Inkling: Another Digital Textbook Approacheth, But This Time, It Has Friends
A new app for textbooks on the iPad has a lot of backers, and there’s a lot at stake.
The Google Books Settlement: Where Things Stand, and Some Suggestions for What's Next
The Google Books Settlement actually hit its second roadblock this week. Here’s why, and where matter might go from here.
Google Book Settlement — Opponents 1, Google 0
The Google Books Settlement hits a barrier. The implications of this will need to be sorted out over the coming days and weeks.
Customers Move Online = Bad News for News in the Internet Age
Online news increases in popularity, online advertising grows, and an iPad newspaper pure-play exists — why does this all seem like bad news?
Japan's Earthquakes Captured on Google Earth
A short film showing how earthquakes occurred sporadically, then cataclysmically, around Japan.
The Expensive e-Book: The Illogical Reasons Why Paper Books Can Sell for Less
When you explore the revenue model of e-books vs. print books, some pricing practices make sense. But when you factor in the expenses, the logic begins to break down.
UniPHY Promotional Video — And Who Said Scholarly Publishers Weren't Creative?
A clever marketing video from the American Institute of Physics and their UniPHY initiative.
The Terrible Price of Free: On E-reading Jane Austen via Google's Ebooks
The new Google Ebooks have made a mess of many popular classics in the public domain.
Even Crowdsourcing Can Get Too Expensive
Transcribe Bentham loses its grant after six months, and has to wind down.
Kevin Kelly on Generating Value in a Free Copy World
A fascinating talk from last month’s O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, in which Kevin Kelly talks about how the proliferation of screens, the incorporation of gestures and voice, the abundance of data streams, the notion of “always on,” and so […]
Why Does Availability Seem to Drive Down the Quality of Information Goods?
While it seems that availability drives down the quality of information goods, some exceptions make it clear this is not an unavoidable fate. Can scientific publishing beat the trend?
Authors — Only One Reason Why the Revolution in Book Publishing Continues
The revolution in book publishing shares some aspects with revolutions everywhere. Here’s a short slideshow by the founder of Smashwords examining current motivations for authors.
The Battle for Control — What People Who Worry About the Internet Are Really Worried About
While sophisticated arguments about how the Internet is changing our brains continue, a look back at the history of communications systems shows we’re really arguing about something more base.
Researchers And Social Media: Uptake Increases When Obvious Benefits Result
A study of social media adoption hides some sensible lessons within a jumble of other signals.
The Digitized Book Corpus and the Cracking Dam
A new report from OCLC underscores how much water is already over, and how fragile the foundation has become.