TOC Posterous http://links.toc.oreilly.com Interesting Bits from Tools of Change for Publishing posterous.com Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:03:13 -0800 Sad how public and private orgs resist free access to gov't docs http://links.toc.oreilly.com/sad-how-public-and-private-orgs-resist-free-a http://links.toc.oreilly.com/sad-how-public-and-private-orgs-resist-free-a Fascinating reading from the Legal Information Institute on the dynamics of trying to offer free digital legal content. Some choice quotes:

"As is often true at points of dramatic change, those least well served by the old regime can more readily see and seize the full advantages of the new."

"Too many public law-making bodies that have undertaken digital distribution of law data have done so without any thought to facilitating redistribution with added value. Distributing only in PDF is a telltale sign. PDF is not friendly to subsequent machine processing. Those who want a court opinion to "look like a court opinion" on the screen or upon being sent to a laser printer are fond of the format. But for those who would link the references within a document to the cited material, add key words and other metadata, create sophisticated full-text indices, and integrate its content with other related law materials PDF is a major barrier."

"Subtler barriers lie in format changes and inconsistencies produced by simple inattention. Bodies that exercise great care to assure the quality and consistency of their output in print can wreak havoc on the data systems of others that build on their opinions, enactments, or rules because they will release data that will print handsomely on a page but be utterly confusing to text processing software or search engine."

"Like these peers and others putting law content on the Net, the LII has encountered a vastly larger and more diverse audience for legal materials than the commercial publishers and on-line providers previously perceived or dealt with. Often, it is an audience that is highly sophisticated in its needs even though it is not an audience of lawyers; professionals of all kinds in many countries make use of legal information. This new and important audience is largely ignorant of the idiosyncrasies of legal research and is, in effect, asking why legal research can't be done in ways that are closer to other forms of on-line research. It is a good question, and while there are doubtless sound reasons why legal research must be different there is also little doubt that a commercial duopoly serving an all-lawyer audience had little reason to innovate or to make things easier for non-professional -- and hence they did not. "


http://www.law.cornell.edu/working-papers/open/martin/free.html

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:57:50 -0800 Michael Cairns on segmenting publishing strategy http://links.toc.oreilly.com/michael-cairns-on-segmenting-publishing-strat http://links.toc.oreilly.com/michael-cairns-on-segmenting-publishing-strat

Nice (longish) piece from Michael Cairns on mapping out strategy, specifically related to servicing authors seeking self-publishing services:


Professional either have a track record of selling titles and/or have commercial interests such as a seminar business where the book is a component but not the main source of revenue. In the latter case, the author/publisher maybe less concerned with the commercial success of the title but retain a strong desire to produce a quality published product in the traditional sense. This group is likely to understand the publishing business.

Amateurs may have significant misconceptions of the industry and their capacity to be successful. They will require significant education and (possibly) even motivation to complete their “product.” They may develop a personal relationship with the publisher rather than a business relationship and will become more demanding of time and effort than the Professional.


http://personanondata.blogspot.com/2009/11/segmenting-publishing-strategy.html

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:00:01 -0800 Michael Tamblyn's TOC Frankfurt presentation (actually a dramatic recreation thereof) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/michael-tamblyns-toc-frankfurt-presentation-a http://links.toc.oreilly.com/michael-tamblyns-toc-frankfurt-presentation-a
via blip.tv

Shortcovers' Michael Tamblyn was kind enough to record his talk and slides from last month's TOC Frankfurt Conference. I got a lot of great hallway feedback about the session, and you'll see it's for good reason. Michael will also be speaking at TOC New York.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:10:33 -0800 William Patry delivering Frey Lecture in Intellectual Property Law at Duke http://links.toc.oreilly.com/william-patry-delivering-frey-lecture-in-inte http://links.toc.oreilly.com/william-patry-delivering-frey-lecture-in-inte
via ustream.tv

Google Senior Copyright Counsel Bill Patry, who will be one of our keynote speakers at TOC 2010, delivered a great lecture at Duke last month dissecting the "moral panic" approach to copyright debate, as exemplified by the late Jack Valenti, former CEO of the MPAA. His talk is just under 30 minutes, and then he goes into Q&A with the audience. I particularly appreciated his point that copyright is a social structure, not a moral one, and not one that's based on property rights.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:44:47 -0800 Agree with this summary of why Posterous makes posting dead simple http://links.toc.oreilly.com/agree-with-this-summary-of-why-posterous-make http://links.toc.oreilly.com/agree-with-this-summary-of-why-posterous-make
via broadcast.oreilly.com

Mark Sigal's spot on in his assessment of micro-blogging service Posterous. It bridges the gap between Tweeting and Blogging and makes posting effortless.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:19:34 -0800 Qwitter: Accessible Twitter client (uses TTS) (via @doctorow) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/qwitter-accessible-twitter-client-uses-tts-vi http://links.toc.oreilly.com/qwitter-accessible-twitter-client-uses-tts-vi Just make sure not to follow anyone who's a member of the Author's Guild ...

