The Short Trousered Pragmatist

Is Technology Enhancing Learning?

2012-02-01T08:59:00.000Z

The technology of ~~teaching~~ learning

In the 1970’s I qualified and worked as a school teacher. Iwas in the English Department and the basic style of teaching was “show &tell” and there was precious little adaptation to the learning styles of thepupils. The essential technology tools of teaching were, in no particularorder: the textbook, the chalkboard, duplicated handouts & worksheets,occasionally - TV/VCR, overhead projector, and epidiascope.

After a good few years as a sales representative / manager Ideveloped a sideline of being a sales trainer. The basic teaching style wasinteractive but still with a heavy diet of “explaining” but always followed upby “demonstrating” and then group work to “do”. The essential technology toolswere: the overhead projector, video – programmes and recording, handouts.

Thirty six years on and I am reviewing the provision oftraining of publishing skills and development for people working in thepublishing industry. Part of that review is to look at the basic teaching stylesand the essential technology deployed. Ifind that the dominant teaching style is“explain-demonstrate-do” and the dominant tool is MS PowerPoint (occasionally non-MSversions of the same).

The next question is to ask how effective is PowerPoint as aan aid to learning. More on this in the next piece – why not let me know yourview of PowerPoint by taking the poll on the PTC homepage.

Apple’s War On Amazon Starts Thursday | Cult of Mac

2012-01-16T07:21:00.000Z

Apple’s War On Amazon Starts Thursday | Cult of Mac

Apple’s most direct competitor in the future won’t be Microsoft or Google, but Amazon.com.

With the release of the Amazon Kindle Fire, Amazon.com declared war directly on Apple’s core business model, which is to sell integrated solutions for the consumption and creation of digital content.

Starting Thursday, Apple strikes back.

My unified theory of Apple: It’s primarily a content consumption and creation company.

Kill the Meetings | Yes & Know

2011-11-22T04:54:00.000Z

Kill the Meetings | Yes & Know: "About 30 minutes into the meeting, I was a little flush, and perhaps sickly looking because as I excused myself from the meeting, everyone turned to ask me, “what’s wrong?”. And I didn’t know how to explain to them that they were having the exact conversation they were having when I had left the building 6 months earlier. And by exact, I mean to say the same argument almost to the same sequence of words, said by the same people. Nothing had changed, but more meetings had surely taken place. I wanted to barf on their shoes right there in that room, so sick did this realization make me."

'via Blog this'

The Persistence of the Innovator's Dilemma - Scott Anthony - Harvard Business Review

2011-11-11T08:50:00.000Z

The Persistence of the Innovator's Dilemma - Scott Anthony - Harvard Business Review

In 1995, a young Harvard Business School Professor co-authored an article in Harvard Business Review, "Disruptive Technology: Catching the Wave." He and his co-author proposed a new causal mechanism that explained the surprising failure of highly-regarded companies. The most punishing innovations, they argued, were the ones that were easy to dismiss at first blush — simple, affordable solutions that took root outside the mainstream market. The authors called these "disruptive" solutions and provided a straightforward prescription for leaders looking to turn disruption into an opportunity.

Financial Times reaches 230k digital subscribers - Articles - Technology Strategy Board

2011-11-07T05:54:00.000Z

IC tomorrow: ePublishing - Financial Times reaches 230k digital subscribers - Articles - Technology Strategy Board

Pearson has announced its latest financial results, including figures that outline the digital performance of its Financial Times newspaper: it has nearly 230,000 digital subscribers and 3.7 million registered users - up 34% and 49% respectively year-on-year.

David Worlock Looking at Pearson

2011-10-24T06:40:00.000+01:00

David Worlock | Developing digital strategies for the information marketplace | Supporting the migration of information providers and content players into the networked services world of the future.

There is nothing more certain in the information industry than that, once past a certain point, the big only get bigger. Thus I see no logical end to the steady growth of Pearson, over the past decade, as the leading force in education systems and services. Indeed. I predict another decade of such growth, driving national education champions to despair and frustrating would-be competitors who lack the global outreach.

Monetizing Digital Content

2011-10-11T09:25:00.000+01:00

Video of a very stimulating keynote

Monetizing Digital Content

Elite Template Event

2011-10-09T07:09:00.000+01:00

Elite Template Event

A really good overview of doing business with eBooks from TOC and digital bindery. A bit clucky to view but worth the effort.

Publishing in the 19th century

2011-08-05T05:47:00.001+01:00

I wish I had more time time to do the research.....
Consciously thinking of "books".....
At every turn I seem to be presented with the picture that up to the 19th century being a printer and a publisher (and even a bookseller) amounted to the same thing.
A key sub plot of Peter Carey's most recent novel, Parrot and Olivier In America, features a printer/publisher (& counterfeiter).
Reading Elaine Showalter's majestic A Jury of Her Peers, I read of Lydia Maria Child (1802 - 1880) borrowing money from her father and brother to have a thousand copies of one of her books printed. (It seems she ended up $98 out of pocket by being left with half her inventory unsold.)

As the scale of things expanded then the good old principles of industrialization / economies of scale led to specialization and publishing houses that weren't printers started to proliferate. One is tempted to see that this new breed of publisher was all about "content" and not about process or format but in reality a core competence of this new breed was their ability to manage the interface with the printing/binding process. The scaling up can be tracked to the growing population of readers - as education grows so does the population of readers.

As the potential market expands then a new expertise develops for publishers, as we might say today, their "go-to-market" abilities. These skills became increasingly important as the market became a "mass market". As we face up to the realities of what it means to be a publisher in a world of digital opportunity we do seem to be revisiting the early 19th century when the distinctions between the roles of author, printer, bookseller, was decidedly fuzzy and mastery of technology seemed to matter the most.

A personal anecdote
In 1988 I started to work for Harcourt, Brace, Javanovich, in the portfolio was the WB Saunders imprint. That year we celebrated 100 years since it was founded by the eponymous Walter Burns Saunders, a Philadelphia bookseller who saw a chance to make money out of selling medical textbooks to practitioners, but first he had to get them written, printed and bound before he could sell them. I seem to recall that it had not been many years before I joined that the company had finally closed its own printing works and moved to using suppliers. WBS also had a definite belief that a key to its success was its very large sales team that covered the US and sold its books directly to medics "on the doorstep" as it were. In addition was the very sophisticated in-house direct mail/direct marketing operation whose operating cost budgets were effectively open ended as they were funded by the success of each campaign. WBS were very definitely still booksellers 100 years after their founder established the publishing company.

Dyslexie — A New Typeface Cleverly Designed to Help Dyslexics Read « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-07-16T18:05:00.001+01:00

Dyslexics experience the world a little differently, and there’s a spectrum to the condition from mild to severe. As someone who occasionally has a mild dyslexic moment, I appreciate this clever way of addressing the typographical basis for some of the confusion dyslexics can experience reading. What’s also striking in one section is the clear (to me) inference that dyslexics probably helped create the alphabet through the easy visual creativity they bring to manipulating shapes — hence, an “n” becomes a “u” and a “b” becomes a “p” becomes a “d”.

READ ON

Dyslexie — A New Typeface Cleverly Designed to Help Dyslexics Read « The Scholarly Kitchen

Skillset is updating the National Occupational Standards for Publishing: have your say « Skillset Blog

2011-07-14T10:23:00.000+01:00

Skillset is updating the National Occupational Standards for Publishing: have your say « Skillset Blog: "Do you work in book, journal or online publishing? Would you like to help develop the definitive list of best practice skills and knowledge for the industry?

Skillset is updating the National Occupational Standards for Publishing to include journals and the latest digital developments and we want to know what you think. This important project comes at a critical time for the industry, when the pace of change provides both opportunities and threats."

Dynamic pricing: what it is and what it isn’t – The Shatzkin Files

2011-07-14T10:22:00.000+01:00

Dynamic pricing: what it is and what it isn’t – The Shatzkin Files: "Dynamic pricing is a buzzphrase making the rounds of publishers at the moment as they begin to get their arms around the opportunities inherent in the agency model. They are aware that Amazon does a lot of pricing automated by algorithms and some of the more creative and tech-minded thinkers are wondering if publishers need to employ technology in a similar way.

