TOC Resource Pages

The TOC resource pages offer background information and context for many of the concepts we discuss within TOC blog posts. Certain topics may become more or less relevant depending on the many changes in publishing and technology, so think of this area as both an archive for past ideas and a storehouse for developing topics. Suggestions for additional TOC resource pages are always welcome.

We also have information on other "tools of change," including online education, in-person workshops, collaborative partnerships, research and development, speaking, consulting and additional initiatives. Learn more about these projects and services.

Application Programming Interface -- Companies that build Web sites and software often create APIs to give outside developers access to their systems or data.

Audiobooks -- An audio recording of a book title.

AZW -- A proprietary digital file format used on Amazon's Kindle ebook reader.

BitTorrent -- BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing technology that distributes the information within a media file to "peer" computers.

BookSurge -- A print-on-demand company owned by Amazon.

Brick and Mortar -- "Brick and mortar" is a slang phrase describing traditional retail businesses that sell products in a physical store.

Cloud Computing -- A cloud computing system replaces the traditional software model (installation on individual computers) with access to software programs and services that are maintained on Web-connected servers.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) -- Restrictive technologies intended to limit or block copying of digital material.

Ebooks -- Broadly, ebooks are electronic versions of books. Ebooks can be simple Web-based representations of books or they can be ported into more advanced file formats that bring the traditional "book" look and feel into the digital domain.

Ebook Readers / E-Readers -- Ebook readers, also known as "e-readers," are devices and software programs that display ebook files.

EPUB -- EPUB is an ebook file format developed by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).

Folksonomy -- An informal organizational mechanism that categorizes content into user-created "tags."

Free Models -- Free models use giveaways to increase consumer awareness, develop audiences and engage current and future customers.

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) -- A basic formatting language used to display Web pages through browsers.

Kindle -- Amazon's ebook reader.

Lightning Source -- A print-on-demand company owned by Ingram.

The Long Tail -- Under the Long Tail, Web-based businesses can take advantage of low-cost storage and warehousing to sell niche products from the "long" part of a frequency distribution.

Mainstream Media (MSM) -- "MSM" is a catch-all phrase representing established media organizations.

Mashups -- A mashup is a Web site or digital file that aggregates material from one or more external sources and "mashes" it into a new service.

Meta Tags & Meta Information -- Meta information often takes the form of keywords and simple descriptions that define the content within a document or Web page.

Mobile -- A broad form of technology that brings communication and Web-based tools to mobile devices (cell phones, PDAs, laptops, etc.).

Peer to Peer (P2P) -- Peer to Peer systems rely on distributed computers, rather than centralized server clusters, to accomplish a variety of tasks, including mass-scale computation (e.g. Seti@home) and file sharing (BitTorrent).

Piracy -- In simplified terms, piracy is the illegal copying, dissemination and acquisition of copyright-protected material (music, movies, software, ebooks, etc).

Podcast -- An audio or video recording that can be accessed and/or downloaded asynchronously.

Print on Demand (POD) -- Companies specializing in "POD" (Print on Demand) use customized machines to load and print individual copies of books.

RSS -- RSS feeds are simple files that gather Web content from specific sites (blogs, newspapers, magazines, etc.) and then make that content available as free subscriptions.

Sony Reader -- Sony's ebook reader.

Tags & Tagging -- Tagging is a distributed form of categorization used in folksonomies.

Taxonomy -- A taxonomy is a formal categorization method that is created, managed and edited by a centralized team or person.

User-Generated Content (UGC) -- Blog comments and forum posts represent a portion of the Web's user-generated content, but social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.), Web-based services (Twitter) and some retailers (Amazon) also provide outlets for UGC.

Web Analytics: Average Time on Site -- The measure of the average amount of time visitors spend on a specific Web site. The more time users spend on your site, the more you can assume they're engaged with your content and your brand ... and your sponsors' brands. Given the hyperactive nature of Web browsing, holding visitor attention for a full minute or more is considered a success.

Web Analytics: Pages Per Visit -- The Web's built-in context makes it possible to attract visitors with one piece of content, then present them with additional material on the same site through related links, embedded links, recommendations, etc. A high pages per visit average (3+ pages is quite good) means visitors are interacting with your content. A low average means visitors are viewing one page and quickly moving on to other sites.

Web Analytics: Page Views -- A page view represents a single view of a single page under a certain Web domain.

Web Analytics: Unique Visitors -- Unique visitors represent individual visitors to a Web site. This is an important metric because it provides an estimate of a site's total audience.

Widgets -- An application/object that can be embedded on Web sites.

Wiki -- A Web-based technology that makes content editable by groups.

XML -- XML (an acronym for "eXtensible Markup Language") defines a set of standard rules for creating markup languages. A markup language is a mechanism of labeling content, typically text, and primarily so that it can be understood and processed by software.