Archive for the ‘O’Reilly Tools of Change’ Category

O’Reilly Media recently announced a new Tools of Change (TOC) webcast series called SneakPeeks that will feature “a pre-release look at some of the best publishing tools, platforms and technologies that are about to hit the market.”  These will provide an excellent background to O’Reilly’s very popular conferences of the same title as well as keeping past attendees up to date.  The first two webcasts are on May 31 and June 2; click on the above link for details.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

TOC 2011 finished yesterday with about 1,400 attendees–the largest TOC ever.  By all reports, it was an excellent conference, and thanks are due to all the O’Reilly Media staff for their efforts in ensuring its success.  The overarching themes that I came away with are an increasing rate of change in the publishing industry, a strong move to visual technologies, and new products for mobile platforms.  I have summarized some of the salient points below–further details are in the preceding blog posts.

Theodore Gray

• Is the world ready for e-books?  Yes, it is, and the technology is available.   It is unsatisfying to have to resort to print to make any money on the book
• Simple static textbooks will be produced as open source projects, and no one will pay for such textbooks, either in print of electronic form. People will, however, pay for enrichment and especially interactivity, which comes in many forms.

Skip Pritchard

• We are in an amazing time of rapid change in the publishing industry, and the pace is accelerating.   Everything will eventually be wired to the network; location based services have begun; and personalized content will be taken to an entirely new level.
• If you bet your company on a single prediction, you better be sure you are right! Your purpose is not to preserve your existing infrastructure.
• Our industry is in the middle of some of the biggest changes we have ever faced.  Acceleration into the future requires new ways of innovation.  Don’t let the company history get in the way.  The only thing that is certain is that we cannot stand still.  We all need to be on the move.

Margaret Atwood

• If the future is the net, and it is all free, who is going to pay the authors?
• Have we stopped to think about whether today’s changes are really good or not?
• Never eliminate your primary source.  Authors are a primary source.  Everything else in the publishing industry depends on them.
• In an age of “remote” and “virtual”, there is still a craving for “real” and “authentic”.

Ignite session

• Social Media is not just about a person.  It collapses emotional distances, and every node on a network has a role to play.
• Different disciplines are combining.  There is nothing interesting about standing still.
• We are no longer working towards a textual goal but a visual one.
• The need for storytelling has not changed, even though we are killing the printed book.

Sameer Sharif

• Boundaries in publishing are disappearing, and new opportunities are being created.  A global digital publishing infrastructure and network is being created.
• We must understand what customers are doing and what kind of content they want. Publishers must find the right partners to help them with this opportunity. They must start building an infrastructure and make the global market a local one.

Brian O’Leary

• Publishing of books, magazines, and newspapers is unduly governed by the containers used for centuries to transmit information.  Our world today is one of content and browsers.      The containers are an option, not a starting point.  They limit how we think about our audiences and limit how they find our content.  Mental models of physical containers constrain our ability to change.  We often speak of digital content as a secondary use.
• A new breed of born-digital competitors is starting with context.  Our challenge is to be relevant to audiences who turn initially to digital content.  Publishers are hamstrung by search because they have made context the last thing they think about.  Starting with context requires publishers to make a fundamental change in their workflow.
• Publishers are increasingly in the content solution business, where the future is giving readers access to content-rich products.  Early and deep tagging is a structural reality.
• We are in a time of remarkable opportunity in publishing, if we make a leap away from what we are comfortable with.

Gus Balbontin

• Know why you do what you do.
• Don’t put anything in concrete because circumstances will keep changing.
• Find a stable way of organizing your content, as well as the culture, mindset, and structure of your business.  Don’t underestimate the bigger problems.

Walter Walker

• Moveable content should be having the same effect on the industry as moveable type did in the 1500s.

Anna Gerber and Britt Iversen

• We are more visual than ever before, but there is still a need for cultural objects in physical form.

Kevin Kelly

• All of his future works will be in digital form; his latest book is the last printed book that he will write.

6 publishing trends:

1. Screening.  We are moving from being people of the book to people of the screen, and from an oral culture to a visual one.  We have not yet begun to see the extent to which screens will permeate the culture.
2. Interacting.  We interact not only with our fingertips, but with gestures, and even with our whole body.  We now have nonlinear narratives–alternate endings–to books.  There is far more reading going on than we realize
3. Sharing.  Reading is becoming much more social. We read socially, and we must write socially.  Everything increases in value by being shared
4. Accessing.  We gain much more value by accessing information rather than owning it.
5. Flowing.  Files flow into pages, which flow into streams. Books will operate in the same environment.  Streams go everywhere and are never finished; they are constantly in flux.
6. Generating (not copying).  There is no better time for readers than now.  Publishers are not ready for the idea that books will sell for 99 cents.  The Internet is the world’s largest copying machine.  The only value will be in generatives, which must be generated in context and cannot be copied.

Cheryl Goodman

• Most handset or reading device vendors do not have a good content strategy, which makes an excellent opportunity for publishers to function as a conduit to highly curated content.
• Stickiness is more important than ever.
• The largest platform in the world is the mobile handset. Unfortunately, most publishers have not engaged with it and have not changed their digital strategies, so advertisers and marketers will determine what the industry will look like.

Jim Fruchterman

• The publishing industry is one of the most socially responsible.
• Producing accessible formats is now as simple as pushing a button.  People with disabilities want to buy these products.
• If we give disabled people an equal chance to access content, they are one step closer to removing a barrier.  They want the dignity of being able to buy a book and be independent.  We need to unlock the potential of books to this community and make them truly accessible for everyone.

