Commerce Archives - Page 27 of 53 - The Scholarly Kitchen

Open Access: Fundamentals to Fundamentalists

There is a certain fundamentalism that pervades discussions around open access policies and business models. On the one hand there are the advocates, and through the laws of conservation of energy, the equal and opposite reaction of anti-open access advocacy. There seems little room for rational debate about open access in the midst of such an antagonistic atmosphere.This post asks us to spend our time thinking through a range of open access models, experimenting and refining, rather than forcing ourselves down the road of policy mandates that potentially discourage innovation.

Identity Crisis — Does Print Need to Die for Online to Flourish?

The bias against printing has a technological basis and some business rationale, but are we underserving our role as “content marketers” by shutting down this option out of hand?

University Presses: "Under Fire" or Just Under the Gun (Like the Rest of Us)?

Are university presses really “under fire,” or are they simply experiencing the natural consequences of doing the wrong things at the wrong time in a marketplace that has evolved away from them?

Keeping It Real — Are Our Technology Expectations Out of Whack?

While we fuss over our interfaces and capabilities, we often forget how difficult software is to create and sustain, how easy it is to imagine otherwise, and how scarce engineering and programming resources are across the board.

Build a Better Mousetrap

The best way to increase D2C sales is to work in increasing the traffic to your site. Without traffic, there can be few sales. Unfortunately, the university press community has paid little attention to building Web traffic.

How Do We Address the Continuing Problem of Inadequate and Deceptive Publishing Practices?

Technological trends have enabled experiments in publishing. But now that we’ve seen plenty of experiments, is it time to bring them under control?

A Report from Inside Innovation — The Excitement and Uncertainty of the New

In the midst of a couple of major projects, here are some top-of-mind lessons from cultivating and sharing ideas on the long road of innovation.

The Expert

The intersection of vague business plans and practical implementation is often a frustrating process.

The Evolving Ecosystem for Journals Publishing

The world of journals publishing is constantly changing, and one relatively new entrant is the library as publisher. There is a need to study and publish these programs in order to optimize their performance.

Strategic Thinking Exercise — Who Is Positioned to Keep Gold Open Access Growing?

It’s unclear who in the academic world has any incentive to pay for Gold OA publishing, especially as embargoes satisfy nearly everyone and cost next to nothing.

Rearguard and Vanguard

The problem of piracy is not easily solved with legal or even technical initiatives. To make piracy less significant, publishers need to create a different kind of content service, one that is resistant to piracy because of its dynamic nature.

The Next Big Things?

Privacy, trust and managing the cultural record bubble to the surface of growing concerns.

Public Access to Public Books: The Case of the National Trust

The UK’s National Trust owns 140 libraries containing hundreds of thousands of volumes, many of them in the public domain. What would it take to make those books available to the public that owns them?

Bitcoin and Flash Traders — Leveraging Scarcity Within the Internet's Infrastructure

Two ways to leverage scarcity in the computer world are worth examining, because they represent baffling new ways for the rich to get richer.

Why Do Publishers Want to Sell Direct?

University presses cite a number of reasons to sell books directly to end-users. The principal reason is to establish a relationship with the customer. But once that relationship has been initiated, what business purpose does it serve?