Innovation — A Word Cheapened
Scott Berkun challenges a common assumption — that being innovative is desirable. Instead, he suggests other things to be, including clear, smart, and savvy.
Words of Digital Wisdom — Crafting Organizations That Are Smaller, More Profitable, and Provide Full-Service to Verticals
Strategy is difficult, especially when the fundamental premise of strategic business decisions may have changed. Wiley and Worlock appear on the stage contemporaneously to offer examples.
The Preemptive Publisher
In a business environment characterized by risks, upstart innovations, and even contempt for the law, publishers have to ward off threats the old-fashioned way, by out-innovating their rivals and preempting new services.
Fleshing Out the World Dreamed Of — What If the Idealistic Recommendations Passed?
A new report for the Center of Economic Development suffers from a strong bias in its authorship. But beyond that, its implicit complaints, if addressed completely, would lead to a trainwreck in the world of scholarly communication. Is nobody thinking these things through?
Ask the Chefs: "What Is the Future of Copyright?"
The future of copyright will apparently involve catching up with technological change, cultural expectations of fairness, creative pressures for re-use, and many other factors. The Chefs cook up an interesting set of scenarios and ideas on this month’s question.
Open Journalism and the Three Little Pigs
In the world of social media, when you huff, and you puff, and you blow a house down, there are new consequences.
Digital Disorder — Losing the Signal of Priority and Selection
We used to have editorial selection and ordering as a natural result of editorial control. With algorithms and news feeds dominating, where are the signals of priority and linked information? Did we really need the packaging?
Not Excited? "You Need to Exit the Business" — A Great Interview with the Editor of Outside
The transformation of all publishers is underway, and this interview from a popular magazine’s editor sounds all too familiar as we adapt to evolving markets, possibilities, and expectations.
Achieving the "Golden Age of Librarians" — An Ambitious Project of Deep Redefinition
Are you a library or a librarian? How you answer that question may have a direct bearing on your ability to adapt to the digital age, T. Scott Plutchak tells us in a recent paper based on a 2011 lecture.
More on Why Amazon Is Winning the Book Wars
Amazon’s power in book publishing continues to grow, gaining momentum naturally as its success makes failure more likely for incumbents. There’s a lot to respect in what they’re doing.
The Approaching Golden Age of Long-form E-content — Coming Soon to a Reader Near You
Judging from the frenetic pace of developments around e-reading and e-writing, the golden age of the e-book may be just around the corner. After that, what e-books evolve into remains to be seen.
The Bookstore of Last Resort
When on-demand systems for bookselling, such as patron-driven acquisitions, are set up, they create an unexpected problem: How do you know the book will still be available when you finally get around to ordering it? The bookstore of last resort is a preservation-based commercial venture to ensure that books are always available.
The Kodak Moment — Unleashed from Scarcity, Editing Becomes More Important
Scarcity limited the amount of material, hence the amount of editing necessary to make sense of what we had. Now, with more information than ever, the value of editing should be increasing. Perhaps we’re just not as aware of it as we should be.
Experiments in Free Education: The Audacity of Udacity
A new education initiative seeks to shift students away from academia. Is this the shape of things to come?
Ask the Chefs: "How Do You See the Economy Factoring Into Publishing Decisions These Days?"
Economic pressures are driving change. The Chefs weigh in on the options, and clearly believe that while times are challenging, the best course is to keep moving ahead.