Publishers 2.0 - Web 2.0 insight for innovative publishers - Latest Articles

Enterprise 2.0 Center of Gravity

Community Author — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:29:04 -0000

Web 2.0 technologies are gaining acceptance in a wide variety of venues. Noted analyst and journalist, Dion Hinchcliffe has identified leading Web 2.0 software vendors and applications as they apply to enterprise applications. Most note-worthy of his observations is the change in attitude for large enterprises evaluating participatory web components such as blogs and wikis.

"We are past the early adopter phase. A survey of Enterprise 2.0 conference attendees that I gave back in 2006 (when it was called the Collaborative Technologies conference) resulted in only three people out of nearly 100 saying they had “ready access to blogs and wikis” at their workplace. This year the same crowd survey resulted in over two-thirds of attendees present reporting that they now have them within easy reach. This jibes well with my contacts with clients across a broad swath of industries from mid-Western banks, hospitals, government agencies, consumer products, and insurance companies that have been rolling them out internally. This also correlates with a broader survey I conducted on Facebook a few months ago. While emergent, social, freeform collaboration (aka Enterprise 2.0), hasn’t hit the early majority yet, it’s poised to from all indications." (Dion Hinchcliffe - Enterprise 2.0 Lively conversation driving change - ZDNet June 16, 2008 )

IMAGE (c) ZDNet - Click Image to visit the full story by Dion Hinchcliffe on ZDNet

Categories: Best Practices Resources Public
Tags: dion hinchcliffe enterprise 2.0 social media

Creating compelling audio, video, and text-based content - explained by NPR's Ira Glass

Community Author — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:01:11 -0000

NPR's Ira Glass has made a career of turning not-so-interesting stories into edge-of-your-seat tales. In this brief video he offers some tips, suggestions, and tactics for making your not-so-interesting story a spark for engagement and conversation.

Special thanks to CopyBlogger who first posted this video on their site. If you don't already know about CopyBlogger, please check it out. CopyBlogger was founded by Brian Clark, a new media writer/producer, entrepreneur, and recovering attorney. He is a great writer and does a masterful job of making his not-so-interesting story (copy writing tips) a website worth visiting over and over and over again.

I subscribe to the newsletter (http://www.copyblogger.com/email/ )and the RSS feed (http://feeds.copyblogger.com/Copyblogger ).

Categories: Resource Public
Tags: blogs brian clark copyblogger videos

Will the real Web 2.0 please stand up

Community Author — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:54:30 -0000

Back when it was called the "Architecture of Participation" it was easier to identify what was and what was not part of the latest era of online publishing. Since then it got a cooler name, "Web 2.0" (thanks Tim O'Reilly!), and hundreds of start-ups have come and gone, but the fundamentals have stayed the same. Online Architectures of Participation, The New Web, Web 2.0, etc., all convey a higher level of interaction and interoperability.

It is still not clear to many publishers, business owners, website admins, and other interested parties, exactly which portions have true business value, and which are going to go the way of color fax machines.

CRM Magazine this month released an article that played to some of these questions, and being the good people they are, they highlighted Near-Time as one of the platforms that is actually bringing business value, and validation to the elusive Web 2.0 space.

Titled The Second Coming of Web 2.0, this article surfaces many of the questions professionals have had about Web 2.0 deployments and what they mean for business.

Our own CEO, Reid Conrad was quoted in this article - for your reference these and other highlights follow. To access this article directly GO HERE .

Highlights...

Cliché or not, 2.0 is useful shorthand for indicating a break with old ways of doing things; Web 2.0 is a major topic -- and so by extension is CRM 2.0, the use of Web 2.0 technologies to improve customer experience and CRM system efficiency. CRM magazine isn't above leveraging this concept -- consider our recent cover story, for example ("It's All Coming 2.0gether," December 2007), or any of a number of articles we've run since. But what's beyond the notation? What exactly is "Web 2.0," anyway?

There are several definitions -- and there's a lot of "I know it when I see it" involved -- but the most common ones revolve around social media. As William Band, vice president and principal analyst for business process and applications at Forrester Research, describes the trend in his March 2008 paper, "The CRM 2.0 Imperative," "[t]he social Web...includes fast-growing peer-to-peer (P2P) activities like blogging, RSS, file sharing, open-source software, podcasting, search engines, and user-generated content." Other 2.0 technologies include wikis, social networking sites and services, and even tiny content-delivery systems known as widgets. Combined with more-established technologies such as instant messaging, email, and forums, these are the tools that enable the creation of distributed communities built around common interests and goals, whether it's socializing, commenting on cricket teams, sharing a passion for theater, or forming a user group to swap software-development tips. This phenomenon has transformed the Web from a source of canned information, static messages, and banner-ad bombardment to a destination of sorts where people can interact with one another in the manner of their choosing.

Reid Conrad, the chief executive officer of social networking platform provider Near-Time , finds that the user-based genesis of Web 2.0 means his clients are usually familiar with one or more aspects of social computing. "Generally, [clients] have worked with individual enterprise 2.0 applications -- blogs, wikis, and such -- but haven't tied them together," he says. "Early users, not surprisingly, were IT professionals. Now we're seeing more line-of-business personnel -- many of our customers are Web 2.0 -- savvy and competent."

The Real Business 2.0

Despite this emerging familiarity, Web 2.0 fundamentally remains a new way of doing business -- in fact, maybe this is Business 2.0. "The traditional way our [users] interact with prospects is email; they have to change that old habit," Conrad says, adding that they have to think about when to use email, and why. Similarly, they must utilize the social environment to put information and content in the right place at the right time.

