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Interesting, if a bit unbalanced, about the corruption of university libraries by commercial publishers and the pressure of "good enough" information in a Googlized world

Argues that newspapers will need to get smaller and more focused on establishing trust-based influence. Interesting.

Is the KindleFire really that great? Has anyone used one yet?

I haven't played with the Fire yet, but I'm always very dubious of the "tech analyst". Let's face it, dominating the Android tablet market isn't all that difficult right now, as there is a dearth of poorly built, poorly performing Android tablets on the market today. My own personal opinion is that the OS offers a lot of promise, but ironically the real value of the Fire is its connection to Amazon's own "walled garden" of products and services, which flys directly in the face of Android's selling characteristic of "openness".

Randomly, my friend won a Kindle Fire at an office holiday function and I got to play around with it last night. Here are my impressions: First, it's very simple to use though it has that same noticeable lag that all Android tablets seem to have, though I will say not as pronounced as others. It has a rubber-like backing in the same style that the NOOK Simple Touch employs, so it feels good in your hands and won't slide around. Here's one thing that I was surprised about; it's a bit of a brick, meaning it's a lot heavier than I expected. For an eReader, weight seems like a big deal, so I would definitely take one for a test-spin before buying if you can, especially if you're going to use it for long reads. My friend only had one copy of a book, and I thumbed through pretty quickly, and the Fire seemed to handle it well. It had a lot less lag page turning than it did starting apps. On the web, the Fire did pretty well, it downloaded and ran pages smoothly for the most part. Though I will say I went to one of my favorite sites (arsenal.com) to watch some video highlights of yesterday's game, and even though it has a 7 inch screen, the video "wasn't optimized" for the Fire, so the playback size was smaller than it would have been on my iPhone (postage stamp size). On ESPN.com though it seemed to handle video there much better. My other complaint was that the Fire didn't seem to recognize page widths very well, so you have to do a lot of pinching to get the right view of a page in portrait view. So, I'll put down my pocket-protector, ease off the dork-pedal a bit, and just say for the price it's a solid tablet that runs pretty well.

One editor's take what endures and what changes for publishers and editors in the digital world.

The Magic Of Tidying Up: Understand The Secrets Of Good Life [Mary L. Parker] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up - Understand The Secrets Of Good Life In every aspect of the human life

In light of demands by the State of Texas for biology textbooks with "balanced"  treatment of evolution. "So here's the missing piece: what about the textbook companies? When this issue is discussed, the publishers are talked about as if they have no agency, no ability to affect the outcome of these events. But they're morally culpable for participating in these farces. If they wanted, they could stand up to the state of Texas. So how can the people who work at a publisher in good conscience agree to write a biology textbook that treats evolution as a wild, unsupported idea?

Excellent overview of the current state of the publishing industry, the impact of e-books, and the power of Amazon, Apple and Google to affect the future of publishing.

"Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall." 2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of "electronic narcotics." 5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube. 18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf. 27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for "save," a telephone for "phone," and a snail mail envelope for "mail" have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens. 35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends. 47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book. 56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook. 71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.

PriceWaterhouseCooper: "One of the things we need to get into context here is that traditional media isn't dead yet and won't be for the next five years. It's very important to think why. The over-50s are helping to sustain traditional media, and also in many of the emerging markets there is still plenty of room for traditional media. The death of traditional media is exaggerated, at least in a five-year context."

With the opening of the Google Bookstore, it's time for publishers to start thinking about search engine optimization (SEO)

The implications of Net Neutrality may well affect how people can get to online epublished works, especially those put out by smaller publishers....The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to open the proceeding that could lead to open-Internet regulations, although the two Republican commissioners dissented on whether rules are warranted. The approval of the notice to consider net neutrality rules is the culmination of contentious lobbying by the telecom industry and an intense exchange of letters from members of Congress.

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Gabe Rivera, founder of news aggregator Techmeme. Credit: Mark Milian/Los Angeles Times.Don't tell News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, but technology news aggregator Techmeme is raking in profits. Rather than visiting the front pages of every newspaper or choosing a few out of brand loyalty, as Murdoch hopes consumers will do, aggregators put all of the Web's big headlines of the moment onto one page. There's no shortage in news aggregation. General news readers might go to Google News, a computer-generated engine that pulls in more than 25,000 newspaper websites and authoritative blogs. Left-leaning political consumers might visit the Huffington Post; right-leaning...

Interesting opinion piece from an author who has written both ebooks and books, and crowdfunded a book, and done all sorts of neat things from a publishing angle, calling for a "back to the content" sort of movement. Not sure what I think of this, but thought it was worth pushing out to you all since I know for a lot of us, a love of books is what got us into this field to begin with.

It's all just a little bit of history repeating...some of these quotes sounds awfully familiar these days WRT lamenting how no one writes or reads paper anymore because of the frenetic pace of life.

A successful example of the Long Tail Theory, Oak Knoll Press, publisher of rare, out of print books, managed to increase its sales this year-despite catering to a niche audience-by focusing on what loyal customers ask for instead of what doesn't sell.

The Atlantic summed up this article better than I could: "A former managing editor of The Chicago Tribune probes the collapse of the newspaper industry and tries, mostly in vain, to find hope for the future of journalism." If you care about newspapers, grab a box of tissues before reading.

EReaders are becoming increasingly popular, but one of the major drawbacks is the current limitation on the amount of digital content available. Plastic Logic plans to amass one of the largest collections of content available for an eReader.

If ebook readers succeed, will publishers be smarter than the music industry in the face of digitization and the web? Some guidelines on how publishers can avoid some of the mistakes of the music industry peers

Thanks for posting this, Arnie. I've been watching the rise of the Kindle for a while. It popped up at various publishing conferences a few years back. As a reader, it does have some appealing qualities. But, the product is too expensive to go mainstream just yet, in my view. I'd be nervous to schlep a $400 device on international trips with multiple time zones/hotel stays. It's okay if I accidentally leave a paperback behind in a plane or forget it in my hotel room, but you'd have to be careful with a Kindle--it sort of changes my perception of reading materials when I'm traveling.