In an interesting interview with John Markoff, author of “What the Dormouse Said,” Stuart Brand is described as having the uncanny ability of showing up at the right place and right time to influence major ideas. One of these cases […]
The recent announcement by Microsoft that it is canceling its Live Search Books and Live Search Academic doesn’t mean that book digitization initiatives are coming to a halt, states Joseph Esposito in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. […]
According to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, a new publishing entity called 8020 Publishing is showing that the wall between amateurs and professionals sometimes collapses when tested. While creating travel and photography magazines named, respectively, Everywhere and JPG, […]
Two new visualization approaches have caught my eye, and though I typically loathe cute interface write-ups (the kinds of interfaces that generate write-ups are usually too trendy and ephemeral, and won’t stand the test of time), since today is a […]
Microsoft is closing Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, according to a project blog post. To its credit, the project is coughing up equipment and scanned assets (750,000 books) to participants. My experience with the service suggests that, again, […]
A fascinating article in Publishers Weekly details changes in large print books and magazines, enabled by the broad utilization of XML and more custom and e-publishing options. One of the groups profiled is ReadHowYouWant. Not only are new type sizes […]
The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a story about open access backlash among creative writing students. It’s interesting to see how the battle lines are drawn, and how the terms of a negotiated embargo period at the University of […]
Johnny Lee, a developer made famous by YouTube, demonstrated at TED two great ways to modify a $40 Wii controller — one to turn it into an infrared whiteboard pen and the other to make it navigate virtual spaces. Watch […]
Life is an approximation of reality. What we know and what is possible are two different things. Experiments help test and bridge the gap. With that spirit, I’m experimenting on this blog with Twitter now. You can find a link […]
Think you have sharp eyes, Mr. or Ms. Editor? Try this test, from a Web site in the UK: How did you do?
This is a bit off-topic for this blog, but of interest to scholarly publishers, and I found myself doing a lot of thinking and digging about this for some reason. The announcement by Rockefeller Press that they will leave copyright […]
Morgan Stanley has updated its Internet trends report. You can view it below: Some interesting items stand out on what has become the de facto publishing medium for scholarly publishers: Consumers rule! Not only will consumer Internet bandwidth traffic surpass […]
Image via Wikipedia Hearst Magazines recently announced it’s rolling out ShopText, a system that uses text messaging to link print products with online. Readers of print can text a keyword to a number, and receive samples, buy products, or access […]
While it may be a fluke, it may be meaningful that, as Hitwise notes, Twitter has hit the hockey stick in growth, a tipping point of adoption and use that may herald a more mainstream place for the micro-blogging platform.: […]
A recent news report from Germany confirms an idea I’d been toying with for a couple of years (apparently along with a few other people) — that printing online content can be a good business. To quote from the Associated […]