Peter Brantley
New York Times Movie Reviews Released as API
The New York Times has released an application programming interface (API) to its movie reviews, which is a rather significant feature. From the Times' Open blog: Finally — and this is the key — we're giving you access to our Movies search feature, containing all 22,000 reviews indexed by title, reviewer's name, director's name, names of the top five actors,…
Google Reaches Book Search Settlement
Google has announced a settlement plan for the suits filed by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors' Guild. From the Google Book Search site: Today we're delighted to announce that we've settled that lawsuit and will be working closely with these industry partners to bring even more of the world's books online.Together we'll accomplish far more than any…
Sulzberger: "Be of the Internet, Not on the Internet"
Arthur Sulzberger Jr. indicates he is willing to consider radical change to continue the New York Times' relevance in the digital age. From News.com: Sulzberger would brand this not as a crisis, but rather as change that requires adaptation. "It's important for traditional companies to adopt strategies that enable us to be of the Internet, not on the Internet,"…
Libraries Embrace Urban Lit
Great story in the New York Times on the embrace of urban lit by the Queens Public Library, and others. By the way: most of the young, and many of the old, librarians that i know are not … ur … prim: It's not the kind of literary fare usually associated with the prim image of librarians. But public libraries…
Apple is Now a Phone Company
Apple reported stunning results for the last quarter, and it has clearly become a dominant phone company in a very short space of time. John Gruber from Daring Fireball has the real punchline, but his analysis of the results is excellent reading as a whole: The entire iPhone platform is only 15 months old. The cheapest model still costs…
Newspaper Chain Refuses to Renew AP Contract
The Tribune Company, owner of 10 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, has given the required two years' notice to suspend receipt of Associated Press news. Tribune's move follows cancellations from a number of other papers. From Editor & Publisher: The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which…
BBC Shifts Conversation Style: Go Where They're Already Talking
I think this deserves to be pondered. BBC News is moving away from merely hosting comments to inciting discussion in a variety of formats and locations. From Reportr.net: For the US presidential debates, it [the BBC] has opened channels on video services Qik, 12Seconds and Phreadz. Some of the videos were subsequently edited and posted on the BBC News…
Do Publisher Brands Still Have Relevance?
Kate Eltham espies HarperStudio, asking whether they should have a separate Web portal/site, or just operate with a blog. She wonders: can a publisher drive a brand these days? Or just authors? What would make the return on investment worthwhile? Personally, growing up, discovering reading, I remember some imprints with fondness, and I might see their name as an…
Orphaned Works Find No Home in House
Wired's Threat Level blog notes that the orphan works bill is likely dead on arrival in the House of Representatives after a positive vote in the Senate, as a result of the wee little fiscal problem confronting the country: The act changes the rules and reduces and sometimes nullifies damages for infringing uses of so-called "orphaned" works as long…
A Plea for Passion in Museums
This is a great post about passion for when we talk about our profession, about what we are all trying to do, whether we are librarians, technologists, publishers, or work in museums. It speaks to why libraries and museums often feel "dead." From Museum 2.0: Museums shy away from presenting passionate views. It's ironic that we expect visitors to…