"The Qwitter client enables blind individuals to interface with the Twitter service globally, regardless of application focus. Based off of revolutionary concepts pioneered in The Jawter Jaws Scripts, Qwitter, with full support for the three major comercial screen readers and sapi speech, provides you instant access to all aspects of the twitter microblogging service, giving you the ability to post a tweet from anywhere, read tweets, perform searches, and far, far more."

http://www.qwitter-client.net/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:26:37 -0800 "Web-based ePub validator adds Preflight and API" (via @liza) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/web-based-epub-validator-adds-preflight-and-a http://links.toc.oreilly.com/web-based-epub-validator-adds-preflight-and-a
From @liza at Threepress:

"EpubCheck’s lesser-known companion checks for additional issues like content documents that exceed 300K, which can’t be loaded on the Sony Reader."

(ps -- thanks to @liza for making my day with the pointer to http://twitter.com/big_ben_clock)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:24:37 -0800 Despite recent gains for books, Games still dominate in the App Store (via @dliman) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/despite-recent-gains-for-books-games-still-do http://links.toc.oreilly.com/despite-recent-gains-for-books-games-still-do O'Reilly's Ben Lorica slices and dices current app trends for iPhone and Android (nice data points on price stabilization too):

"While it might be true that the number of Book apps is growing at a faster rate, Games continue to dominate the list of popular U.S. iTunes Apps. Games accounted for about a fifth of all iTunes apps over the past week†, but the category continued to have a disproportionate share of the Top 100 charts, accounting for 52% of the Top Grossing, 56% of the Top Paid, and 50% of the Top Free apps."

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/11/games-top-the-charts-iphone-android-markets.html

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:12:50 -0800 Early Registration Now Open for TOC 2010 New York http://links.toc.oreilly.com/early-registration-now-open-for-toc-2010-new http://links.toc.oreilly.com/early-registration-now-open-for-toc-2010-new

Early registration is now open for the 2010 Tools of Change for Publishing Conference returning to the Marriott Marquis Feb. 22-24 2010.


The program for TOC 2010 reflects how quickly the landscape is changing for publishers -- digital can no longer be thought of as a separate topic; digital creation, delivery, distribution, consumption, and communication are permeating every layer of the publishing ecology.


This year we've tried to include a lot of conversations about and with readers, to encourage discussion about how new formats and modes are shaping preferences and behavior. We've also split the popular Lightning Demo sessions into two different components, both now part of the main program. The familiar 5-minute demo format will remain for a dedicated Breakout Session, and as a special Plenary Session, we'll be using the popular and entertaining Pecha Kucha format, where each speaker gets 20 slides that advance automatically every 20 seconds. We've also split several of the tutorials into two 90-minute workshops, rather than longer 3-hour format.


It's important to remember that we are still very early in a transition as big or bigger than the shift from manuscript to print as the primary form for books. And it's useful to look back on that transition for insight into how the apparent shortcomings of the new and uncertain matter little in the long run. From James J. O'Donnell's essay, The pragmatics of the new: Trithemius, McLuhan, Cassiodorus in The Future of the Book:


Every negative claim made about print [in the 15th century] is correct, and every negative prophecy came true. Take the argument about the likeness of copies making collation and correction impossible: a perfectly valid point. Why did it not derail print in its glorious career? ... [T]he system of communication introduced by print was so large, so fast, so powerful, and ultimately such a source of wealth that the defects of the system could be remedied as far as need be. ... In short, in the end, the defects of print and the criticisms they drew didn't matter. This is a lesson worth mulling at length.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:45:51 -0800 Free news but paid comments? (via @adamgaumont) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/free-news-but-paid-comments-via-adamgaumont http://links.toc.oreilly.com/free-news-but-paid-comments-via-adamgaumont Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but the journey was articulate and entertaining on the changing economics of media.

http://sicmind.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/premium-content/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:17:03 -0800 Interesting TV subscriptions via iTunes in the works? (via @jafurtado) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/interesting-tv-subscriptions-via-itunes-in-th http://links.toc.oreilly.com/interesting-tv-subscriptions-via-itunes-in-th Reports suggest Apple is shopping $30/month TV subscriptions via iTunes (I cut the cable nearly a year ago for AppleTV and haven't looked back -- totally worth it.)

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20091102/apples-itunes-pitch-tv-for-30-a-month/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:43:17 -0800 Gizmodo smells a rat (well, they smell *something*) when it comes to iPhone ebook sales http://links.toc.oreilly.com/gizmodo-smells-a-rat-well-they-smell-somethin http://links.toc.oreilly.com/gizmodo-smells-a-rat-well-they-smell-somethin John Herrman has nice counterpoint on the rise of ebook apps, underscoring that quantity is not the same as quality:

Treasure Island, a free, public domain book, is available for purchase as a standalone app from over a dozen different developers, in all kinds of containers, at all kinds of prices. And why not! the content is free, so once developer has designed an ebook app container, he can just paste any public domain etext in there and throw it into the App Store. I have no idea if these things sell, but to be honest, they wouldn't have to do very well to make money for their developers—the investment is minimal.

http://gizmodo.com/5395396/iphone-ebooks-the-new-fart-apps

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:48:00 -0800 "The future of news is entrepreneurial" http://links.toc.oreilly.com/the-future-of-news-is-entrepreneurial http://links.toc.oreilly.com/the-future-of-news-is-entrepreneurial

Nice post from TOC 2009 keynoter @jeffjarvis on the future of news:

There’s a lot in that statement. It says: The future of news is not institutional… The news of tomorrow has yet to be built…. The structure – the ecosystem – of news will not be dominated by a few corporations but likely will be made up of networks of many startups performing specialized functions based on the opportunities they see in the market…. Who does journalism, why and how will change…. The skills of journalists will change (to include business)…. We don’t yet know what the market will demand and support from journalism…. News will look disordered and messy…. There will be more failures than successes in the immediate future of news….

That statement also holds many implications for sectors of the economy and society: investment (put money into the new, not the old)… public policy (don’t protect and preserve the incumbents but nurture the startups by creating a fertile and level playing field)… education (how do we train journalists when everyone can do journalism? – how do we train everyone?)… marketing (advertising won’t be one-stop shopping anymore and that means it may support news less)… PR (influence will be no longer be concentrated)… technology (there are opportunities here)…

Finally, that statement does not say some things. It does not say that the incumbents’ institutions will necessarily die, only that they have proven not to be the source of innovation and growth in news.

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/11/01/the-future-of-journalism-is-entrepreneurial/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:41:01 -0800 Amazon’s Kindle not lighting fires in Norway (from Quill & Quire) http://links.toc.oreilly.com/amazons-kindle-not-lighting-fires-in-norway-f http://links.toc.oreilly.com/amazons-kindle-not-lighting-fires-in-norway-f
Despite healthy sales and an endorsement from Oprah in the U.S., Amazon’s Kindle reading device may run afoul of Norway’s consumer regulations should the online bookselling giant decide to release the device there in its present form.
via quillandquire.com

FWIW, there are currently 19 O'Reilly books in the top 100 paid book apps in Norway.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:04:00 -0800 Apple Will Soon Overtake RIM in Consumer Smartphone Market http://links.toc.oreilly.com/apple-will-soon-overtake-rim-in-consumer-smar-0 http://links.toc.oreilly.com/apple-will-soon-overtake-rim-in-consumer-smar-0

A new report by ChangeWave Research provides yet more evidence of the surge in consumer interest in smartphones; and of Apple's iPhone in particular. Last week we reported statistics from AdMob stating that smartphones are now edging out feature phones as the device of choice for consumers. In the race for the highly lucrative consumer smartphone market, blackberry devices still hold the lead over iPhone - but ChangeWave's data shows that the gap is rapidly closing.

We predict that it won't be long until Apple overtakes RIM as the leader in this hotly contested (and vitally important, in context of the Web's shift from PC to phones) market.

via readwriteweb.com

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/266761/andrewsavikas_mug.jpg http://posterous.com/people/36jBHbl5it9v Andrew Savikas Andrew Andrew Savikas