"We're finding organizations that more and more want to interact in any given format," Conrad says. "You have different forms of interaction for different purposes. Put executives in a wiki format and expect them to produce content? Well, good luck. But those same execs would be very comfortable participating in a forum." That represents a change to the idea of building valuable content: It has to be done continuously, in a living forum, instead of just creating a deliverable for several months down the line.

Categories: Resource Best Practices Resources Public
Tags: glossary reid conrad rss social media

Golf instructor Jeff Ritter leverages Near-Time to take golf instruction online

Community Author — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:57:33 -0000

The Internet has opened up a whole new world to golf enthusiasts, but also to golf pros, and it would be hard to find many who have taken advantage more than Jeff Ritter, who has been providing instruction at the ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe since 2000. [from 3/28/08 Arizona Republic article Many golfers looking online for lessons ]

Jeff currently operate 2 sites on Near-Time, his corporate website Jeff Ritter Golf and his subscription-based golf instruction site Golf by Design . Capitalizing on his success, plans were just confirmed for a third site on the publishing and collaboration platform, My Golf by Design. The new site, expected to launch in June, will allow subscribers to upload video of their golf swing and receive online lessons and consultation from Jeff.

"I've been shocked by the response," said Ritter, who also writes for two golf magazines as a result of his postings and has seen sales of his golf instruction book climb. "We have so many good instructors in the Valley, and that creates a lot of competition for instruction, so to attract clients from outside the area is a nice bonus and at the same time gives our golf community valuable exposure."

Categories: Best Practices Public
Tags: jeff ritter near-time premium spotlight videos

O'Reilly launches interactive iPhone Hacks site with Near-Time

Community Author — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:55:48 -0000

Leading technical publisher, O'Reilly Media has launched an interactive online community around their upcoming title iPhone Hacks - Tips & Tools for Unlocking the Power of Your iPhone and iPod Touch .

Launched on Near-Time Premium, this site offers iPhone enthusiasts an opportunity to gain advanced access to hacks, tips, and tricks to make their iPhone experience even better. Members of this community site can make comments, participate in forum conversations, and help author the book by submitting their own hacks.

A free 30-day trial is available on the site. Subscriptions to the site are $5.99 per month or $24.99 per year.

Categories: Prepress Best Practices Public
Tags: monetize content o'reilly prepress wiki book

A discussion about content packaging hosted by CCC

Community Author — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:46:26 -0000

Is the "Musification" of Publishing Imminent?

In this Beyond the Book "Extra" - presented in anticipation of the 30th annual meeting of the Society of Scholarly Publishing beginning May 28 in Boston, host Christopher Kenneally examines whether current "packaging" trends in the music industry (think iTunes) will make their way into the publishing world.

Taking on the questions are executives from two leading solutions providers for book and journal publishers - John Sack, Director and Associate Publisher of HighWire Press , and Joel Bush, Director of Publishing and Media at Near-Time . Both companies are recent Copyright Clearance Center RightsConnect Partners.

Listen to the interview HERE.

Categories: Best Practices Public
Tags: copyright clearance center joel bush john sack near-time sell content

Content Nation walks the talk on new social media book

Community Author — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:35:45 -0000

Contentnation.com , an online community of social media enthusiasts focused on developing a new book on social media, was launched earlier this week at the annual Buying and Selling eContent conference [conference wiki ] in Scottsdale, Arizona by content industry expert John Blossom, President of Shore Communications, Inc., a leading consulting and research company servicing the electronic publishing industry. Mr. Blossom is the author of an upcoming book on social media to be published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. using materials developed on Contentnation.com by Mr. Blossom and its community members.

The book being developed on Contentnation.com, to be entitled Content Nation: Surviving and Thriving as Social Media Changes our Work, Our Lives and Our Future, focuses on the broadening impact of social media as its availability through online publishing technologies enables both individuals and major institutions such as corporations and governments to communicate more influentially without using traditional media outlets. By Mr. Blossom's calculations based on recent market research there are now 73 million people worldwide using social media to influence others, a number approaching the population of Egypt, the world's 15th largest nation.

Contentnation.com offers free membership for those would like to create content and makes the developing content of the Content Nation book available on a free basis in Web page format.

Contentnation.com is being hosted by Near-Time, Inc., a leading provider of social media publishing technologies. The Near-Time publishing platform combines the capabilities of wikis, weblogs, forums, tagging, bookmarking, embedding content and other key social media publishing technologies with easy-to-use features and sophisticated administrative features that enable the rapid development of highly valuable social media for enterprise, ad-supported and premium online communities. "The Contentnation.com Web site is an excellent example of how our integrated social media publishing technologies can enable the rapid construction of many forms of highly valuable content," said Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time, Inc. "Near-Time has worked closely with Mr. Blossom to help make the Content Nation project a success and has benefited from his insights into leading publishing technologies."

Categories: Prepress Best Practices Public
Tags: john blossom john wiley & sons prepress wiki book wiley

Near-Time extends Web 2.0 to mobile devices

Community Author — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:35:50 -0000

Web 2.0 extends to mobile devices with the release of Near-Time Connection

Members of Near-Time spaces can now access content and participate in the community from their smart phone using Near-Time Connection. This newly available feature is optimized for phone browsers and gives users full read, download, and comment access.

For publishers, this extends the availability of content and community interaction beyond simple web access. Community members can stay up-to-date on discussions and developments from their iPhone, BlackBerry, Treo, or other smart phone device. Visit Near-Time for a complete Connection feature tour --> Near-Time Connection.

Members of this space can access the mobile version by clicking the "Mobile Device" link in the right-hand sidebar.

With the release of Connection, the company also announced that they are bringing Web 2.0 content and community interaction to homepages everywhere with the addition of an iGoogle gadget. iGoogle users can access and participate in their community directly from the iGoogle homepage.

