Outperforming Books at Getting a Job Done

Andrew Savikas
November 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Listen

Clay Christensen talks about how people hire products to do jobs for them, and for a very long time books have been the best performers at doing certain types of jobs. That's changing of course, and the crop of new Augmented Reality applications should be on the radar of many types of publisher, from travel to fiction to repair manuals:

In the not-too-distant future, it might be possible to slip on a pair of augmented-reality (AR) goggles instead of fumbling with a manual while trying to repair a car engine. Instructions overlaid on the real world would show how to complete a task by identifying, for example, exactly where the ignition coil was, and how to wire it up correctly.

A new AR system developed at Columbia University starts to do just this, and testing performed by Marine mechanics suggests that it can help users find and begin a maintenance task in almost half the usual time.

We'll have a session on Augmented Reality at February's TOC Conference.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23800/?a=f

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Michael Cairns on segmenting publishing strategy

Andrew Savikas
November 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Michael Cairns on segmenting publishing strategy

Andrew Savikas
November 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Michael Tamblyn's TOC Frankfurt presentation (actually a dramatic recreation thereof)

Andrew Savikas
November 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Michael Tamblyn's TOC Frankfurt presentation (actually a dramatic recreation thereof)

Andrew Savikas
November 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (4) | Listen

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William Patry delivering Frey Lecture in Intellectual Property Law at Duke

Andrew Savikas
November 7, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Agree with this summary of why Posterous makes posting dead simple

Andrew Savikas
November 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Qwitter: Accessible Twitter client (uses TTS) (via @doctorow)

Andrew Savikas
November 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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"Web-based ePub validator adds Preflight and API" (via @liza)

Andrew Savikas
November 4, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Despite recent gains for books, Games still dominate in the App Store (via @dliman)

Andrew Savikas
November 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Despite recent gains for books, Games still dominate in the App Store (via @dliman)

Andrew Savikas
November 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Early Registration Now Open for TOC 2010 New York

Andrew Savikas
November 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Listen

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 the 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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Gizmodo smells a rat (well, they smell *something*) when it comes to iPhone ebook sales

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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"The future of news is entrepreneurial"

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Amazon’s Kindle not lighting fires in Norway (from Quill & Quire)

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Free news but paid comments? (via @adamgaumont)

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Amazon’s Kindle not lighting fires in Norway (from Quill & Quire)

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Apple Will Soon Overtake RIM in Consumer Smartphone Market

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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Interesting TV subscriptions via iTunes in the works? (via @jafurtado)

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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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Apple Will Soon Overtake RIM in Consumer Smartphone Market

Andrew Savikas
November 2, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

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