Where Is the Money in Custom Publishing? Your Answer Depends on How You Define It
How custom is custom publishing? Will custom publishing ever move fully into the user’s hands?
Is Privacy Dead? Only When Exploitation Mixes with Apathy
Recently, pronouncements by online mega-players (Google, Facebook) have been lighting up the boards as Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg particularly have made incendiary comments about the future and value of privacy. Here’s Eric Schmidt, in a brief clip, saying things […]
Highlights from This Week’s Comments in the Kitchen
Highlights from this week’s reader comments, pointing the way to dialog you might have otherwise missed. Also, let me know if you like this as a weekly feature.
The Real-time Web’s Utility Meter Spins Rapidly
Want to see the best-guess at the real-time Web’s activity level? Gary Hayes has a tool that let’s you peek.
Going Legit: The Difficult Path from Piracy to Partnership
Though social networking websites continue to proliferate, turning them into sustainable, revenue-generating businesses is still a difficult prospect. For sites based on the illegal distribution of copyrighted material, the process is even more difficult. Is it possible for a pirate to become a respected member of the business community?
The Republic of Letters, Visualized as Social Networks
Predating journals, a social network of scholars known as the Republic of Letters generated many breakthroughs. Now, their social networks, as represented by their letters, are being mapped.
The End of Kirkus Reviews: Gloom, Doom, and Sunshine
Kirkus Reviews is doomed. But for all the losses of old ways of discovering books, new ones keep cropping up. The future is bright for book publishing.
Fighting Fire with Fire — The Only Remaining Option?
The shift to the Systems Age is happening so fast and completely that publishers are left with only one option — fight fire with fire. Will they? Can they? Some examples show the way.
The Unstoppable Corporate Force Meets the Immovable Social Network
The companies behind social networks and media are running into conflicts with their users as they try to generate revenue from their services. Recent moves by Google, Facebook and AT&T are all sparking controversy as each encounters opposition to their business models from their customers.
Why Anti-Social Media Will Fail in the Coming Years
Social media is becoming the norm. Will laggards be viewed as anti-social in 2010?
Google Will Begin Adding Real-time Search Results in the Next Few Days
As Google adds real-time Web features to its search over the next few days, it may be the last nail in the coffin for publisher-centric commodity information.
ScienceBlogs and “National Geographic” — A Partnership of Online Strengths
In addition to print’s continuing decline, blogs in science are mature, profitable, and going local, as SEED, ScienceBlogs, and National Geographic show through their moves.
arXiv Receives $883K Stimulus Grant
A three-year NSF grant will create new tools for arXiv e-print repository.
More Viewers Watching More Ads — The Lessons of the DVR Paradox
DVRs increase viewership and engagement with advertising. Will we be able to recognize the equivalents in our industry when they arrive? Are some here already?
How Meaningful Are User Ratings? (This Article = 4.5 Stars!)
Are user rating systems a good way of measuring the quality of an author’s research? More and more websites are abandoning 5-star rating systems as the results they give are deeply flawed. PLoS’ approach will probably suffer the same problems.