The most widespread applications of dynamic, or perhaps we would be clearer were we to say “automated” pricing, are in the airline and hotel industries, pricing seats and rooms. But airline seats and hotel rooms share three characteristics that ebooks don’t have"

David Worlock |

2011-07-14T10:19:00.000+01:00

David Worlock |: "The most important issue of the week was definitely getting a copy of a new report on Market Sizing and forecasts for eBooks. I was delighted to see that this came from my erstwhile friends and colleagues at Outsell, not least because they have filled a real gap and we are all going to be grateful to them. As they would expect, I could argue with the forecasts, but so could most of us: the important thing is to have a forecast, based on historical data, which can be the focus of debate going forward. Outsell have decided to divide the market to be measured into three – consumer, educational and professional. This was very wise. They have also made the very first attempt that I have seen to get global estimates – Europe, Asia-Pacific and the USA will all be markedly different in their development in this area. It is comforting, after so many attempts at global trend analysis (thinly disguised US forecasting globally extrapolated) to see genuine attempts to understand players like Kodansha and fit them into the grid. The future is manga as well as Stephanie Meyer. So, inspired by these efforts, let me add a couple of thoughts on top:"

Viewing: Should publishers care about social media? | The discovery blog - Semantico

2011-07-14T06:01:00.000+01:00

99.5% of social media experts are clowns, according to Gary Vaynerchuk (a bit of a social media expert himself) interviewed on TechCrunch. As someone who lives in Brighton, with its thriving new media community and unfortunate penchant for trendophilia, I have to confess that his statement has a ring of truth about it.

I have seen their collapsing cars, their oversized shoes, and on more than one occasion have had water squirted at my specs by their trick buttonhole flowers. In other words: I’ve attended a lot of social media presentations. As soon as the Powerpoint arrives at its final slide, you ask yourself: ‘Well it sounded great, but what did he actually say?’.

As a topic, social media has become yawn-inducing. It’s high on the hype curve and trending downwards as typically most of what you hear is hot air.

So, should publishers waste any time at all even thinking about social media? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.

read on

Viewing: Should publishers care about social media? | The discovery blog - Semantico

Is Your Company Fit for the Future (and for Human Beings)? - Polly LaBarre - Harvard Business Review

2011-07-07T06:56:00.000+01:00

Why can't we seem to build organizations that are as resilient, inventive, inspiring, and accountable as the people who work within them? That's the driving question behind theManagement Innovation eXchange (MIX), a web-based open innovation project dedicated to mustering the daring and creativity of the broadest base of thinkers and practitioners to reinvent management for a new age.

Arguably one of humanity's most important inventions, "modern" management was developed more than a century ago to maximize standardization, specialization, hierarchy, control, and shareholder interests. While that model delivered an immense contribution to global prosperity, the values driving our most powerful institutions are fundamentally at odds with those of this age. Ideas like zero-sum thinking, profit-obsession, power, conformance, control, hierarchy, and obedience don't stand a chance against community, interdependence, freedom, flexibility, transparency, meritocracy, and self-determination. It's time to radically rethink how we mobilize people and organize resources to productive ends.

Of course, that's not an undertaking for any one individual or organization — it's everybody's problem. That's why Gary Hamel, management thinker and author, envisioned the MIX as a collaborative platform to both surface bold ideas and inspiring stories and to make progress on a set of make-or-break challenges.

Along with MIX, Harvard Business Review and McKinsey have now joined together to create The Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. The first phase of the competition, the Management 2.0 Challenge is looking for the most progressive practices and disruptive ideas that illustrate how the governing principles and tools of the Web can make our organizations more adaptable, innovative, inspiring, and accountable.

READ ON

Is Your Company Fit for the Future (and for Human Beings)? - Polly LaBarre - Harvard Business Review

Secrets of Social Media Revealed 50 Years Ago - David Aaker - Harvard Business Review

2011-07-07T06:53:00.000+01:00

Almost 50 years ago Ernest Dichter, the father of motivation research, did a large study of word of mouth persuasion that revealed secrets of how to use social media to build brands and businesses. The study was reported in a 1966 article inHBR.

A major Dichter finding, very relevant today, was the identification of four motivations for a person to communicate about brands. The first (about 33% of the cases) is because of product-involvement. The experience is so novel and pleasurable that it must be shared. The second (about 24%) is self-involvement. Sharing knowledge or opinions is a way to gain attention, show connoisseurship, feel like a pioneer, have inside information, seek confirmation of a person's own judgment, or assert superiority. The third (around 20%) is other-involvement. The speaker wants to reach out and help to express neighborliness, caring, and friendship. The fourth (around 20%) is message-involvement. The message is so humorous or informative that it deserves sharing.

READ ON

Secrets of Social Media Revealed 50 Years Ago - David Aaker - Harvard Business Review

The Success Equation - Nilofer Merchant - Harvard Business Review

2011-07-07T06:46:00.000+01:00

Human stuff — the soft stuff — is rarely valued. We talk about it, sure. But we don't change it. We don't reinvent it. We give lip service to it but, when times are tough, we focus on the hard stuff.

We manage numbers because it's easier. We say we value people but we focus on the things we can track, we can inventory, we can show, and we can log in and out of. We focus on stuff that matters, surely, but we are doing the thing of managing the measurable, rather than the meaningful.

READ ON

The Success Equation - Nilofer Merchant - Harvard Business Review

James Daunt's Difficult Task: Remake Waterstone's | Publishing Perspectives

2011-07-01T06:54:00.000+01:00

When entertainment and record shop group HMV sold Waterstone’s to Alexander Mamut last month, the big surprise wasn’t the buyer, or the price -– it was the appointment of James Daunt as Managing Director of the newly independent business.

Waterstone's MD James Daunt has a truly difficult task ahead

Daunt has made his name as the owner of Daunt Books, a small chain of shops in some of London’s most exclusive neighborhoods –- Notting Hill, Hampstead, Chelsea. The flagship store in Marylebone is one of the world’s great bookshops, combining the feel of an Edwardian library with the title choice and presentation of expert booksellers. Daunt Books is stable, profitable and much-admired. But its founder’s early experience at JP Morgan must have asserted itself; although Daunt has been scathing about Waterstone’s and multiple retail in the past, the opportunity to reinvent British bookselling’s last chain standing was too tempting to pass up.

James Daunt's Difficult Task: Remake Waterstone's | Publishing Perspectives

IC tomorrow and IPG Meet The Innovators

2011-06-30T12:18:00.000+01:00

Fascinating to see the "new media" format of quick (8 minute including questions) pitches meeting the more languorous world of publishing. Not sure if it working.

Google Reader (168)

2011-06-29T11:25:00.000+01:00

Google Reader (168): "Do you know what your customers think about your products and services?
Successful business owners know that no matter how busy they get, it’s critical to take the time to get customer feedback. Understanding what your customers think about your products and services can not only help you improve quality, but can also give you insights into what new products and services your customers want so you can diversify your offerings. Knowing what you’re doing right also lets you make smart decisions about where to focus your energies, and it may even give you fodder for marketing. Plus, your customers will appreciate having ways to communicate with you and knowing they are being heard.

While getting feedback used to be limited to a suggestion box or form on your website, there are now many low-cost approaches to getting customer input and taking the pulse of customers. Here are four easy ways to make customer feedback a core part of your business."

The Latest Update from Skillset for Publishing

2011-06-28T07:49:00.000+01:00

SYP digital skills june 2011

View more presentations from Suzanne Kavanagh

Successful Entrepreneurs Offer Life Lessons

2011-06-23T05:08:00.000+01:00

Seven Up a valuable list of seven for 2011 and beyond

By Ronn Levine

Barry Ritholtz started his “On Investing” column in last Sunday’s Washington Post with a quote from the late columnist and author Bill Vaughan: “Money won’t buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff to study the problem.”The quote established a tone for the column to “approach the subject of money a little more philosophically. There are surprising insights to be gleaned from the experiences of the very wealthy...” Ritholtz writes.

As chief executive of FusionIQ, a quantitative research firm, Ritholtz comes into contact with many entrepreneurs, and over the years, has been fortunate to engage them in conversation. Here’s what he has gleaned:

1. Having money is better than not having money. (He starts slowly.) It buys you freedom.

2. Don’t become cash rich and time poor. “Work is the process of exchanging your time for money,” he writes. “Remember: What you do with your time is far more meaningful than the goods you accumulate with your money. If you are working so much to become rich but you ignore your spouse and miss seeing your kids grow up, you are actually poorer than you realize.”

3. Memories are better than material objects. The wealthy treasure their memories and accomplishments, Ritholtz says, much more than their possessions. “When discussing the benefits of wealth, I have heard again and again about amazing experiences, family get-togethers, vacations, shows, sporting events, weddings and other events as these people’s most important life experiences.” He writes that we all can enjoy these things and he’s right.

4. Watch your “lifestyle average,” especially early in your career. He cautions about getting tied up early with big mortgages or expensive cars so that you become reliant on your partnership-track job. “…overleveraged employees do not leave to work at a new start-up or a smaller, more family-friendly competitor."

