Group items tagged

More on the Google-AAP settlement. Key take-away ""But content owners also belatedly realize that simply suing consumers who find new, convenient ways to access content online is not as good as finding new business models to profit from customer interest that technology makes possible."

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...

Amazon may not be a self-published author's best friend - exorbitant markups take a big bite out out of author profits.

This fits in neatly with our recent lecture on copyright, showing how an imperfect system can be exploited by companies looking to profit.

Starting from a study that finds different reading practices for online content and print (or scanning vs. slow reading) the author argues against the trend of increasing technology investment in education. I think the argument would profit from a publisher's perspective, one where it's vital to evaluate how the content fits (or doesn't fit) the format. Like the author, I don't want to read Middlemarch ( my favorite novel) online, nor can I imagine anyone who would or who require it read in that format. Bottom line for me - publishers have much to offer the educational establishment.

Free access and non-profit publishers. See "The Value of OA"--talk by the late Peter Banks.

Another development in the ongoing saga.

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."

Ursula K. LeGuin is disturbed by Google's keeping secrets about information

Free and shared cost models for academic publishing. Cites other organizations that, like NAP, have sustainable models with free content.

An interesting take on online content, algorithmically aggregated content, and user-generated content.

Data-grounded research on the costs of media piracy developing economies.

I've never seen this feature before- you can pay for monthly access to a blog for your Kindle. This author's blog is $1.99 per month.