Mac Slocum
Mac Slocum is O'Reilly's Online Managing Editor. He's been writing, editing and producing web content in various forms since the mid '90s. He also dabbles in video interviews from time to time.
What publishers can and should learn from "The Elements"
Theodore Gray on true interactivity and apps vs. ebooks.
Theodore Gray, author/creator of "The Elements," shares his thoughts on interactivity in ebooks, why programmers should be treated like authors, and why he believes the print form will continue to exist for quite some time.
Ebook annotations, links and notes: Must-haves or distractions?
O'Reilly editors discuss ebook functionality and connected reading experiences
Should ebooks be chock full of links, annotations, and sharing tools? Or is a quiet and disconnected experience the way to go? O'Reilly editors recently tackled these questions in a great back-channel discussion. We decided to share a handful of notable excerpts
Mobile phones and smartphones are not the same thing
Comparing a basic mobile phone to a spiffy new smartphone is like comparing a circa-1993 desktop computer to a Macbook Pro. They're related in a basic sense, but the discrepancies are immense. Arthur Attwell, co-founder and CEO of Electric Book Works, expands on the divide between mobile phones and smartphones in an interview.
Emerging topics from TOC 2010
It's interesting to chart technical developments in the publishing industry against TOC's brief history. As Andrew Savikas notes in the following video, things like ebooks and mobile have evolved from small topics to dominant themes. If the pattern holds — and I don't know why it wouldn't — we'll see international markets and digital analytics claim more attention at…
An expert view of unicorns and digital rights management
Kirk Biglione is a digital rights management (DRM) historian who brings a clear-eyed perspective to an inflammatory topic. While others jump on soapboxes, he actually does the homework. Case in point: Biglione’s in-depth look at the music industry’s stormy history with DRM.
Author, sell thyself (but in a good way)
Authors who want to jump into Twitter, Facebook and all the rest should pay heed to Chris Brogan. He's spent years — more than a decade — carrying on a conversation with his audience. Take a look at the sheer number of @ replies in his Twitter feed and you'll see how seriously he takes this stuff. In the…
The e-reader growth spurt of 2010
As TOC 2010 is held this week in New York, it’s clear e-reading devices are hitting their stride. This once-niche category is growing quickly. Publishing expert Liza Daly discusses the current e-reader market — Apple vs. Amazon, iPad vs. Kindle, etc. — in this video interview.
The future of publishing lives on and around the web
Richard Nash outlines his gameplan for uniting audiences and content
Richard Nash is passionate about the web’s ability to connect audiences and authors with the topics that excite them. Connections can be fleeting and the revenue model is in flux, but there’s a lot of opportunity in this model. What Nash discusses in this short video interview could very well be a blueprint for future publishing businesses.
Google's Browser-Based Plan for Ebook Sales
BEA '09 may be remembered as the moment when Google formally entered the ebook market. From the New York Times: Mr. [Tom] Turvey [director of strategic partnerships at Google] said Google's program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. "We…