What It Means to Be a Start-up: Is It a Model Publishers Should Embrace?
Is running a business without a start-up mentality dangerous in our fast-paced technological world? It’s all a matter of risk and reward.
Not Free, Not Easy, Not Trivial — The Warehousing and Delivery of Digital Goods
The idea that digital goods have no ongoing cost and can therefore be free has several problems, the basic one being reality itself.
Ask the Chefs: "What Is the Most Important Advance Publishers Have Made in the Past Decade?"
How have publishers changed over the past decade? What have been the most important advances? The Chefs tackle the question, with some surprising answers (they might have even surprised themselves).
The Outside Context Effect and Book Publishing Dominance
Is the Internet simply an irresistible “outside context” event for traditional book publishers? Two interesting articles make it clear that it may be, if wielded aggressively. The “outside context problem” was described in Iain M. Bank’s book “Excession,” in which […]
Lessons from the Music Industry: Should We Put Our Faith in Technology Companies?
Musicians have learned that the new corporate powers — technology companies — are possibly worse than the old corporate powers — record companies. How well would technology companies treat academics?
The Post-Apocalyptic Publishing Platform
While just about everyone in publishing is absorbed with the technology platforms du jour, new platforms, including the personal area network, are emerging. A good strategy is to keep one’s eyes on the horizon before investing in the current tech fashion.
We're All Publishers Now? Not So Fast
An exchange at the recent SSP Annual Meeting put the concept of “everyone’s a publisher” into stark contrast with reality. We’re not publishers. We’re unpaid writers for publishers like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress.
Will Editing Mix Machines With Humans? Dan Cohen Ponders the Future of Publishing
The SSP Annual Meeting keynote speaker contemplates how new tools and new ways of presenting content might lead to a world of mixed algorithmic and human editing and curation.
Mary Meeker's Internet Trends 2012: The Reimagination of Nearly Everything
Mary Meeker has been spearheading Internet trend tracking for years now. This year’s update shows that Internet growth remains robust. But the real news is the growth in smart device adoption — smartphones, tablet computers, e-readers. And the trend looks […]
The Big Deal, the Medium Deal, and the Tiny Deal
The Big Deal has emerged because it had to. Where do we go from here? The answer isn’t clear.
The Risks of Launching a New Services Business — Branding, Cash Flow, and the Fraught Start of PeerJ
PeerJ has the potential to create a divergent path to OA publishing, but its business model isn’t clear. As a service company, there are intangibles it needs to get right in the meantime.
MIT Media Labs Creates ZeroN — A Zero-Gravity Tactile Interface
A floating object that can act as a light source, a camera, a tracer of previous movements? Amazing.
Final Score in the Georgia State Game: Library 94, Publishers 5
The GSU case serves as a strong rebuke for publishers over fair use and copyright claims, while recognizing that some boundaries remain.
Ask the Chefs: "Are We a Service Industry Or a Product Industry?"
We often talk about products and services, but which is our primary value base?
Watching the Winds — Breezy and Revealing Visualizations of Our Most Common Weather Companion
Science data can be beautiful.