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?
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.
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.
A study of social media adoption hides some sensible lessons within a jumble of other signals.
A new report from OCLC underscores how much water is already over, and how fragile the foundation has become.
A talk by Margaret Atwood which reminds us that authors are not to be overlooked as we charge ahead with changes in publishing — and that change itself requires thoughtful choices.
Customers have accepted the analogy that they “buy” e-books, but publishers may be faced with accepting the fact that they’re selling licenses. What this could mean to their bottom lines may not be the most painful part of this shift.
The tablet wars are on, with special significance for STM publishers.
Apple’s apparent abuse of its platform dominance may signal a basic incompatibility between providers and platforms.
With more and more science being tested and communicated outside traditional outlets, we may face a moment when faith in the existing system breaks down.
For scholars to excel in the information age, technology needs to learn to learn. Perhaps highly specialized humans can help.
The outer ring of citation remains a point of vulnerability for quality proxies, as does reducing complex things to simple lists or numbers. When will we learn?
A new study suggests that reference works can be created cheaply and effectively through only mildly organized collaborations. Have we been missing a critical contribution of peer-review? Does it suggest that post-publication won’t review won’t be very effective?
How do you pronounce “@”? How do you read out an email address? These were tough questions in 1994, as this video reveals.
A renowned surgery journal experiments with QR Codes to leverage the mobile Web. Will it work?