Read more in the article from Publishers Weekly

Categories: Best Practices Public
Tags: connection near-time web 2.0 mobile

Authorlink -- Publishers prepare for industry transformation

Community Author — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:24:58 -0000

http://www.authorlink.com

(Authorlink February 14-21 Edition): Today’s publishers face a gaping landscape of technological change, from everywhere they turn-- in writing and development, production, distribution and consumption, in bean counting and legal departments. These transformations are no longer theoretical. They’re well past a tipping point, and are shaping every aspect of the publishing industry of tomorrow.

In New York this week, at the second annual O’Reilly Tools for Change Conference, publishers have been gathering the tools they need to understand, embrace, and prosper from the tectonic shifts affecting their industry.

On the conference floor, we’ve been talking with innovators in the exciting and passionate future for books. Listen in to some of the people we have spotted as key innovators in the unstoppable movement toward the books of tomorrow, and consider how these transformations may affect you as an industry profession.

Visit Authorlink to hear interviews from the floor of O'Reilly Tools of Change -

Digital Strategy and Action - Brent Lewis - Harlequin Enterprises
How Open Does "Open" Need to Be, in the Universe of Free? - Michael Jensen - The National Academies
Digital Publishing Beyond eBooks - Bill McCoy - Adobe Systems
Collaborative Content - Joel Bush - Near-Time
SEO for Book Publishers: Beyond Book Search - Jamie Low - SearchEngineMarketing.com

Categories: Public
Tags: authorlink

O'Reilly Media Launches Interactive Publishing Pilot on Near-Time

Community Author — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:30:57 -0000

Online community enables readers to have accelerated access to prepress content and interaction with authors

Near-Time and O'Reilly Media today announced the prepress launch of Software Craftsmanship on the Near-Time platform. The site, (http://softwarecraftsmanship.oreilly.com) features the entire book contents and includes interactive components powered by Near-Time.

Software Craftsmanship: Apprentice to Journeyman is a forthcoming title from O'Reilly Media, authored by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. The corresponding site is designed to enrich the content by encouraging reader participation through forums, commenting, and other interactive features. Reader feedback and updates to the content will drive content development before the book goes to print.

"Needless to say, O'Reilly get's the future of publishing. It's about customer interaction, accelerating time to market and expanding the product lifecycle. It's a new game and we are excited to help define it with O'Reilly", said Reid Conrad, Near-Time CEO

Near-Time is a leading interactive publishing and collaboration platform. Near-Time combines wikis, weblogs, forums, and other advanced web technologies, along with built-in monetization options, giving publishers a wealth of options to build on-demand interactive publishing sites. Publishers are leveraging this powerful platform to add value to their projects throughout the content lifecycle - Prepress, Frontlist and Backlist. Near-Time's ease of adoption and community building features deliver high-margin revenue and power direct relationships with readers.

"O'Reilly has been on the forefront of collaborative development experiments for some time," said Allen Noren, Director of Online Marketing and Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media. "Those have required the cobbling together of multiple tools that don't always work well together. What the Near-Time system does is integrate those tools--an authoring platform, blog, a forum, a robust permission system, as well as a for-pay and subscription gateway-in one integrated platform. I'm very interested to see how our readers respond to this."

Categories: Press Release Public
Tags: o'reilly

Attachments

Near-Time O'Reilly Announcement.pdf (43.5 KB)

Mergers and Acquisition community is coming together around Tom Taulli's book

Community Author — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:59:22 -0000

Could not generate link to image with ID: Tom Taulli, a well known analyst and author covering technology, media and finance topics is moderating the forum which accompanies online access to his book The Complete M&A Handbook - The Ultimate Guide to Buying, Selling, Merging, or Valuing a Business for Maximum Return.

This unique community oriented site leverages many new features of the Near-Time Premium platform, including role-based access tied to various subscription price levels. Subscribers to the site (MergerBook) can choose to simply access the entire book contents in wiki form, or they can join the community forming around this perennial business topic. Book access and read-only access to the forum is $40 per year - participation in the forum and book access is $80 per year.

Related Links:

MergerBook: www.mergerbook.com

MergerGuru: www.mergerguru.com

Near-Time: www.near-time.com

Categories: Public Backlist
Tags: mergers and acquisitions tom taulli

2007 eContent 100

Community Author — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:08:29 -0000

Each year, EContent Magazine publishing a list of 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry. In the words of EContent Magazine editor-in-chief, Michelle Manafy,

It seems like the whole world is creating, tagging, and delivering content these days. Once the domain of trained professionals, content is now everybody's business. In many ways, the general public leads the publishing industry in its comfort with, and usage of, digital content tools - from blogs to podcasts to wikis.

However, this does not make these consumer-only tools. Those of us in the industry well know we need to tap into the iterative process that characterizes Web 2.0 - which means we need to play on the same field, using many of the same toys and tactics.

I particularly appreciate the fact that this list bridges several gaps. It takes into account what consumer tools are doing. A lot of innovation happens at the consumer level - the risk factor to releasing content or publishing information at the individual level is much more manageable than it is at the corporate level. It also takes into account what tools and platforms are useful for enterprise content management as well as for publishing in a more traditional sense.

Let's face it, the lines are blurring all around us and the tools on this list are enabling innovative, creative, outside-the-box people and organizations to apply massive leverage around massive amounts of digital information.

