GW ePublishing

Bookish is a new online service for discovering and purchasing books. It's a joint venture of three of the largest trade publishers: Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Penguin. (Penguin will shortly be merging with Random House.)

Amazon makes a move to create (and control) a market for used e-books.

Chapter 1: You stumble upon an interesting book at your neighborhood bookstore. Chapter 2: You go home and order it from Amazon for half as much. Chapter 9: Your favorite bookstore is bankrupt.

"Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments' feathers with a "surveillance-proof" smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now, the company is pushing things even further-with a groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button. (For now, it's just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos, spreadsheets, you name it-sent scrambled from one person to another in a matter of seconds." In an age where we can pretty much assume we're being monitored 24/7, is this a good thing? Or is this another tool for some really terrible people to do some really terrible things, but now with an added layer of privacy?

A proposal by the Prince George's County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual. The measure has some worried that by the system claiming ownership to the work of others, creativity could be stifled and there would be little incentive to come up with innovative ways to educate students. Some have questioned the legality of the proposal as it relates to students.

Sad. Just very very sad

Citizens took to the digital streets today to celebrate what has become known as "Internet Freedom Day." The new holiday celebrates users' ability to speak, share, create, and innovate. It commemorates the Internet blackout of Jan. 18, 2012, in which tens of thousands of websites participated, to protest the draconian copyright bills SOPA and PIPA.

Great exchange between Nick Car and Clay Shirky on the future of books and more.

America's obsession with digital tablets is driving a boon in e-book reading, a new survey shows, a trend that is dampening the appeal of printed books and shaking the centuries-old publishing business.

Great read about why to be hopeful about the future of indendent bookstores.

Not from the Onion.

Kind of like a QR code function.

New e-textbooks give educators an unprecedented level of insight into student reading habits, and the results have some students and experts wondering if the product compromises personal privacy.

(Some NSFW language, heads up.) Humorous look at some of the lesser-known realities of being an online content creator. :) Happy Friday!

Ron Charles talks about the challenges of trying to adapt print-book reader behaviors to e-readers.