Mandelbrot and Taleb on the Financial Crisis
The passing of the “father of fractals” allows us to contemplate complexity in our lives, especially our economic lives.
Modern Book Sales: Amazon’s Tail Gets Longer Just as Google’s Mouth Opens
Updated long-tail research shows that Amazon’s tail is growing, thanks to customers using search engines and user reviews more. How does that make you feel about the Google Books settlement?
Information Brunching — “Amazon Singles” Finds Space Between Essays and Books
Amazon’s latest play is aimed squarely at academics. Will it revive the moribund monograph market?
Cascading Peer-Review — The Future of Open Access?
BMJ Open is marketed as high-volume journal of rejects. Did BMJ miss on marketing or is this the future of open access publishing?
Waiting for a Solution: When Will Subscriptions Reach the iPad?
Publishers still have to sell iPad content via single-issue apps. When will a subscription app finally be allowed?
Is the Music Industry’s Recent Past Still Instructive?
Recent inflection points for the music industry may yet again prove instructive for publishers and others. But is it already too late for us to recover the craft of making products rather than providing content?
Anchoring Communities and Trust Markets — Advantages Shift to the Users
While losing distribution and production advantages might have hurt our businesses, losing our roles as anchoring and trust centers might cut deeper.
Introducing “The Scholarly Tycoon” — Gaming for STM Publishers
Can game play approximate the scholarly publishing dynamic? Here’s a tongue-in-cheek attempt to look at it from the publisher’s POV.
Fighting Copyright Trolls — The Electronic Freedom Frontier Strikes Back at Righthaven
Apparently, practices by a Las Vegas publisher are spreading, and the EFF has stepped in to stop them.
When the Love of Books Doesn’t Increase Sales or Citations
Free online books may increase discovery, but may not translate into increased sales or citations, a new study reports.
Radiohead Contemplates Digital Realities — Parallels for STM Publishing
Radiohead’s bassist contemplates the band’s journey through digital distribution as they prepare to release another group of songs. Publishers can find parallels.
The Asymmetry of Waste in the Age of Abundance — A Reversal of Scarcity’s Balance
A rumination on how abundance might be turning the table on producers by giving consumers pathways to efficiency.
Feeding the Sharks — C2C Wins Venture Capital
SSP IN conference ends with presentations of five new “dream e-Tools.” Will the panel of venture capitalists take the bait?
How the WSJ-NYT Turf War Looks From China
A video from practical people outside our little bubble gets it right.
Libraries and Netflix — Questionable Borrowing Practices From People Who Know From Borrowing
Libraries publicize their use of Netflix to save money on acquiring digital video for patrons, opening a potentially costly can of worms.