New York - StartWithXML is an industry-wide project to understand and spread the knowledge publishers need to move forward with XML. Learn more and register to attend.
- TOC DVDs
-
TOC 2008 Tutorial DVDs
Now available. These tutorials dive into the necessary skills and tools critical to the future of publishing.
- TOC Job Board
- Tag Cloud
- TOC Community Topics
-
Tools of Change for Publishing is a division of O'Reilly Media, Inc.
© 2008, O'Reilly Media, Inc. | (707) 827-7000 / (800) 998-9938
All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on oreilly.com are the property of their respective owners.
O'Reilly Media Home | Privacy Policy | Community | Blog | Directory | Job Board | About