EContent 100 list on their site

EContent 100 introduction and category descriptions

EContent 100 judging team

EContent 100 companies by category

Categories: Public
Tags: econtent 100

Near-Time and Wrox Press Launch Partnership to Build Technology Communities

Community Author — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 13:37:22 -0000

Online Version of Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 offers Interactive Platform for Online Publishing and Communities

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.-- Near-Time and Wrox Press, the technology imprint of leading publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., announced immediate availability of a technology community for one of Wrox's best-selling Web programming books ever, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0, (http://asp3wiki.wrox.com) via the Near-Time community platform. Unlike traditional eBooks, the ASP3wiki electronic book does not require a special reader device and is accessible by any device with a Web browser. This marks the first time that Wrox Press is providing free access to book content and is a key part in their strategy for engaging a global customer base with a more interactive dialog.

The new site features Web2.0 technologies such as Wikis and RSS syndication feeds to enable programmers to engage in discussions with community members on a variety of topics relevant to them. In addition to making the entire backlist title available online, the interactive functionality of the ASP3wiki website powered by Near-Time offers content updates and corrections and makes it possible for readers to leave comments about content and the course ASP technology has taken in the eight years since this book was first published.

"Near-Time helped Wrox get a previously-published 1200-page book onto their wiki based community platform extremely quickly,” said Jim Minatel, Acquisitions Director for Wiley Technology Publishing/WROX Press. “This new online format for the book gives readers a completely new ability to comment on any section of the book and makes it easy for us to keep this content up-to-date as long as it is in demand. Working with the Near-Time platform has been simple, and provided us the fastest way to meet the continued demand for Wrox content from the developer community."

The Near-Time interactive publishing platform helps publishers maximize online revenues and provide a richer experience for their readers. Near-Time provides a variety of monetization options for publishers which support the complete life cycle of content products and bring currency to content that is not possible in print or other eBook formats. With Near-Time, publishers can quickly deploy and control content online in an environment that encourages participation and engages readers in forums, commenting, ratings and other ways that bring communities together.

“Near-Time’s interactive Wiki technology transcends what has been possible with digital publishing because of its rich, collaborative features,” said Joe Wikert, Vice President and Executive Publisher, Professional/Trade Division, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. “The Near-Time platform goes a step further – offering a catalyst for true community-building. We chose Near-Time because it allows us to provide a richer experience for our readers with content that is more relevant and valuable, rejuvenate old titles, expand market reach and inject new life into backlist titles.”

”We are thrilled to partner with Wiley and Wrox in the development of interactive communities for the publishing industry. Near-Time offers a flexible, interactive publishing platform that enables publishers and content providers the ability to create new business models,” said Reid Conrad, Near-Time’s CEO. ”With participation already in over 60 countries, the Near-Time based Wrox communities are becoming a strategic, global technology resource.”

Near-Time enables publishers and content owners to make available and sell directly to consumers and gain competitive advantage. Consumers can interact with authors and other readers who share their interests. Unlike the linear experience of traditional eBooks, Near-Time enables dynamic content organization based on reader interest. Near-Time extends the life cycle of content products and helps make each phase more profitable. During pre-press, content gets to market faster and enables a community of interest around a topic, giving technology and STM publishers a distinct first-to-market advantage. When a title reaches backlist, online distribution allows publishers to capitalize on the long tail of the topic.

Built on the Near-Time platform, Premium is the only turnkey Web 2.0 solution that makes it possible to create, publish and monetize content online. The platform includes everything necessary to create and publish content, build community and monetize access and interaction. Site owners can create multiple custom pricing plans based on monthly, annual or one-time fee structures and receive 80–90 percent of all membership and subscription fees.

About Near-Time

Near-Time is the leading Web 2.0 platform for cross organization collaboration. Business professionals can quickly create rich interaction with their prospects, customers, partners and suppliers. Near-Time integrates wikis and weblogs to enable groups to work together more effectively in a secure, hosted environment. Near-Time users can securely share information, files and create group calendars. Near-Time is in use in over forty nations by thousands of businesses, academic institutions, government agencies and nonprofit organizations, to maximize internal and external collaboration. Near-Time Premium leverages the Near-Time platform to enable organizations to monetize their communities and content. For more information, go to http://www.near-time.com/.

About Wrox Press

Written by actual programmers, Wrox books offer the benefits of real-world experience and road-tested examples that really work. "Beginning" books provide a complete working knowledge of the subject, using hands-on lessons and proven training techniques. "Professional" and "Expert One-On-One" books are loaded with practical, focused information from leading technology experts. "Programmer's Reference" books are invaluable for their detailed, on-the-job reference support. "Problem-Design-Solution" books analyze development problems programmers encounter and supply solutions that work. Wrox books help programmers get the job-then do the job better. For more information, visit http://www.wrox.com/. Wrox is an imprint of Wiley.

Categories: Public Press Release Backlist
Tags: jim minatel joe wikert john wiley & sons monetize content wiki book wrox press

Backlist title finds new life and a community in advertising supported wiki

Community Author — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:10:55 -0000

WROX Press , an imprint of John Wiley & Sons has breathed new life into a steady-selling backlist title by making the content freely available in an advertising supported wiki. In conjunction with Near-Time , the entire contents of the WROX Press' Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 book is available to visitors of the ASP3wiki site.

This site leverages Near-Time's advanced roles and permissions to maintain the authoritative content presented in this book, while also encouraging registered visitors to participate through commenting, ratings, and more.

About this project, Joe Wikert says "WROX has always been closely in tune with the needs of the developer community and we hope that by making this content freely accessible to everyone we're providing yet another sign of our community commitment.", on his Publishing 2020 blog. [WROX ASP3Wiki Post]

Near-Time provides publishers with an advanced, integrated platform that is appropriate during any phase of a book's lifecycle. In this example, WROX is using it to add life to a backlist title by giving the content away in an advertising supported model. The platform is also being utilized by publishers to monetize content during the Prepress process, giving them a strategic advantage in competitive topic areas. Several projects are currently in process which will use Near-Time Premium as a companion to Frontlist print products.