5. Having goals is incredibly important. Ritholtz writes about a friend who is a “serial entrepreneur” and keeps building companies, the last one to the tune of $1 billion—thanks to a clear, long-term goal and the ability to follow through. “He once said something that has stayed with me: ‘I am always surprised at how many people have no goals. They simply let life’s river flow them downstream.” Ritholtz then quotes a Latin phrase: “‘Victory loves careful preparation.’ You would be amazed at what you can accomplish with planning.”

6. You must live in the here and now. (We now call it the “real-time.”) Enjoy - and make the most of - today. I have a friend who got so excited when talking about how well off he would be in his old age. It seemed strange. Ritholtz quotes John Lennon who sang: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

7. It helps to be incredibly lucky. Many rich people, especially tech entrepreneurs, are grateful for their good fortune,” Ritholtz writes. But he is quick to remind us of this famous quote: “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity.”

E-book consumption has doubled since 2009 | International Supermarket News

2011-06-15T11:00:00.001+01:00

KPMG’s latest Media and Entertainment Barometer, conducted by YouGov, shows that consumption of e-books has doubled since September 2009 as people increasingly purchase these products to use on tablets and e-readers like the Amazon Kindle.

According to the research, monthly spend on these goods is almost equalling the amount of money splashed out on music via the internet.

The average shopper spends £4 per month on e-books, which is double what is spent on online games and four times as much as what people pay for streamed TV. On average, downloaded music accounts for £5 of consumers’ monthly disposable income.

READ ON

E-book consumption has doubled since 2009 | International Supermarket News

The Membership Business Model for Scholarly Communications « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-06-14T14:05:00.001+01:00

Sometimes a business model hides in plain sight.

A while back I posted about the various business models available for scholarly communications. I was motivated to try to bring some clarity to a topic that often seems mysterious, with cries for “New business models! New business models!” ringing throughout the academy. My argument was that while there was much that is new in the way of business, there was little new in the matter of business models. Businesses have only a small number of ways to generate revenue, and this doesn’t vary whether a scholarly publisher works in print or digital form. I developed these thoughts further in a presentation at the recent AAUP conference.

Staring me in the face was a fifth revenue model, that of the membership society, which has a long and venerable history in scholarly communications.

READ ON

The Membership Business Model for Scholarly Communications « The Scholarly Kitchen

People Are Not Cogs - Nilofer Merchant - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

2011-06-08T08:09:00.000+01:00

Every day I go to meetings where language suggests people are cogs.

With peers in a few CEO roundtables, I've heard things like: "I plan on hiring 3 biz dev people to get $345K per headcount in revenues." After publishing a book about closing the execution gap by focusing on the "peopley" stuff, CEOs of major companies took me aside (in a friendly way) to suggest I had made a major faux pas, and would be seen as having gone "soft." In spite of a forest's worth of academic papers and rafts of best practices published by the likes of HBR on the importance of the "soft" stuff, most companies continue to treat people as inputs in a production line. I've had leaders ask me if this "people engagement thing" is something that can be added on, after the core business stuff is done, sort of like adding frosting to a cupcake.

And I. Can't. Believe. It.

Are we still having this conversation, really?

READ ON....

People Are Not Cogs - Nilofer Merchant - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork - J. Richard Hackman - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

2011-06-08T05:10:00.000+01:00

Teamwork and collaboration are critical to mission achievement in any organization that has to respond quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also surfaced a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration. Here are six of them.

Misperception #1: Harmony helps. Smooth interaction among collaborators avoids time-wasting debates about how best to proceed.

Actually: Quite the opposite, research shows. Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team's objectives, can generate more creative solutions than one sees in conflict-free groups. So long as it is about the work itself, disagreements can be good for a team. Indeed, we found in our earlier research on symphony orchestras that slightly grumpy orchestras played a little better as ensembles than those whose members worked together especially harmoniously.

READ ON.....

Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork - J. Richard Hackman - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

After Healthcare - Science next?

2011-06-07T16:31:00.001+01:00

Press Releases - Thomson Reuters

NEW YORK – Thomson Reuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI), the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced its intention to divest its Healthcare business, which has been part of the company's Healthcare & Science segment. The Healthcare business provides data, analytics and performance benchmarking solutions and services to companies, government agencies and healthcare professionals.

Publishing as it Will Be

2011-06-06T13:47:00.001+01:00

David Worlock

wise man said that “Content without Technology is lame; Technology without Content is Blind”. Einstein was working his way towards this conclusion, but it was in fact Timo Hannay of Macmillan/Digital Science who came out with this formulation during this week’s ePublishing Innovations Forum at the IET in London (http://www.epublishing-forum.com/). Incisive Media, who also do the Online conference and exhibition at Olympia in December, having been doing this Spring meeting for four years, and I have been their privileged chairman for each. So I know the sea change of the past half decade, I know that change just gets quicker, and I know that Timo is fundamentally right and is one of only a handful who are doing something about it. I also see that “publishing”, if it is useful to retain the term, is almost redefined everytime we hold this meeting, and that the players making strides in solutioning (ugly term), collaboration and community seem to be mining the seams that have revenues and margins embedded in them.

David Worlock |

2011-06-06T13:39:00.001+01:00

Wise words....

excerpt

the asset would become the understanding of customer needs , and turning that into trust and authority by virtue of satisfying those needs with solutions that satisfied my mantra : productivity gain , decision-making enhancement , and compliance management

Link-

David Worlock | Developing digital strategies for the information marketplace | Supporting the migration of information providers and content players into the networked services world of the future.

Dr. Syntax: Why We Should Get Ready for a Plunge in Print-Book Sales

2011-05-31T17:39:00.001+01:00

Dr. Syntax: Why We Should Get Ready for a Plunge in Print-Book Sales

I wrote earlier this week that publishers need to prepare for a decline in print-book sales that's much steeper than what we have seen thus far, and that is likely to accelerate the reshaping of the industry. The reasons why this seems inevitable derive not from any intrinsic superiority of e-books, nor any growing technophilia or screen-tropism of readers, but rather from the structure of the market.

For one thing, e-book sales don't replace p-book sales on a one to one basis, as my colleague Evan Schnittman points out in his post "E-Books Don't Cannibalize Print, People Do." Evan argues that once you have adopted an e-reader--whether it's Kindle, Nook, or your iPhone--you soon give up buying print books. You become so happy with the convenience of instant purchase and the bookshelf-in-your-briefcase that you virtually give up purchasing hardcovers--in fact, he argues, you'll simply forgo a title that's not available in e-format.

Independent Publishing Events | Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling | Postgraduate Publishing Degrees

2011-05-31T17:30:00.001+01:00

Independent Publishing Events | Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling | Postgraduate Publishing Degrees

The Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication, in association with the Scottish Universities Insight Institute, is running a series of seminars over the summer in Glasgow on the topic of Independent Publishing: Making and Preserving Culture in a Global Literary Marketplace. The seminars will feature a mix of publishers and others in the book trade, from Scotland and across Europe, and also of academics and other commentators on the industry. The three seminars will be:

9-10 June Digital Technologies and Publishing (keynote speaker: Chris Meade, Director of the Institute for the Future of the Book on ‘The Amplified Author in the Unlibrary’)

23-24 June Globalisation and Independent Publishing (keynote speaker: Professor Simon Gikandi, Princeton University on ‘Scenes of Reading in the Global Literary Marketplace: Some Postcolonial Reflections)

22-23 August Cultural Policy (keynote speaker: André Schiffrin, publisher and author of The Business of Books andWords and Money; in association with Publishing Scotland and the Edinburgh International Book Festival)

All events are free, but registration is required. You can register direct for the keynote lectures by clicking on the following links: Chris Meade (9 June); Simon Gikandi (23 June). If you would like to attend the seminars in full, please send an email to publishing [@] stir.ac.uk and we will send you a registration link. More details are available from the Programme website.

E-Book report: Nook is up, iPad still catching up - BostonHerald.com

2011-05-31T09:44:00.000+01:00

E-Book report: Nook is up, iPad still catching up - BostonHerald.com

NEW YORK — As the publishing industry wrapped up four days of digital talk at its annual national convention, Amazon.com’s Kindle was seen as the clear, if not dominant, player in the growing e-market; Barnes & Noble’s Nook was considered a pleasant surprise and Apple’s iPad an underachiever.

"They had a respectable launch, but we think Apple can do better," Penguin Group (USA) CEO David Shanks said this week during BookExpo America, which ended Thursday at the Jacob Javits Center. "They still haven’t moved their e-books into their iTunes store, and they can have a much better search capability in their iBookstore."

ARL Scenarios

2011-05-31T09:31:00.002+01:00

A fantastic read https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6801974_8580701_67803

Full circle with Open Access Monographs « OPEN REFLECTIONS

2011-05-27T07:01:00.000+01:00

Full circle with Open Access Monographs « OPEN REFLECTIONS

After a previous guest post where he developed an interesting forecast related to academic publishing, Ronald Snijder is back with his thoughts on Open Access monographs. You can reach him at r.snijder@aup.nl

Full circle with Open Access Monographs

When I look at publishing academic books in Open Access, the story surrounding it tends to go a full circle, starting and ending with technology.

