What Consumer Media Can Teach Us About Professional Publishing
Consumer media sets expectations for how professional media will develop. The new production of “House of Cards” is an example of this.
The Slow But Steady March Toward Paid Content
The New York Times is now publishing short e-books, another step down the path to monetizing content directly instead of through the sale of advertising.
Why E-book Distribution Is Completely and Utterly Broken (and How to Fix It)
A recent incident involving Amazon and a Norwegian reader has highlighted the sad state of ebook distribution on many levels.
What Google Did Next
Google’s new initiatives show how impressive their knowledge of knowledge might become, especially if they pull off all the surprising and jaw-dropping mobile initiatives (Glass, driverless cars, others) they’re pursuing.
The Google/AAP Settlement: Less Than Meets the Eye?
AAP and Google have reached a confidential settlement over Google Books. But the larger Authors Guild case remains.
The "Facebook Fallacy" and Whipsaw Attitudes Toward Web Advertising
Facebook’s IPO has disappointed many, but to think that it presages a complete meltdown of the online ad market is a bit of an overstatement.
Driving Innovation: Finding the Balance Between Fair Reward and Profiteering
Vitriol may have obscured important points in a post last week. The growing business strategy of our era is to drive the cost of everyone else’s product to zero in order to make more money from your own product. This imbalance stifles innovation and creation.
Siri vs. Jelly Bean — The Voice Recognition Era Gets Competitive
Siri now has competition, and we all benefit.
Google's New "Scholar Metrics" Have Potential, But Also Prove Problematic
Google’s new “Scholar Metrics” promise to make the h-index viable for journals on a large scale. But problems exist in their approach, some of them easily handled, some not.
The Risks of Risk Aversion
Leadership at organizations of all kinds often justifies inaction with the statement, “We’re risk averse.” But is being risk-averse itself courting a set of risks? Is there any risk-free choice?
Predicting the Present
The text of a presentation delivered at the recent NFAIS national conference, covering various scenarios for the future of publishing. The argument is that these future scenarios are already evident in the world of the present day, though in embryonic form, and that by studying the “embryos,” we can make reasonable predictions as to where things are headed.
Do Search Engines Owe Publishers? A German Proposal Raises the Question
Should search engines license content for crawling? A potential German law thinks so.
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.
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?
Rediscovering Discovery — How We Find Things, and Its Implications
A recent ALA panel on discovery prompts some musings about the direction that local search will take and the likelihood that one vendor will control access to almost all library collections.