Categories: Public
Tags: backlist wiley wrox

How print and online can coexist to increase publishing profits

Community Author — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:04:46 -0000

The trade book publishing industry is a complicated and competitive marketplace. This is not news. The news is that the landscape is changing and mandating change in this centuries old business. Traditional publishing companies are finding themselves in competition with (product) channels and information sources that weren't even on the radar screen 1, 5 or 10 years ago. This is great for consumers, authors, and believe it or not, great for publishers!

Innovative publishers are driving innovation and leveraging Web 2.0 technologies to differentiate their product, increase publishing profit margins, and develop a long-term relationship with their readers. In many cases, they are turning a one-time book purchase into monthly or annual recurring subscription revenue.

In her Book Business Magazine article titled Increasing Sales, One Chapter at a Time Janet Spavlik makes a great case for this evolution as it pertains to Professional Publishers --

Vondeling [editorial director for San Francisco-based Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.] believes that publishers need to tap into authors who already have established audiences, or communities. “We are seeing that the books that are working are by people, professionals, authors who have an established community of people who know them, know their work and are hungry to learn more,” she says. “And they might know their work because they do training or do a lot of speaking, or they blog regularly … the reality is, if we just publish an interesting idea, the book is going to be dead on arrival.

While professional books have built-in market of readers, they attract a larger number of titles and demand that professional publishers do a better job of differentiating their products.

As with other areas of book publishing, new media––and how to not only utilize, but capitalize on, new media––is likely on every professional publisher’s mind. “It’s all about offering quality content,” says John Jenkins, senior vice president and publisher of Washington, D.C.-based CQ Press, and co-chair of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers Books Committee. “That means listening to your market, offering the right content in the format that buyers want––and it won’t always be an ink-on-paper book.”

As I see it, there are several key factors to successfully bridge print and digital:
(3 here, more will follow)

Print and Online content should be complimentary - Releasing content in both print and online forms is not a canibalistic play - it is a differentiation play. Print has certain inherent values that online cannot emulate - I hate the example, but everyone will tell you you can't read your computer in the restroom. Likewise, online content can have many values that print cannot. If done correctly, making content available online also makes it searchable, and gives the reader the opportunity to organize the content in ways that best suit their needs. Effectively leveraging these diverse mediums in a complimentary fashion can not only improve the reader's experience, they can add value and drive revenue.

Ideal Scenario: Back-cover copy drives print customer to the updated version of a book they purchased online. Customer uses a discount code provided by the publisher (for book owners) to access the online content. Customer appreciates the online experience (improved ability to discover relevant, updated content, etc.) and becomes a monthly (or yearly) subscriber to the online property. You've just extended the life of the content and built the foundation for a direct relationship with your reader.

Give away (some of) your content - Free content drives online discoverability. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a riddle that is constantly changing. One thing that remains constant in the SEO universe is that quality content drives search engine's ability to find you. This should equate to the online version of flipping through the pages of a book in a brick and mortar bookstore. Give your readers a taste of the book, let them see that a vibrant community is coming together around the topic and they will want to be part of it.

Ideal Scenario: The online version of your book is partially public and partially private ($). An interested reader visits Google to find information on the topic of your book and finds the online version of your book. It is apparent by the number of comments and other things happening around the site that it is engaging and people are into it. Reader joins the site on a monthly basis and becomes a direct customer.

Print and Online should have unique content / qualities - Although it is not always the case, availability of content in two forms can be canibalistic. It is recommended that the print edition have certain content that is not available in the online edition, and visa versa. Complimentary products present a unique and effective method of cross-promotion that, when done correctly, can dramatically increase profits.

Ideal Scenario: Print customers are driven to the online version of the book because of your great back cover copy. Something along the lines of "The online edition includes 8 chapters that aren't in this book" or "Join the online community for this book and access 8 more chapters" (hopefully yours is better than mine). Customer visits the site, samples the content, and joins the site. Not only have you increased revenues on the title, you now have a direct relationship with this customer.

I hope these are helpful ideas. I work with a number of publishers, small and large, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the challenges you are facing. Please leave comments below or contact me directly at joel (at) near-time (dot) com.

Categories: Public Best Practices

Near-Time and The History Press Introduce True Richmond Stories, The First in a Series of Online Book Communities

Community Author — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 10:32:52 -0000

Near-Time Premium Offers Publishers an Innovative Way of Monetizing Content,

Extending the Life Cycle of Books Using Wikis and Web 2.0 Technologies

Chapel Hill, NC - September 10, 2007 * Today Near-Time and The History Press announced a new online book community (www.truerichmondstories.com) powered by Near-Time Premium. The news precedes the availability of True Richmond Stories, a book by Harry Kollatz Jr., scheduled to launch next month. This release will include the entire contents of the book, additional stories, movies, audio interviews from the author and more. It represents the first in a series of online releases for The History Press to monetize content and communities in innovative ways and extend the life cycle of their authors’ books.

"We chose Near-Time because it is the fastest way to create an effective online presence for our books, our authors and our readers," said Brittain Phillips, Sales and Marketing Coordinator for The History Press. "Near-Time Premium enables us to provide a much better experience for our customers over print alone and to increase profits for us and our authors."

""The History Press understands that the convergence of print and digital markets offers publishers great leverage," said Reid Conrad, Near-Time’s CEO. "The Near-Time wiki represents a platform for publishers to provide more dynamic organization and interaction with their respective markets. Near-Time Premium provides publishers a faster way to increase profitability when compared with advertising-only services."