I am already looking forward to TOC 2012.  The dates and venue will be announced shortly.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Benetech creates technological products for people with disabilities (blindness, dyslexia, etc.).  Through its Bookshare program, the largest digital library in the world, it distributes over 1 million books per year to qualified disabled readers under a copyright exception.  Fruchterman, Benetech founder, said that this is an untapped market for publishers.  In addition to those who qualify to acquire books under the copyright exception, there are a large number who do not qualify but who are still disabled and want books.  He called those people  ”collateral damage in the fight against piracy” because publishers do not allow them to buy books at the same price as qualified persons can.  Fruchterman noted that the publishing industry is one of the most socially responsible.  The majority of books in Benetech’s Bookshare program were donated free (as XML files) by the publishers.  Smaller publishers can send their content to Bookshare, which will create the XML files and return them to the publishers–the publisher does not have to scan the books.  This eliminates duplication of effort and enhances the publisher’s revenues.

We have reinvented accessibility for books.  Producing accessible formats is now as simple as pushing a button.  People with disabilities want to buy these products.  Fruchterman said that 15-20% of college students have a learning disability and may only discover it when they get to college.  How can we help these people?  They should be able to buy accessible books.  Organizations like Bookshare are standing by to help publishers. Although this may not be the most interesting market, these people are potential customers.  If we give disabled people an equal chance to access content, they are one step closer to removing a barrier.  They want the dignity of being able to buy a book and be independent.  We need to unlock the potential of books to this community and make them truly accessible for everyone.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Cheryl Goodman, Director of Publisher Relations at Qualcomm (the leading provider of chipsets for mobile handsets) stressed that most handset or reading device vendors do not have a good content strategy, which makes an excellent opportunity for publishers to function as a conduit to highly curated content.  Reading is on the increase, and digital content sales are leading those of print content.  Stickiness is more important than ever.   Unfortunately, most publishers have not engaged with this market and have not changed their digital strategies, so advertisers and marketers will determine what the industry will look like.

The largest platform in the world is the mobile handset.  Consumers want more functionality and features; content must live up to the capability of the platform. Consumers will demand that content live not only on their handsets, but perhaps even on their TVs.  Media are shifting; content must be flexible, and publishers need technology relationships and must find new ways to get their content out to the market.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Kevin Kelly, former Editor and now Senior Maverick at Wired magazine, presented an impressive look at 6 trends that are currently affecting the publishing industry.  He made the telling comment that all of his future works will be in digital form, and said that his latest book, What Technology Wants, is the last printed book that he will write.

Here are his six trends.

1. Screening.  Screens are everywhere.  We are moving from being people of the book to people of the screen.
   
   Who would have thought 20 years ago that people would read a book on the phone?  Every flat surface will eventually have a screen on it.  We have not yet begun to see the extent to which screens will permeate the culture.  You cannot tell in advance what is going to be shown on a sctreen–a web page, movie, book….  We are moving from an oral culture to a visual one.
   
2. Interacting.  We now interact not only with our fingertips, but with gestures (for example on smartphones), and even with our whole body.  Reading will expand to a bodily conversation.   We also interact with our voices.  You can have a Kindle read to you.  Audiobook sales are rising 5% per year.  Who would have imagined that this would become a major way to read?  In 2011, 2 billion camera phones are in the hands of users.  Eyetracking is becoming a viable way to interact.  Soon we will have adaptive text, in which books look back at us.  Although interactive media failed in a previous era, technology has allowed it to return and be successful.  Now we have nonlinear narratives–alternate endings–to books.  There is far more reading going on than we realize.

   

3. Sharing.  Everything is looking in the cloud for information, and the cloud is looking back at us, which is the basis for all sorts of social engagement.   Reading is becoming much more social.  Wikipedia is a single book with 27 million pages.  (Each page can be thought of a little book.)  Eventually all text will be in blue, i.e. hyperlinked, and all books will be linked into one large text–a library.  We read socially, and we must write socially.  We are only at the beginning of sharing.  Everything increases in value by being shared.
4. Accessing.  We gain much more value by accessing information rather than owning it.  Why own something if you have instant all time access?  This is huge shift and a fundamental difference in this economy.  For $20,000 you can store every book on the planet.  We will soon see everything available–why will anybody own it?
5. Flowing.  Files flow into pages, which flow into streams.  Some well known flows are Twitter, RSS, and Facebook streams.  Books will operate in the same environment.  Flows go through in streams, which are constantly updated and amended.  Our own lives will be a stream of chronological data.  Streams go everywhere and are never finished; they are constantly in flux.
   
6. Generating (not copying).  Today we have more selection, more quality, and more access–a complete renaissance for reading.  There is no better time for readers than now.  Everybody is benefiting except the producers, and everything is moving towards free.  Publishers are not ready for the idea that books will sell for 99 cents.  The Internet is the world’s largest copying machine.  Everything will be copied.  The only value will be in generatives, which must be generated in context and cannot be copied, for example:

• Immediacy.  You can get anything for free if you wait long enough.
• Personalization.
• Authentication.
• Findability.  Amazon is selling the findability of a book.
• Embodiment.  Music is free but its physical embodiment (such as in a performance) is not.
• Interpretation.  Software is free, but a manual often is not. (O’Reilly’s Missing Manual series has been very successful.)
• Accessibility.
• Attention/patronage.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor