Publisher Finds iPad Has Usability and Portability Limitations
A major publisher finds users like the iPad, spend more time with it, but don’t carry it around and encounter usability problems.
Information Brunching — “Amazon Singles” Finds Space Between Essays and Books
Amazon’s latest play is aimed squarely at academics. Will it revive the moribund monograph market?
Is the Medium Still the Message When the Medium is Pervasive?
McLuhan posited “the medium is the message.” Is it still? GenY might teach us a thing or two.
Waiting for a Solution: When Will Subscriptions Reach the iPad?
Publishers still have to sell iPad content via single-issue apps. When will a subscription app finally be allowed?
Is the Music Industry’s Recent Past Still Instructive?
Recent inflection points for the music industry may yet again prove instructive for publishers and others. But is it already too late for us to recover the craft of making products rather than providing content?
Does Rejecting Papers Amount to More Than Just a Transaction Cost?
The expenses publishers incur rejecting papers and book proposals are about more than filtering.
Anchoring Communities and Trust Markets — Advantages Shift to the Users
While losing distribution and production advantages might have hurt our businesses, losing our roles as anchoring and trust centers might cut deeper.
Ouroboros and Peer Review: New Proposals Continue to Chase Their Own Tails
Can social reputation metrics provide a meaningful incentive for researcher participation in peer-review and online commentary?
Radiohead Contemplates Digital Realities — Parallels for STM Publishing
Radiohead’s bassist contemplates the band’s journey through digital distribution as they prepare to release another group of songs. Publishers can find parallels.
The Asymmetry of Waste in the Age of Abundance — A Reversal of Scarcity’s Balance
A rumination on how abundance might be turning the table on producers by giving consumers pathways to efficiency.
How the WSJ-NYT Turf War Looks From China
A video from practical people outside our little bubble gets it right.
Imagining the Dream e-Tool for Education and Training
The keynote of the SSP IN meeting inadvertently raises a question — Is it possible to market new e-learning tools without blaming teachers or the educational system?
Liquid Journals or Lazy Journals — Can Technology Alone Make a Journal?
A “new” approach to making a journal smacks of old thinking, and is essentially inflammatory and naive.
The Wrong Approach: Harrisburg University Bans Social Networking to “See What Happens”
A provost sees multi-tasking in his home, and decides to make his university suffer — all because he took the wrong lesson to heart.
CrossDress: A New Fashion-Forward Service Where Social Media Meets Glamor
CrossRef announces a new system in conjunction with New York’s Fashion Week.