Near-Time Premium helps publishers and content owners sell directly to consumers and gain competitive advantage. Advanced roles and permissions let publishers and authors retain control over content and community. Consumers interact with authors and other readers who share their interests. Unlike the linear experience of traditional books, Near-Time Premium enables dynamic content organization based on reader interest.

Near-Time Premium extends the life cycle of a book and helps make each project more profitable. During pre-press, content gets to market faster and enables a community of interest around a topic, giving technology and STM publishers a distinct first-to-market advantage. When a title reaches backlist, online distribution allows publishers to capitalize on the long tail of the topic.

Built on the Near-Time platform, Premium is the only turnkey Web 2.0 solution that makes it possible to create, publish and monetize content online. The platform includes everything necessary to create and publish content, build community and monetize access and interaction. Site owners can create multiple custom pricing plans based on monthly, annual or one-time fee structures and receive 80-90 percent of all membership and subscription fees.

About Near-Time

About The History Press

The History Press, based in Charleston, South Carolina, and Salem, Massachusetts, brings a new way of thinking to history publishing: producing regional history titles by excellent historians and striving to make these books available to a wide audience. By publishing high-quality history and heritage titles with a strong regional base, The History Press plays a part in the revival of interest in local and regional history that is underway. For more information, to to http://www.historypress.net

About the Author-Harry Kollatz Jr.

Since 1993, Harry Kollatz Jr. has recorded the lesser-known heritage of Virginia’s Holy City for his "Flashback" column in Richmond Magazine. From the inauguration of the world’s first practical electric trolley system and early civil rights activists, to a psychic horse and a wild ride on a sturgeon, he’s covered it all. Compiled for the first time in this volume, True Richmond Stories is a selection of articles sure to delight all who love Richmond by shedding light on some of the city’s historical nooks and crannies.

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Categories: Press Release Public Prepress
Tags: harry kollatz jr. near-time premium the history press

Spotlight on selling content online using Near-Time Premium

Community Author — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 02:44:50 -0000

Spotlight on selling content online with Near-Time Premium

Near-Time Premium is a hosted publishing platform that includes wikis, weblogs, contextual navigation, and other Web 2.0 technologies. The platform also features a fully integrated eCommerce engine that makes monetizing content and interaction easier than ever before.

Check out the Spotlight sites below and see how these forward-thinking publishers, independent authors, consultants, and professionals are leveraging Near-Time Premium to drive high-margin revenues online.

Spotlight on selling content online with Near-Time Premium

This Spotlight article includes:

True Richmond Stories (The History Press) www.truerichmondstories.com
ShoreViews (Shore Communications) http://shoreviews.shore.com
Golf By Design (Jeff Ritter Golf) www.golfbydesign.net
TeKnowledgey (PeopleWerx)
Merger GURU (Tom Taulli) www.mergerguru.com
BrickJournal Online www.brickjournal.com
Whole Octave www.wholeoctave.com

Interested in selling content and building community online using Near-Time? The company offers a 60-day free evaluation – GO HERE.

Categories: Public Best Practices Prepress
Tags: monetize content self publish sell content

Leading Analyst Firm Deploys Near-Time Premium to Monetize Content and Community

Community Author — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:01:24 -0000

Shore Communications' New Online Community Offers Content Industry Professionals Access to Exclusive Industry Insight

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina - September 4, 2007 -Today Near-Time announced that Shore Communications Inc., the award-winning research and consulting firm for publishing and content technology executives, has adopted the Near-Time Premium publishing platform to create ShoreViews, a new paid subscription content and collaboration service. Near-Time is a hosted collaboration and publishing platform employing wikis, weblogs, and other Web 2.0 technologies that represents a new way for the publishing industry to monetize content and community.

ShoreViews (http://shoreviews.shore.com) is a new online community enabling publishing, media and content technology professionals to share information and insights with other community members and Shore Communications’ leading analysts. Powered by Near-Time, the ShoreViews collaborative web site provides exclusive research reports, event reports, new analysis and videos to members on a registration basis and a paid-access basis. Members in the ShoreViews community can post content, comments, and participate in exclusive webcasts and teleconferences. ShoreViews premium access is available for an annual fee of $997.

“We selected Near-Time Premium because it has the critical combination of user-friendly social media features, easy configuration, turnkey eCommerce and quick integration with other content sources." remarked John Blossom, President of Shore Communications. "Near-Time makes it easy for web novices and experts alike to create, edit, and collaborate on web pages and create content that is found – not forgotten,” continued Blossom.

Shore Communications developed ShoreViews to offer premium services in a context that encourages collaboration and interaction amongst content industry executives. ShoreViews is a valuable resource for content industry executives who want to interact with leading analysts and other executives to gain insight on how to succeed in today’s rapidly changing content markets.

“Quite simply, John Blossom gets it. Leveraging Near-Time Premium, ShoreViews speaks to the transformation taking place in the publishing industry," said Reid Conrad, CEO of Near-Time. "Together, Near-Time and ShoreViews are walking-the-talk for the publishing industry," continued Conrad.

Near-Time Premium lets publishers and consultants focus on content development and leveraging their expertise to the fullest extent. Near-Time Premium includes everything necessary to create and publish content, build community, and monetize access and interaction. Built on the Near-Time platform, Premium is the only turn-key Web 2.0 solution to create, publish, and monetize content online. Site owners can create multiple custom pricing plans based on monthly, annual, or one-time fee structures and receive 80% - 90% of all membership and subscription fees. Authors, publishers, consultants, trade associations, and membership based organizations all use Near-Time Premium to publish their content, strengthen their communities, and drive high-margin revenue.