Technology is disrupting. Publishing in Open Access could only become an option because information technology enabled us to create files in a format – PDF – that could be used for printing and also be widely read on a screen. And the Web made it possible to publish those files without a lot of hassle. It made it possible to think about books that are free as in beer.

Book Blog | The Spectator

2011-05-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

Book Blog | The Spectator: "The only time in the last decade I’ve bought something other than wrapping paper from Waterstone’s was when last winter’s snow prevented my Amazon order showing up in time for Christmas. Two hardbacks cost me a whopping £22 more than I had paid online. Short of forking out £50,000 for a super-injunction I can’t imagine a less satisfying transaction.

Last Friday’s news that the chain has been bought by one of Russia’s poorer oligarchs was greeted rapturously by the book industry; its new managing director James Daunt (founder of the upmarket book chain) hailed as a messiah with excellent taste in bookshelves. But the notion that this takeover is going to provide any more than temporary relief from Waterstone’s problems is wishful thinking in the extreme."

Contest Asks: What's the Worst PowerPoint Slide Ever Made?

2011-04-24T05:55:00.001+01:00

What is it about PowerPoint that inspires us to mash together discordant colors with an abundance of text to produce the most hideous slides imaginable? We may never know the answer, but at least we now have a reason to celebrate the worst that ever was.

InFocus, makers of projectors that shine a light on PowerPoint abominations everywhere, is seeking the worst PowerPoint slide ever made in its “What Not to Present” contest. The company is soliciting submissions viaTwitter and will reward the entrant who submits the most repulsive slide with a free projector (which sounds like a very dangerous gift).

Contest Asks: What's the Worst PowerPoint Slide Ever Made?

Top 20 Facebook Apps for Book Lovers - GalleyCat

2011-04-23T06:29:00.001+01:00

Not all Facebook apps are dedicated to Farmville-style social games. Goodreads has the most popular book related app on Facebook, counting more than 150,700 monthly active users.

To celebrate 3,000 new friends on our GalleyCat Facebook page, we’ve compiled a list of the top 20 book-focused apps on Facebook–we’ve ranked them in order of monthly active users.

Top 20 Facebook Apps for Book Lovers - GalleyCat

Blackboard May be the Target of a Takeover « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-04-22T07:12:00.001+01:00

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Blackboard, the company that everyone loves to hate, may be subject to takeover bids. This is not an unexpected development, but it will have significant implications for higher education nonetheless. As I write this, Blackboard’s stock is up around 15 points. This means that someone, somewhere, thinks that higher education is a market worth investing in, which may be ironic for those working in the area right now, who mostly voice gloom and doom.

Read the full article here

Blackboard May be the Target of a Takeover « The Scholarly Kitchen

Professional and scholarly books hold 75.9 percent of the US e-book market, says Simba report

2011-04-21T17:28:00.002+01:00

Media industry and forecast analysis firm Simba Information, US, has released a new report titled ‘Professional Publishing in the Digital Age: E-Books in Libraries.’ Although consumer trade books get a majority of the attention, professional and scholarly books, which include the legal, scientific/technical, medical and business segments, hold 75.9 percent of the $1.76 billion US e-book market, says the report. Further, the report predicts library collection managers will set aside more of their budget for E-books over the next few years.

The clear advantages E-books offer librarians, including archiving and long term access, enhancements and features, usage statistics and cost savings, are pushing professional publishers to continue to work with the library community to fully develop this market. According to the report, surveyed library collection managers are expecting e-books to become a more significant share of publishers' and distributors' offering, with 60 percent indicating that in five years e-books will represent 11 percent or more of their library's acquisition budget.

The current mindset of professional publishers is to replicate the print version of a book, which is creating challenges in the adoption of e-books, including the use of format standards like EPUB and establishing acceptable digital rights management, the report noted.

Professional Publishing in the Digital Age: E-Books in Libraries provides an overview and financial outlook for e-books in the professional market defined by four key segments - legal, scientific/technical, medical and business. The report also discusses advantages, challenges, pricing models, usage, and platform providers, and analyses e-book categories, major e-book publishers and e-book technologies.

Brave New World: Rethinking the Future: The Digital Divide

2011-04-21T06:07:00.001+01:00

Brave New World: Rethinking the Future: The Digital Divide

From Martyn Daniels

We would like to offer three observations which we believe are fundamental to the future of ‘the book’ and rethinking the future.

The first observation we offer is that we now live in a YouTube society. One, where self expression and opinion can now be, heard, seen and shared. Yesterday we listened, watched and read media, today we make it and share it. Today is less about quality and more about the width. Self publishing is no longer the grubby slush pile of sad unwanted titles,but a vibrant market which is increasingly engaging more and more people. This is not bad, this is not to be looked down on, but is something exciting, new and to be celebrated. We may not have more readers today but we certainly have more writers!

At the start Youtube looked bad quality with cameras often out of focus and juddering, but YouTube today has changed video and even influenced film. The sheer numbers of viewers have created a new genre of film and participation and created new stars, launched musicians and given us all very funny moments. Publishing must now learn to embrace the author whose English and grammar may not be old school, but who has a story to tell and a new language to tell it in.

The second observation is that digital is different. Many in publishing see it as merely replace the physical jacket with a digital one. Same text, same blurb same stuff. Some want to enrich it by adding more media and make it in effect ‘fatter’, but remains the same story, same stuff.

The challenge is to recognise that digital offers not just more media opportunities but a fundamental change in the amount of content produced, accessible and how it is read. Why do we still continue to produce 300 pages or the print economic model? Why does the work have to be complete? After all the serial story is not that far away? Why do we combine digital and print rights and surely its like combining film and print rights – sometimes relivant but far more the case not.

Why are we trying to shoehorn physical economic foot into a digital shoe? The digital shoe is not constrained in the same way as print and can accommodate many sizes?

The third observation is about marketing and promoting works. It’s as if the book industry is still locked into the 20th century time warp and is in denial over the 21st century. We have failed to deliver anything but an ISBN and now use it to identify everything and every part of everything. We failed to understand the need to group renditions of the same or similar works and fragments were unheard of! The International Standard Text Code (ISTC) has long missed its opportunity and one that is not coming back again and lies buried deep in the industry labyrinth of standards. Standards bodies which achieved so much to improve the print supply chain appear to stand transfixed in the digital headlights. This issue also is not so much business to business as business to consumer and this itself presents a challenge to bodies who not focused that way.

Worth reading the rest

Brave New World: Rethinking the Future: The Digital Divide

Gaming the System: Do Promises of Citation Advantage Go Too Far? « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-04-17T07:12:00.001+01:00

Gaming the System: Do Promises of Citation Advantage Go Too Far? « The Scholarly Kitchen

Does open access (OA) distribution of scholarly articles lead to an increase in citations? A new studythat controls for quality of articles says it doesn’t.

The subject is a controversial one that raises some disturbing questions about the validity of citation as a metric, about advocacy, and about the ethics of gaming the system.

Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities - Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

2011-04-17T07:10:00.000+01:00

Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities - Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

If you feel you have too many priorities and claims on your attention, you are hardly alone. A recent survey of 1,800 global executives (see Booz & Company's Coherence Profiler) that dug into this issue revealed a wide range of related management ailments, including:

Most executives (64%) report they have too manyconflicting priorities.
The majority of executives (56%) say that allocating resources in a way that really supports the strategy is a significant challenge, especially as companies chase a wide set of growth initiatives.
81% admit that their growth initiatives lead to waste, at least some of the time.
Nearly half (47%) say their company's way of creating value is not well understood by employees or customers.

The survey findings suggest that these symptoms stem from companies' incoherence — their strong tendency to chase growth initiative after unrelated growth initiative, often with very little success.

Periodicals Price Survey 2011: Under Pressure, Times Are Changing

2011-04-15T08:19:00.001+01:00

Periodicals Price Survey 2011: Under Pressure, Times Are Changing

Easy and cheap will trump expensive information wrapped in digital rights management (DRM). Transformational changes aren’t always to the “best” but tend toward “good enough.”

