Do Students Really Prefer Print Books to E-Books?
Two flawed surveys help to reveal what might really be at stake in the higher ed book market.
Interview With a Ghost (Writer)
A bone-rattling interview with someone who may haunt the medical literature.
The Stein Taxonomy: An Analytic Model for Social Reading
Bob Stein has proposed a taxonomy for social reading, which refers to all the conversations and comments that take place about a book.
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?
Publisher Finds iPad Has Usability and Portability Limitations
A major publisher finds users like the iPad, spend more time with it, but don’t carry it around and encounter usability problems.
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?
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?
Making Ink: A Movie About an Amazing Craft
The crafts of print are refined and amazing, truly mature and interesting technologies in their own right. Here’s to the technology of liquid color.
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.
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.
How the WSJ-NYT Turf War Looks From China
A video from practical people outside our little bubble gets it right.
State of the Art II — The Future of Technology in the Classroom
Harvard’s Paul Bergen: “The slow accretion of technology into the educational system is the result of the teacher and not the learner.”
Games, eBooks, and Innovation — The Game Is Not the Same
“What we’ve called a ‘game’ has radically changed,” expressed Ariella Lehrer, president and CEO of Legacy Interactive, at the breakfast keynote talk at the 2010 SSP IN meeting. Lehrer, a 27-year veteran of the gaming industry, began her talk with […]
Liquid Journals or Lazy Journals — Can Technology Alone Make a Journal?
A “new” approach to making a journal smacks of old thinking, and is essentially inflammatory and naive.
Another Missed Opportunity for Bookstores — Hardware Lessons from the E-Reader Space
Traditional bookstores are missing a huge e-reader opportunity, proving that, sadly, they are not the customer-focused retailers they once were.