About Shore Communications Inc.

Shore Communications Inc. provides consulting and research services to guide executives marketing enterprise and media publishing and technology products and services. Leading publishing and technology content technology executives engage Shore to get highly actionable strategic insights into how to succeed in today’s business, scholarly and public content marketplaces from one of the content industry’s most recognized and respected consulting teams. Shore’s research, commentary, private consulting and confidential advisory services provide valuable insights into the products, practices and behaviors that maximize the value of content and related technologies through all stages of its creation, organization, marketing, deployment and use. Shore has been name twice by EContent Magazine as one of the 100 companies that matter most in the content industry. Shore’s ContentBlogger weblog received the 2007 CODiE award for Best Media Blog from the Software and Information Industry Association. For more information, visit http://www.shore.com.

About Near-Time

Near-Time is the leading Web 2.0 platform for cross organization collaboration. Business professionals can quickly create rich interaction with their prospects, customers, partners and suppliers. Near-Time integrates wikis and weblogs to enable groups to work together more effectively in a secure, hosted environment. Near-Time users can securely share information, files and create group calendars. Near-Time is in use in over 40 nations by thousands of businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, to maximize internal and external collaboration. Near-Time Premium leverages the Near-Time platform to enable organizations to monetize their communities and content. For more information, go to http://www.near-time.com/.

Categories: Press Release Public
Tags: john blossom near-time premium shore communications

Near-Time Premium is Creating Online Businesses

Community Author — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:52:11 -0000

New Customers Leverage Built-in e-Commerce Functionality to Launch Commercial Publishing and Collaborative Marketplaces

Chapel Hill, North Carolina July 23, 2007 – Today Near-Time announced new customers of its paid membership service Near-Time Premium. Near-Time Premium is a hosted Web 2.0 collaboration and publishing platform that enables groups and businesses of all types and sizes – including authors, publishers, consultants, trade and membership organizations—to rapidly build and create their own online commercial marketplaces without investing in hardware or software infrastructure. Premium customers come from diverse industry areas spanning financial news (http://www.mergerguru.com), business technology consulting (http://www.peoplewerx.com), sports instruction (http://www.golfbydesign.net) and music (http://www.wholeoctave.com).

With Near-Time Premium, community builders can benefit from integrated e-commerce services that make it easy to monetize content and user interaction. Site owners can flexibly craft pricing plans based on their preferred business models and the income they want to earn from collaborative relationships and published content. Paid members can be charged monthly, yearly or pay a one time fee. Near-Time’s cloning capabilities enable customers to quickly create commercial communities. Each month, Near-Time Premium delivers 80% to 90% of the revenues to Near-Time Premium customers.

“Premium is creating a whole new business model for our customers,” said Near-Time CEO Reid Conrad. “The diversity of the Premium customer base speaks to its game changing potential. Premium is developing new ways to enable businesses to derive value high margin revenues from their expertise and build vibrant, compelling and profitable marketplaces. We are well on our way of having hundreds of marketplaces up in the coming months.”

Here are some examples of the variety of storefronts Near-Time Premium has generated for online businesses:

Merger Guru: An Online Place for the Meeting of the Minds
Mergers and acquisitions expert and independent consultant Tom Taulli, author of “The Complete M&A Handbook,” and columnist for AOL Money and Finance selected Near-Time Premium to build Merger Guru (http://www.mergerguru.com), a site dedicated to buyers and sellers of companies and professionals such as investment bankers, CPAs, attorneys, consultants and others who participate in merger and acquisition deals. The site currently tracks and provides basic information about recent mergers and acquisitions for free, but will begin making available more detailed analyses of merger & acquisition deals on a membership basis in the near future.

“Near-Time Premium is an excellent platform for organizing content and presenting it to the public in a way that best makes sense,” said Tom Taulli. “Near-Time’s expertise reaches way beyond programming into true community building. And, it’s an easy and intuitive experience for users like me.”

PeopleWerx: Monetizing Expertise in Technology
PeopleWerx (http://www.peoplewerx.com) is a knowledge 2.0 performance company that provides online business strategies, Web and social media tools to help individuals and businesses maximize productivity. Mark Palmer, the CEO and Founder of the eight-year old company, plans to launch several Near-Time Premium Web sites during the next twelve months. The first site, Teknowledgey, is slated to go live in August.

“After evaluating other products on the market, we chose Near-Time Premium because of its unique monetization capability,” said Mark Palmer. “These sites will allow me to creatively monetize my expertise and meet my research objectives with users and the community at large.”

Jeff Ritter Golf Instruction: Breaking Out of the Mold of Trading Time for Money
Nationally recognized golf instructor, presenter, and author of Golf by Design, Jeff Ritter is a small business owner who wanted a way to quickly and creatively reach consumers with his message and product. Ritter’s wiki book (http://www.golfbydesign.net) leverages Premium’s content monetization component to drive revenue. Through the site, he offers golf lessons and learning programs for golfers of all ages and levels of engagement, customized golf events, golf tips, mental training and physical conditioning information.

“As a professional golf instructor, my challenge is to be able to generate income when I’m not on the lesson tee,” noted Jeff Ritter. “After going through the process of trying to publish several instructional books, I found that in the age of the Internet, it can be just as powerful and lucrative to control and sell content through my Near-Time site.”

Whole Octave: Fostering a Collaborative Community of Musicians
When piano teacher and performer Susan Capestro created Whole Octave (http://www.wholeoctave.com) as a global community and educational site for keyboard enthusiasts of all ages, she initially thought that it would be an information-based site. Thanks to Near-Time Premium, the site has evolved into a serious, interactive teaching tool. Content includes rich media and interactive wikis. Now many of their members are engaging students in online collaborative composition activities. Capestro charges $30 a year – or $5 a month – for a subscription.

