When I see the ‘new business models‘ tag on blog posts relating to book publishing, the conversation is invariably about new sources of profit not new types of models. Those are different things. I think we are all aware that the industry is changing. Who gives us money, how much we get, and what we [...]
One thing that the web has taught us in the last 10 years is distributed effort works. Linux and Wikipedia are two great testaments to the success of decentralized control. Still, even for those digipub-types that have read Surowiecki or Shirky, this insight is a bit of a yawner. Book publishing has distributed work for [...]
Updated X3 The bookseller.com has posted the complete text of a speech given by Victoria Barnsley, chief executive of HarperCollins UK, entitled “Media’s last diehard?” I am posting this in a hurry today so what follows is my reaction in brief. Barnsley offers some tantalizing info on the Bookarmy.com project (a link to the beta), “the [...]
A couple of years ago Saturday Night magazine asked several architects to reimagine the master plan for Canada’s capital — Ottawa. They asked an American architect for suggestions. He proposed a modest change to the modest boulevard that runs perpendicular to the nation’s parliament. After all Canada is a modest power. Why misrepresent ourselves with [...]