Summer Reading — By the Book, or By the Box?
60% of book purchases now happen outside the traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore
The Efficiency of Peer-Review
Recently, Cambridge Economic Policy Associates completed an analysis trying to assess the “hidden” value of peer-review, according to a story in the Times Higher Education. They estimate the value to be £1.9 billion (or about US$3.8 billion), with the UK […]
Printeractivity — A Forgotten Constant?
We’ve all been amazed at the interactivity of print. What?! Yes. The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest. Need I say more? Well, yes, I do. Or, more interestingly, I can. Take This Old House, a magazine derivative from the PBS […]
SSP TMR Blog Debuts
The Society for Scholarly Publishing‘s Top Management Roundtable meeting, scheduled this September 3-5 in Philadelphia, PA, now has its own blog, updating interested parties about the meeting’s format, linking to interesting work from speakers, and allowing for blogging at and […]
Info at your fingertips (without a screen or a keyboard)
Is it possible for people to have information at their fingertips without being tied to the usual web brower or even a book or journal? In her talk “Just-in-Time Info” Pattie Maes, Associate Professor, MIT, Program in Media Arts and […]
Stuart Brand’s Gift
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 […]
Book Digitization Will Continue
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. […]
Live Entry 1: Crowds
The SSP Annual Meeting is going on in Boston, and attendance is amazing on this beautiful spring day in Boston. Alex Wright, author of “Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages,” gave this morning’s keynote. He did a nice job of […]
Watch Out, “Professionals”!
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, […]
25 Years of Cyber Love
It may seem impossible, but last month, the first couple to marry after meeting online celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune. It may seem odd these days, but this 1983 story was a […]
Short Attention Span Publishing
Are you ready for the era of “short attention span publishing“? As noted in a previous post, usability around “task completion” or “success rate” is the real measure of a Web site’s value, and this is only going to be […]
Microsoft Closes the Book on Live Search
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, […]
Nail That Presentation!
As the SSP’s Annual Meeting approaches, many people will be gearing up to make an important presentation, and audiences will enter hoping to be inspired, informed, and impressed. Scott Hanselman has a great post on how to give a great […]
Information Does(n’t) Want to Be Free
David Pogue just published a post on the New York Times that quotes at its heart the statement, “Information wants to be free.” In the post, he notes that he’s pretty conflicted over the issue, and takes solace in the […]
easY readiNG thanKS to XML
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 […]