“I chose Near-Time Premium because it is a hosted platform with blog and wiki interactive functionality – and, above all else, it is so simple to use,” remarked Capestro.

About Near-Time Premium
Near-Time Premium is a hosted service that enables users to create revenue opportunities with customers and business partners by quickly setting up commerical Internet marketplaces. Near-Time Premium offers an alternative to ad-supported web content by giving business professionals a way to package and sell expertise and content via paid access to online collaborative web sites. With integrated Wiki and weblog authoring tools, and file sharing and task management capabilities, groups can foster rich environments for commercial interaction. Near-Time Premium’s patent pending ecommerce engine allows the provisioning of user subscriptions by type of content access. Subscriptions can be based on monthly, annual, or one-time fees. Advanced analytic functionality enables users to track member usage in terms of the most popular content, most frequently edited pages, and the most active readers in the space.

About Near-Time
Near-Time is the leader in cross organization collaboration. Near-Time integrates weblogs and Wikis to enable groups to work together more effectively in a secure, hosted platform. Near-Time users can securely share information, files and create group calendars. Near-Time is in use in over 40 nations by thousands of businesses, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations, to maximize internal and external collaboration.

Near-Time Premium is Creating Online Businesses

Categories: Press Release Public
Tags: jeff ritter mark palmer near-time premium susan capestro tom taulli

Web 2.0 for Publishers

Community Author — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:17:54 -0000

Blog Roll…

Publishing is experiencing an exciting and radical transformation. Don’t just take my word for it, here’s what everyone else is saying about Web 2.0 and how publishing companies large and small can leverage this technology to increase profits, connect with their audience and become less dependent on the retail book channel for revenues.

CIO.com C.G. Lynch	Enterprise Web 2.0 in Your Pocket Near-Time, a Web 2.0 software company that makes wikis, blogs and discussion forums for businesses, can now push those collaborative technologies to mobile devices in the form of widgets.

Digg John Wiley & Sons	Wiley, Near-Time Build Book-Based Websites How publishers are using Web 2.0 technologies to extend the life of backlist titles...this story features the entire contents of a book online in wiki format. Unlike wikipedia, this wiki has controls built into it so publishers can maintain the integrity of their content while building a community of interest around the book.

Peter Suber News from the Open Access Movement	Wikis used as a platform for online book delivery Wikis represent an interesting way for [publishers] to encourage and enable even more community participation with [their] content

Berkshire Blog Berkshire Publishing Group CEO Karen Christensen	Lion and mouse - The British Library and Berkshire Publishing Web 2.0 has presented an entirely new set of challenges as we deal in a world where user generated content is the norm and new content delivery schemes are rapidly changing. Mashups, blogs and RSS feeds to name a few are enabling content to be delivered to our desktops in new and unique ways.

MarketingSherpa Practical case studies and practical data.	The New Rules of Publishing - 6 Action Items to Jumpstart Traffic With Web 2.0 If you're a traditional publisher and not using blogs, video and user-generated content, you're trailing your peers in attracting crossover traffic to your Web site. Such features can lure print readers with content they can't get otherwise.

The ECM Blog Commentary, News, and Analysis on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Web 2.0	Are Microsoft and IBM Your Future Social Media Vendors? (9/12/2007) 2008 will no doubt be a telling year in the corporate social media and Web 2.0 space. And if this CIO Insight story is any indication, the race will again pit David v. Goliath. But what’s different this time around? Will the Web 2.0 shakeout be any different than all the other enterprise software battles?

The Road To A Home	Citizen Media (9/12/2007) James Carey, the esteemed Columbia University journalism professor who died in 2006, once wrote that journalism was essentially conversation among citizens. Communication was culture, he often said. (See original by Project for Excellence in Journalism)

Flip Tomato A series of posts on the coming role of the Web 2.0 in science	Web 2.0 Science (9/12/2007) The first Internet revolution was about accessing the web’s information. The Web 2.0, on the other hand, is about working with information. The avatars of the Web 2.0 revolution are social networking sites, wikis, `intelligent’ applets, etc.

Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 A Book Publisher’s Future Visions of Print, Online, Video and All Media Formats Not Yet Invented	Reed's Rx - Convert Pricey Print Medical Journals to Free Ones Onlinehttp://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/301814/21492067 Publisher Reed Elsevier recently decided to offer free online access to the contents of several pricey medical journals. Risky? Perhaps, but it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me. This excerpt shows one important reason why this move makes sense (whole story)

SharedBook Collaborative thoughts on brand marketing, data integration, publishing, Web 2.0 and more	Monetizing Content in the Web 2.0 World (9/10/07) Following the trends in today’s marketplace for where corporations are directing their acquisitions, leads one to conclude that there has been a gradual but steady paradigm shift towards user-generated content and social networking. (whole story)

ClickZ Interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference.	Book Promos Get Wikis and Video (9/10/2007) Well, if anything, the fact that book marketing is getting hot online indicates one thing: some people still read things other than tabloids and free dailies. (whole story)

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Categories: Public
Tags: blogs

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As I see it, there are several key factors to successfully bridge print and digital: (3 here, more will follow)

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Spotlight on selling content online using Near-Time Premium

Leading Analyst Firm Deploys Near-Time Premium to Monetize Content and Community

Near-Time Premium is Creating Online Businesses

Web 2.0 for Publishers

Blog Roll…

Wiley, Near-Time Build Book-Based Websites

As I see it, there are several key factors to successfully bridge print and digital:
(3 here, more will follow)