Periodicals Price Survey 2011: Under Pressure, Times Are Changing

2011-04-15T08:13:00.001+01:00

Periodicals Price Survey 2011: Under Pressure, Times Are Changing

There’s no way to sugarcoat the impact higher serials prices have on the information marketplace, or the dire state of funding for libraries. Libraries are no longer in a position of having to cut low-use journals in order to make room for high-use ones; instead, they are now being forced to cancel heavily used, even essential subscriptions, much to the dismay of their patrons. The economy still drives any discussion of serials pricing, and it remains a very ugly story.

the-talent-time-bomb-can-publishing-learn-new-skills/

2011-04-12T15:54:00.000+01:00

The discussion comes in light of Skillset’s research findings that 28 per cent employers in the publishing industry report skills gaps in workforce. Of these, 64 per cent report gaps in sales & marketing skills, 50 per cent in technical skills, 46 per cent in software skills and 38 per cent in business & entrepreneurial skills.

For a while now, all the publishers we have spoken to have said how vital commercial, technical and cross-platform skills are to product innovation and success. However, our research has shown that businesses are still facing challenges in obtaining and developing these skills within their workforce. We hope that the speakers will provide an invaluable view from across Creative Media as to what is needed; and why the industry should act sooner rather than later.

http://blog.skillset.org/index.php/2011/04/the-talent-time-bomb-can-publishing-learn-new-skills/

LinkedIn Founder: "Web 3.0" Will Be About Data

2011-03-31T11:33:00.000+01:00

LinkedIn Founder: "Web 3.0" Will Be About Data: "LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman says that the future of the web will be all about data and how we utilize it.

Hoffman made his assertion during a fireside chat at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. While he conceded that mobile is an obvious candidate for what will define “Web 3.0,” he said that data will be the platform of the next era of the web. “This is where some massive innovation will happen that will transform our lives,”"

5 Excellent Small Business Blogs To Learn From

2011-03-30T18:35:00.000+01:00

5 Excellent Small Business Blogs To Learn From

A company blog is a useful tool for small businesses hoping to give others a glimpse into the company while also promoting the company’s products and services.

While it’s never a good idea to spam readers with irrelevant promotional messages, there are plenty of ways to provide valuable information and resources to existing and potential customers.

Here are five small businesses that are using a blog to reach local communities and showcase the company’s experience and expertise. We’ve outlined exactly what they’re doing right as a guide for other small businesses to improve their own blogging activities.

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make

2011-03-30T12:19:00.000+01:00

6 Common Email Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make: "For small businesses, email still represents a cheap, effective way to establish or maintain a relationship with clients. But there’s the rub. While the medium is fairly neutral-to-positive, the content has the power to either attract or repel. So before you hit “send” on your next batch email newsletters, take heed of these six common email marketing mistakes."

China set to surpass the US as biggest publisher of scientific papers

2011-03-30T12:04:00.000+01:00

China set to surpass the US as biggest publisher of scientific papers: "A new group of countries, lead by China and followed by others including Brazil and India, are emerging as major scientific powers to rival the traditional “scientific superpowers” of the US, Western Europe and Japan , a new report from the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has found.

The report also identified some rapidly emerging scientific nations not traditionally associated with a strong science base, including Iran, Tunisia and Turkey. The report emphasised the growing importance of international collaboration in the conduct and impact of global science and its ability to solve global challenges such as energy security, climate change and biodiversity loss."

iPad as picture book - The Washington Post

2011-03-28T09:17:00.001+01:00

By liz seymour, Friday, March 18, 5:00 PM
For generations, reading a picture book worked one way: Place a child on your lap, crack the book’s spine, turn the pages and begin narrating the story of Curious George, Max and the wild things or Sam-I-am and his dislike of a certain breakfast."

Read on iPad as picture book - The Washington Post:

With UK Print Book Sales Falling, Can E-books Close the Gap?

2011-03-27T08:44:00.000+01:00

British consumers bought fewer books in 2010 than 2008 -– down from 344m to 339m -– and the amount spent fell from £2,341m to £2,183m. E-books accounted for just over 1% of consumer book purchases in Q4 2010, and –- because of the lower average prices -– just below 1% of spending. However, these shares had already more than doubled in the first four weeks of 2011, demonstrating the huge potential of this side of the market.

These were some of the key findings of Book Marketing Limited’s annual Books and Consumers Conference in London on 23 March held, once again, at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, close to the Houses of Parliament, where gilt-framed portraits of innovators and inventors line the walls, their creations -– steam engines and the like -– as revolutionary in their day as the iPads on which some of the delegates were typing their notes.

With UK Print Book Sales Falling, Can E-books Close the Gap?

UK publishers predict 2012 will be tipping point for e-books

2011-03-27T08:38:00.001+01:00

UK publishers predict 2012 will be tipping point for e-books

A third of UK trade publishers surveyed predict that over 10% of their total book revenue will come from e-books by 2012, according to new research released by Publishing Technology at BML’s annual Books & Consumers Conference today.

This research project, conducted by BML, surveyed hand-picked senior executives at top publishers to be representative of the industry in the UK. It showed that one in four UK academic publishers were already seeing 10% of their total book revenue coming from e-books in 2011, with double that predicting this would be the case in 2012.

This research into e-publishing follows on from a research project in 2001, also conducted on behalf of Publishing Technology (then VISTA), and so provides a useful comparison on the pace of change in publishing and sets markers against which further trend analysis can be undertaken.

Jane Tappuni, Publishing Technology, said:

“If 2010 has been acknowledged as the year the e-book finally became a mass market reality, then it seems that 2012 will be the year e-books start making a significant impact on UK trade publishers incomes. This is exciting as publishers have been investing huge amounts in digital publishing. I think we’ll increasingly see a divide between publishers who have embraced digital products and those that haven’t. These figures show that everyone needs to sit up and take notice to ensure that publishing houses are at the forefront of digital innovation.”

The research also showed that 66% of all publishers surveyed thought e-books were not displacing sales in other formats, but could actually lead to an expansion of the overall market, up from 44% ten years ago.

Other key findings of the report were:

Publishers are optimistic about retaining their place in a digital world, with only 14% thinking e-books will take book publishing out of the control of conventional publishers. This was, however, an increase on 10 years ago when nobody felt that the role of publishers was threatened by the move to digital

81% think that the majority of new books they publish will be available in both e and p format by 2016.

Backlists have been digitised faster than the original predictions 10 years ago, with 53% stating that over 10% of their backlists are already available as e-books and the pace set to accelerate very quickly with 71% saying that over half of their backlists would be available as e-books by 2016

In the original survey, nearly half (46%) of publishers predicted that over 10% of their revenue would come from e-books by 2006; in fact, in 2011 only 10% say that this is the case.

The availability of more book titles is the best way to promote growth of e-books, according to over two-thirds of respondents.

50% think enhanced content will help boost e-book market in next five years.

Jo Henry, BML, said:

“This research suggests that publishers 10 years ago were over-optimistic about the pace of change in some areas, whereas in others, growth has been almost as fast as predicted. But the benefit of the industry having planned for the digital market for such a long time will surely stand us in good stead now that the changes many have long-predicted are upon us.”

BML conducted this major research project on the state of e-publishing, on behalf of Publishing Technology, the largest provider of software and services to the publishing industry.

The 2011 research project (Publishing 2001: attitudes to technological change) involved interviews with a select group of senior publishers from a number of trade, academic/professional, schools and journal publishers, both in the UK and the US. The UK publishers who were involved in the 2001 research project were invited to contribute to the survey this time round, as well as some new individuals, to take the place of those publishers from the original survey who are no longer operating.

The results will also provide valuable context for BML’s comprehensive research study Understanding the Digital Consumer now taking place.

Leadership, Architected by Gaudì

2011-03-27T08:34:00.001+01:00

Leadership, Architected by Gaudì

A few weeks ago, I was in Barcelona for a business trip, and I carved out one day to visit the city. I wanted to feel, if only for a few hours, the atmosphere of the Ramblas (the typical, animated and often crowded streets that connect Plaça de Catalunya with the harbor) and of the Barri Gòtic (the Gothic quarter). And I just had to see the Sagrada Família.

The "Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família" ("the expiatory temple of the Holy Family") is universally considered the masterpiece of Antoni Gaudì, the Spanish architect who lived from 1852 to 1926. He is considered one of the greatest architects in history.

One my way to the basilica, I was thinking about how he didn't only build a considerable part of the most famous monuments of the city, he had helped shape the "identity" of Barcelona. That got me started thinking about the relationship between architecture and leadership, since a leader often has to face the challenge of building the identity of a group or an organization.

When I arrived at the Sagrada Família, it was sunset. The sight of the sun's last bright rays, filtered by the polychrome glass windows, struck me. I'm not an art connoisseur, especially for architecture, but four things remained in my mind, and I think there are four leadership lessons we can learn from Antoni Gaudì. (Part of the plight of being a management professor is that you can't stop thinking about leadership even when standing inside one of Western Christendom's great masterpieces.) Read on.....Leadership, Architected by Gaudì

How the Web Has Changed Our Perception of Copyright Law

2011-03-26T16:29:00.001Z

How the Web Has Changed Our Perception of Copyright Law

There is no doubt that in 2011, copyright law isn’t what it was in 1976. The web (and mobile) have all forced the aging statute to evolve in ways that were never anticipated in a world of digital everything.

Only late last year, the Obama administration began the potential reform process via an inquiry into the government’s stance on copyright on the net, and an end result is still years to come.

While legislation stagnates, a new, aggressive approach to enforcing the 34-year-old law against online infringement by private and government interests is pushing the judicial envelope to fill the void. Here’s what it means, and some new tactics used to enforce copyright.

Pizzas and Publishing — Why Disruption in Publishing Isn’t Coming from Within « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-03-22T16:54:00.001Z

Pizzas and Publishing — Why Disruption in Publishing Isn’t Coming from Within « The Scholarly Kitchen

The efficiency of working in small groups is not a new idea. The two-pizza rule, generally attributed toAmazon‘s CTO Werner Vogels, is one of the more recent instantiations of the concept — a project team shouldn’t include more people than can be fed by two pizzas.

The two-pizza rule recently came up at the Silverchair Executive Colloquium. What was interesting to me was what happened next. The audience started making comments like: How many toppings are on the pizza? Are they 10″ or 12″ pizzas? How hungry is the team? You get the idea.

We just can’t keep it simple.

Innovation & Longevity in Digital Publishing: Surfing the S-Curve « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-03-22T16:09:00.001Z

Innovation & Longevity in Digital Publishing: Surfing the S-Curve « The Scholarly Kitchen: "Some scholars — including Clay Christensen, author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “The Innovator’s Solution” — argue persuasively that the disruption necessary to create viable innovations must come from outside an industry’s traditional ecosystem.

This propensity for outsiders to succeed where insiders fail was elaborated upon recently in an interview with Soomo Publishing’s CEO David Lindrum:"

RSA Animate - The Internet in Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?

2011-03-22T11:37:00.000Z

From Skillset: Publishing Skills Council

2011-03-22T09:41:00.000Z

2011 publishing sector research highlights

View more presentations from Suzanne Kavanagh

Three Questions that Will Kill Innovation - Tony Golsby-Smith - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

2011-03-20T12:00:00.001Z

Three Questions that Will Kill Innovation - Tony Golsby-Smith - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

A big insurance company I know of wants to design a radical new future, so they have committed significant resources to large-scale innovation. But the board and executive committee are asking the innovation team all the wrong questions — questions that will kill any innovation project.

Here are three toxic questions that you probably ask that are guaranteed to kill innovation:

"What is the return on investment on this project?" This question scares innovation team and forces them to tell lies. They simply cannot answer it because it's way too early to know what the ROI will be. So they either make up an answer and stretch the truth, or they throw buckets of speculative financial data at the question and hope no one notices that they aren't answering it.

"Can you prove your case and back it up with hard data?" Ask this question of an innovation team, and they will put all their energy into the wrong areas. They will try hard to extrapolate numbers from market trends and past experience, rather than thinking about customers, good ideas, and new paradigms.

"Are you meeting your milestones?" This question will force an innovation team to abandon anything controversial and go back to the concrete world that they already know. They might get something done, but it won't be innovative. Milestones suit a construction project where you know what you are going to build, but they are inappropriate for an innovation or learning project.

How to Use Facebook to Drive Higher Sales - Misiek Piskorski - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

2011-03-20T11:58:00.001Z

How to Use Facebook to Drive Higher Sales - Misiek Piskorski - The Conversation - Harvard Business Review

As Facebook has grown to more than 600 million users, many companies have been struggling to figure out how to leverage it to help their businesses.

Most have limited themselves to advertising or establishing company pages on the platform only to discover that while these methods allow them to engage their Facebook fans in a dialogue and increase brand awareness, they do not necessarily lead to increased sales. Some companies have opened up storefronts on Facebook, but these efforts have also met with limited success.

So what should firms do? I recommend developing a two-part social strategy that is very different from what firms are doing now. First, the strategy needs to build closer relationships among the people on Facebook. Second, it should allow individuals to undertake tasks for free on the company's behalf in the process of becoming closer with their friends.

Ithaka :: Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability

2011-03-15T11:56:00.000Z

Ithaka :: Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability

Tens of millions of dollars, pounds, and euros are invested each year by government agencies and private foundations to develop and support digital resources in the not-for-profit sector. As budgets tighten, will these digital resources be able to survive and thrive?

This question is at the heart of the Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability project, a multi-year, international exploration of the strategies being used to support digital initiatives over the long term. Twelve detailed case studies present the steps project leaders have taken to achieve this, with special attention paid to their strategies for cost management and revenue generation. These studies include financial data, and explore the decision-making process that project leaders undertake when experimenting with different strategies to find the best fit for their organization.

Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today, serves as a guide to the cases, outlining the stages that successful projects undertake in developing sustainability models: from empowering leadership and developing accountability structures, to crafting a strong value proposition that responds to user needs, to securing the resources needed to help the project thrive.

SXSW 2011: The internet is over | Technology | The Guardian

2011-03-15T10:24:00.000Z

SXSW 2011: The internet is over | Technology | The Guardian

If my grandchildren ever ask me where I was when I realised the internetwas over – they won't, of course, because they'll be too busy playing with the teleportation console – I'll be able to be quite specific: I was in a Mexican restaurant opposite a cemetery in Austin, Texas, halfway through eating a taco. It was the end of day two of South by Southwest Interactive, the world's highest-profile gathering of geeks and the venture capitalists who love them, and I'd been pursuing a policy of asking those I met, perhaps a little too aggressively, what it was exactly that they did. What is "user experience", really? What the hell is "the gamification of healthcare"? Or "geofencing"? Or "design thinking"? Or "open source government"? What is "content strategy"? No, I mean, like, specifically?

HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile's New Skills Section

2011-03-15T06:06:00.000Z

HOW TO: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile's New Skills Section

Since 2002, LinkedIn has been building the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. It now has more than 90 million users in 200 countries, who conducted nearly two billion people searches last year.

LinkedIn recently introduced a new section to user profiles, which helps you organize your skills and assets. In this new section, displayed immediately after your education credentials, you can add a section that highlights skills, languages, patents, certifications and publications. Prior to this, you had to get creative and figure out a good place to place these brag-worthy items, often in the education or summary sections. Now they can stand out on their own and show what a well-rounded job candidate you are.

Charting the global e-book market - exclusive data Submitted by Philip Jones on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 10:36

2011-03-15T04:50:00.000Z

In February, the International Publishers Association asked each of its executive members to answer four questions about their developing e-book markets, granting The Bookseller and FutureBook exclusive permission to print edited versions of the answers.

Find it here

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Harvard Business Review

2011-03-12T07:31:00.000Z

Classic Porter

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Harvard Business Review

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, however, managers define competition too narrowly, as if it occurred only among today’s direct competitors. Yet competition for profits goes beyond established industry rivals to include four other competitive forces as well: customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. The extended rivalry that results from all five forces defines an industry’s structure and shapes the nature of competitive interaction within an industry

A snippet for STM publishers

2011-03-07T12:02:00.000Z

.....on the network the user will decide and make the revolutionary progress , and we “publishers” will have to be ready in an instant to follow , developing the service envelope in which users will be able to do what they need to do.

Read the whole piece here http://bit.ly/ePPcHx

David Worlock - more stuff to read, but worth it

2011-03-07T10:42:00.000Z

David Worlock | : "If you are an STM publisher reading this , then it may already be too late for you to act decisely enough to put yourself in the vanguard of change . For I am not the first to say what I am about to say , and there is now a good literature based around the idea that the network is a world of small beginnings , followed by mass change at unprecented rates that catch whole industries unawares . We are coming to one of those points , and my growing realization was triggered into certainty by being sent a link to a Harvard Business Review article from November 2010 ( thank you , Alexander van Boetzelaar for making sure I saw this .) Since HBR as an old world publisher makes a business of paid-for reprints I cannot give the link , but it is reprint R1011B ."

Authors — Only One Reason Why the Revolution in Book Publishing Continues « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-03-07T10:39:00.000Z

Authors — Only One Reason Why the Revolution in Book Publishing Continues « The Scholarly Kitchen: "Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, has been a leading voice and mover as e-books and self-publishing have transformed book publishing. In this slideshow, Coker compares the revolution among authors to the revolution in Egypt, illustrates his case well, and scores some usual and unusual points to make his case. It’s 21 slides, some of the text is small — and it’s worth a look."

More publishers, more books?

2011-03-07T07:24:00.001Z

UKSG Serials-eNews: Serials-eNews: "Nielsen Book have released figures which show a continuing upward trend of new publishers entering the UK market. With the exception of 2009, the increase year-on-year has continued since Nielsen Book started to record new publisher numbers. Publishers can now enter the market more easily, producing digital products or via print on demand (POD), as well as by the more standard routes to market."

The data is collected from publishers worldwide. Nielsen runs the ISBN Agency for the UK and Ireland, and the SAN and ISTC Agencies. This allows the company to record the number of publishers entering the marketing in the UK and Ireland as well as collect and then disseminate English-language book records and rich data to book buyers in over 100 countries.

Title volumes

The number of new books published in the UK in 2010 was 151,969; a decrease of -3.2% of the previous year's total of 157,039. However, in January 2010 the previous year's total was 133,224 and it was only with the late addition of 2009 titles (in particular digital product records) during 2010, that the number increased to 157,039.

New publisher figures increase in 2010

The ISBN Agency captures information about new publishers entering the market in the UK and Ireland. The number of start-up publishers continues to increase. The year-on-year increase between 2001 and 2010 shows that last year's figure is the highest in this period. This can be explained by the fact that many new authors continue to publish their work under their own publishing name.

UK Total Consumer Market in 2010

Sales volume fell by -2.7% to 229.3m and value sales was down by -1.7% to £ 1.72bn. It should be noted that 2010 has been a 53 week year for BookScan. Week 53 is a correction week and ensures that BookScan keeps in line with the calendar year. Without the 53 week volume sales in the BookScan TCM would be down -4.3% and -3.2% in value to 225.5m and £ 1.70bn respectively.

The full report can be accessed via the Nielsen Bookdata website.

Libraries still spend on digital

2011-03-01T18:47:00.000Z

Information Today, Inc. (ITI) recently released a market research study on library spending, Library Resource Guide's Benchmark Study on Library Spending Plans.

The study represents the responses of 1,201 directors, administrators, librarians and other library professionals in public, academic, government and special libraries across North America. The topics reported upon include budgets and funding priorities for 2011, library management issues in the current economic and technological environment, trends in digital and electronic resource utilisation, as well as forecasts on future library budgets and priorities.

More here including a link to the full report
http://www.knowledgespeak.com/newsArchieveviewdtl.asp?pickUpID=12332&pickUpBatch=1633#12332

Brave New World: Digital Library Madness: 26 and You Are Out

2011-02-28T08:22:00.000Z

Brave New World: Digital Library Madness: 26 and You Are Out: "In being able to potentially offer ebooks for free and from anywhere, against the retail model of payment, the digital public library now challenges the wider book market's pricing, revenues and licensing models."

David Worlock | Developing digital strategies for the information marketplace | Supporting the migration of information providers and content players into the networked services world of the future.

2011-02-28T08:20:00.000Z

David Worlock | Developing digital strategies for the information marketplace | Supporting the migration of information providers and content players into the networked services world of the future.: "And this is a futuristic conversation in another sense , and perhaps I should now make an alarming confession . I do not own an iPad ."

My Simplest Innovation Advice - Scott Anthony - Harvard Business Review

2011-02-26T08:21:00.000Z

My Simplest Innovation Advice - Scott Anthony - Harvard Business Review
Innovation is not simple, but there are simple ways to get better at it. One of my favorite techniques is to remember a game that many of you probably played in your childhood — musical chairs.

For the uninitiated, it's pretty simple. A group of kids gather around a group of one fewer chairs. The teacher plays music. When the music stops everyone scrambles to sit in a chair. Since the number of people exceeds the number of chairs, each round features at least one loser. The game continues until the last two kids vie for the final chair.

I hope you're still with me, even if you're a bit confused about where I'm going.

Booklovers enjoy

2011-02-25T09:16:00.002Z

Is Developing a Mobile App Worth the Cost?

2011-02-25T09:10:00.000Z

Is Developing a Mobile App Worth the Cost?: "Almost every business is gearing up their mobile strategy. No secret why: Mobile is really taking off. There are already more people on the planet who communicate with text messages than with e-mail and more people who own phones than have credit cards, according to the latest statistics"

Social Media and Traditions of Prestige | Peer to Peer Review

2011-02-25T08:21:00.000Z

Social Media and Traditions of Prestige | Peer to Peer Review: "Recently I've been mulling over the fact that most of the professional reading I do these days comes to me via FriendFeed, Twitter, old-fashioned Listservs, and even Facebook (thanks, Ebook Summit!). It's rare that I search those expensive databases we subscribe to, unless I'm looking for something that is cited elsewhere or unless I'm trying to do a comprehensive literature review. Even then, I tend to have better luck with the old-school social network, tracing cited works to locate related research."

Budget Plan in California Could Force Closure of Famed Oceanographic Library, Others at UC-San Diego

2011-02-25T08:19:00.000Z

Budget Plan in California Could Force Closure of Famed Oceanographic Library, Others at UC-San Diego: "If the $500 million cut that California governor Jerry Brown has proposed to the University of California's budget for FY11/12 were to pass the state legislature, it would likely claim among its many victims a library pearl, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Library at UC-San Diego."

University of Michigan view of the future

2011-02-20T18:51:00.002Z

Students Demand Flexible, Effective Learning Solutions | Publishing Perspectives

2011-02-19T12:09:00.000Z

Students Demand Flexible, Effective Learning Solutions | Publishing Perspectives: "America’s leading education publisher describes how to engage students who don’t know the meaning of the words “card catalog.”"

The Future of Publishing is "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow" | Publishing Perspectives

2011-02-19T12:02:00.000Z

The Future of Publishing is "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow" | Publishing Perspectives: "I want to encourage people to look at the pressures on publishing that have built up over last 10 years.

“There are three areas today that show symptoms of pressure. These are:

Business models and processes are breaking
The loss of control of your content and publishing tools. I mean, everyone can be a publisher now thanks to the Internet and self publishing through Amazon for instance — and this creates challenges for traditional publishers.
And then the notion of interaction. Everyone closer together. This is changing processes, and creating opportunities for interaction.
“The question is: what are publishers to do about it?”"

The Future of Publishing is "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow" | Publishing Perspectives

2011-02-19T12:01:00.000Z

The Future of Publishing is "Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow" | Publishing Perspectives: "Thanks to the popularity of mobile devices such as the iPad, there is more unstructured data than ever before and publishers are now faced with a new challenge: how to satisfy customers who expect to interact in real time with the content they want on the device they choose."

Liverpool’s Discovery

2011-02-19T05:43:00.000Z

Liverpool’s Discovery: "Discovery tools, which include ProQuest’s Summon and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), allow the user—through a single search box—to search a base index of metadata as well as many of the library’s digital resources such as proprietary databases, the catalog, and institutional repositories. Mimicking the Google experience, results from both internal and external sources can be served up in a single relevancy-ranked batch.

Each product has its own core index of metadata, which seem to be ever expanding as new agreements are reached between the discovery providers and publishers. Libraries can supplement the discovery experience with other content that the library subscribes to—if the discovery provider has negotiated a relationship with that publisher. For example, EDS subscribers who are also customers of ABC-CLIO’s ebook collection can search the ebook collection through EBSCO Discovery and link over to the book itself.

Why are discovery tools necessary? “One of the big changes is in context,” says Sykes. “Libraries have moved from being the monopoly supplier of information to being one of a number of suppliers, although in a scholarly context we believe we have the best of high-quality information. Discovery lets you have it both ways: the best quality and the most convenience.”"

Liverpool’s Discovery

2011-02-19T05:41:00.000Z

Liverpool’s Discovery: "It’s the energy at the Sydney Jones Library—the University of Liverpool’s arts and humanities library—that a visitor can’t miss. Throughout the day, waves of students flow through the front doors of this UK institution, fanning out through the building as they claim one of the hundreds of workstations, seek out a study group in one of the private rooms, stop in the well-stocked café, or settle down in one of the many easy chairs to catch up with friends."

Smarter Metadata — Aiding Discovery in Next Generation E-book and E-journal Gateways « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-02-18T11:43:00.000Z

Smarter Metadata — Aiding Discovery in Next Generation E-book and E-journal Gateways « The Scholarly Kitchen

With the recent surge in library e-book sales, serials aggregators are racing to add e-books to their platforms. ProQuest’s recent acquisition of ebrary and JSTOR’s expansion into current journals and e-books signal a shift from standalone e-book and e-journal aggregator platforms to mixed content gateways, with e-books and e-journals living cheek by jowl in the same aggregation.

Will Reference Books and Journals Survive? A Debate « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-02-15T12:11:00.000Z

Will Reference Books and Journals Survive? A Debate « The Scholarly Kitchen: "This year’s plenary Oxford-style debate at the Profession and Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Annual Conference had as its proposition, “The journal and the contributing reference book are no longer valuable as the unit of professional content distribution, and will die.”"

What We Talk About When We Talk About Business Models: A Bestiary of Revenue Streams « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-02-15T12:07:00.000Z

What We Talk About When We Talk About Business Models: A Bestiary of Revenue Streams « The Scholarly Kitchen: "With so much talk about business models nowadays, it may be useful to say what we mean by such a model. Granted, that most people who talk about new business models do not themselves have a business, but the question is not idle because even long-established publishers review their models continually."

RSA Animates educational reform

2011-02-07T07:02:00.002Z

E-book, online strategies help professional publishing revenues rebound, says Simba report - 04 Feb 2011

2011-02-06T08:42:00.000Z

Professional books, still a foundational reference source for most working professionals, grew 1.1 percent to $13.9 billion in 2010, an initial step toward a full recovery. Media and publishing forecast firm Simba Information's latest report, Global Professional Publishing 2009-2010, details the resilience of professional books through the recession and the explosive adoption of electronic models.

After losing sales in 2009 due to contracted library budgets and decreased exports, professional book publishing, which includes the legal, medical, business, scientific and technical fields, has nearly regained its 2008 position. Although largely due to a recovering economy, new e-book strategies and products from large commercial publishers have helped libraries make the most of their budgets and shelf space.

Historically vilified by the scholarly publishing world, search giants, such as Google and Yahoo!, have proven to be a boon to the industry, as added exposure has increased book sales. The report finds publishers are especially excited about Google Books, which allows users to browse sample pages before purchasing the full text or designated sections.

Publishers have embraced a print-on-demand distribution model, which allows buyers to purchase a specific digest and have it shipped within 24 hours of placing the order. According to the report, partnerships with online distributors, such as Amazon, have helped make backlist, out-of-print and large print books readily available.

Six Ideas for Building Online Communities

2011-02-04T10:21:00.000Z

From SIPA- Find an underserved group, or a lonely and under-appreciated group within the organization. If there is a highly regulated area—such as financial, health care or transportation—there is potential for a big audience. (There are new regulations to learn.)
- Make sure it is an industry where your subscriber base wants to—or legally can—talk to each other. (Not every group is as sharing as SIPA’s members are.)
- Use fresh content or information to bring people in; it’s about an exchange of information. This content can be video, live events (a book giveaway, an author talk, a film sponsorhsip), listserves—any focus on topical information.
- Leverage your relationships. Get your information on other people’s sites. I recently spoke with a social group entrepreneur who said that putting his service on discount places like Goldstar and Groupon pays off in the new people he attracts into his community. “I have 200,000 names [from over 12 years of business],” he said. “But it’s the new people who bring a lot of the business in now.”
- It’s always tempting to diversify into other topic areas, but focusing on your core market yields the best returns. You may even want to look at your subject and slice it thinner. You might lose some people but you’re getting a bigger market share.
- Write to engage rather than inform. Maybe you need a new “headset.”

The report it is based on

SAE International -- mobility engineering

2011-02-04T09:24:00.000Z

SAE International -- mobility engineering: "SAE International and IGI Global Agree to Strategic Publishing Partnership

WARRENDALE, Pa., Feb. 2, 2011 - SAE International and IGI Global have agreed to a strategic partnership that will enable SAE International to sell selected IGI Global ebooks."

Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]

2011-02-03T12:34:00.000Z

Tablet Commerce Expected to Explode in 2011 [STATS]: "Many online retailers say half of mobile commerce is coming from tablet devices already, and more purchases are likely to come from tablets throughout 2011, according to a recent report from research firm Forrester.

However, the firm’s research also indicates that while dedicated online retail sites, especially Amazon.com, experience huge year-over-year growth, the same can’t be said for the social web when it comes to e-commerce. While there’s been a lot of buzz around commerce on social platforms, including Facebook, most online retailers haven’t seen great results from these networks."

The Journal of Universal Rejection, and Suggestions for Improving It « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-02-01T05:25:00.000Z

The Journal of Universal Rejection, and Suggestions for Improving It « The Scholarly Kitchen: "In an impressive debut, the seemingly inevitable Journal of Universal Rejection has hit the scene, capturing the inverse relationship between publication quantity and publication quality to perfection. Sporting the tagline “Reporbatio certa, hora incerta” (echoing the Latin “mors certa, hora incerta” ['death is certain, but the hour is not'], JofUR promises:

. . . all submissions, regardless of quality, will be rejected."

Google Docs Gets "Gmail-ified"

2011-02-01T05:21:00.000Z

Google Docs Gets "Gmail-ified": "Google has released an update to Google Docs that makes it easier to find, organize and share documents. The refresh focuses around the Google Docs document list, the page where users choose which documents they want to access or edit.

The search giant has launched a series of new filters designed to help users more quickly navigate larger caches of documents. It has added visibility filters so users can find private documents, public documents or draft documents. It also has added ownership filters so it’s easier to find the documents based on author, or documents others have shared."

“Wowed” by the Yanks, UK Indie Booksellers Motivated to Start Selling E-books

2011-01-31T14:24:00.000Z

Not much of an article but it has some interest especially for those independent booksellers who can see that eBooks make sense for an increasing number of the book buying public.

“Wowed” by the Yanks, UK Indie Booksellers Motivated to Start Selling E-books

Strategy is important but I'm a bit busy just now

2011-01-29T15:40:00.000Z

This is a short story about being busy rather than about strategy.
Saturday morning was workspace tidy time and as I leafed through a large archive of documents to recycle I came across some notes from so long ago I can't remember ever making them. The notes did include a reference to a company website so I took a quick look and found nothing their to enlighten me.

At the heart of the notes is the old idea of distinguishing between what is urgent and what is important. This was nicely refined by a twoxtwo matrix with "Not Important" and "important on the X axis and "Not Urgent" / "Urgent" on the Y axis.
When you have a moment try and jot down the things you find yourself spending time on and into which of the four boxes they go.

Go on try it

The History of Content, From Cave Paintings to Flipboard [INFOGRAPHIC]

2011-01-26T08:53:00.000Z

Intersting and charming
The History of Content, From Cave Paintings to Flipboard [INFOGRAPHIC]: "In a charmingly illustrated infographic, we peruse the history of content, from cave paintings to the digital era’s Flipboard. A lot has happened in the time between town criers and the Kindle, but our creation and consumption of news-related content has remained a constant factor for most cultures throughout human history."

Costa Book Awards

2011-01-26T05:53:00.000Z

Costa Book Awards: "Poet Jo Shapcott has won the 2010 Costa Book of the Year for her collection Of Mutability, her first new work in over a decade and in part influenced by her experience of breast cancer.

In Of Mutability, Shapcott is found writing at her most memorable and bold. In a series of fresh, unflinching poems, she movingly explores mortality and the nature of change: in the body and the natural world, and in shifting relationships between people. By turns grave and playful, arresting and witty, the poems in Of Mutability celebrate each waking moment as though it might be the last and, in so doing, restore wonder to the smallest of encounters. "

Morality and Economics: Is a Trapdoor Opening Beneath Open Access? « The Scholarly Kitchen

2011-01-22T08:59:00.000Z

Morality and Economics: Is a Trapdoor Opening Beneath Open Access? « The Scholarly Kitchen:
Here is a snippet
"Morality and economics mix casually. You can see it in the vocabularies deployed by advocates of certain economic practices. Words like “free” and “fair” are words about morality, not economics. Rhetorical shifts from “estate tax” to “death tax” try to move the moral argument from one of sticking it to the rich (“estate”) to rudely taxing the recently deceased (“death”)."

As COMPETES Act Is Signed into Law, 'Wait-and-See' Is the Attitude on Further OA Legislation

2011-01-21T09:59:00.000Z

As COMPETES Act Is Signed into Law, 'Wait-and-See' Is the Attitude on Further OA Legislation
An interesting update from the US that shows the continuing mood of Open Access advocates, here's a snippet...."..the act also stipulates the creation of in interagency Public Access Committee that would explore the feasibility of a broader open access mandate, such as that proposed by the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). Specifically, it would "establish a working group under the National Science and Technology Council with the responsibility to coordinate Federal science agency research and policies related to the dissemination and long-term stewardship of the results of unclassified research, including digital data and peer-reviewed scholarly publications, supported wholly, or in part, by funding from the Federal science agencies."

Key trends in the information-seeking behaviour of researchers

2011-01-20T09:23:00.001Z

BMJ Group blogs: BMJ Web Development Blog » Blog Archive » Key trends in the information-seeking behaviour of researchers:
A good read here's a snippet
"Context
Context is key and was enthusiastically advocated as one of the major benefits of researching within an online environment. During a panel session at the conference, one researcher suggested that articles should be viewed as portals to greater information rather than the end product. The respondents would like to see more ‘similar articles’ and recommendations on particular topics, instead of browsing archives by issue or year, which would be an obvious benefit of semantic technology."