Interactive Tablet Publishing Project

these companies are feeling the pressure to respond to the iPad, which went on sale April 3. But their decisions to develop the hybrid products also demonstrate their desire to expand their core businesses, and to experiment with varying kinds of business models and technologies.

Google is going one step further, exploring the idea of building its own slate, an e-reader that would function like a computer.

The iPad might face similar hurdles. Thanks to its multiple functionality (not to be confused with multitasking), it will no doubt be popular as an entertainment device for surfing the web, playing games and listening to music, but from an educational standpoint, these functions might serve to distract students from their scholastic pursuits. Furthermore, while some might view the iPad’s touch screen as an advantage, when trying to take notes, it might prove unwieldy.

FairPoint, which quietly has been expanding its broadband footprint since it took over Maine operations from Verizon Communications in early 2008, claims that the mostly federally funded Three Ring Binder network duplicates what FairPoint is building.

Allison estimated that the network of “dark fiber” associated with his project would offer 10 times more space than what FairPoint offers.

that amounts to a monopoly for FairPoint, whereas the Three Ring Binder would be offered on an open access model to any telecommunications company that wants to use it.

Only a third of the Web sites reported making a profit.

More than half the magazines put their entire print editions online free. Four percent put all or almost all print content behind a paywall, and 10 percent put some of it behind a paywall. The rest post only some of their print output online, but all of it free.

About 49 percent of unprofitable Web sites gave away all of their content, and 65 percent of profitable Web sites did the same.

it is not the technique by which they communicate their brand, but the communication itself that connects the brand to the psyche of a consumer. As long as there is a need for an idea, there is a demand for what we do. In other words, we will always be in business as long as we create new ways to communicate brand stories.

Just because you have a venue for a conversation, such as social media, doesn't mean the consumer will have a conversation. We are the conversation makers. We are the ones that think of what to talk about.

Ideas become big when they are in the right place at the right time.

Presently, online versions of magazines lose "the coherence and majesty of the [printed] medium," said Anderson. Tablets, on the other hand, offer impressive functionality, such as 360-degree views and iPhone-like screen sliding, plus collapsing and layering -- all of which make the user experience vastly more compelling than the Web,

Also revolutionary from an editorial and design perspective is that magazine staffers -- now editing for print and the Web in separate work flows -- will be able to edit for print and tablets simultaneously.

tablet renderings of traditional magazines will draw consumers who weren't magazine readers before.

Time Inc.’s Fortune is keeping its name, but a redesign aims to reflect a time when many of its readers have less of the prosperity that the name suggests.

Fortune also is aiming for a more high-end feel, with a switch to heavier paper stock. The changes come as the magazine drops its frequency to 18 issues from 25 issues.

Computer science researchers at the University of Washington and Cornell University are deploying a system that will blend teamwork and collaboration with powerful graphics algorithms to create three-dimensional renderings of buildings, neighborhoods and potentially even entire cities.

To improve the quality of their rendering capabilities, the researchers plan to integrate their computing system with a social game that will permit competing teams to add images where they are most needed to improve the quality of the visual models. The PhotoCity game is already being played by teams of students at the University of Washington and Cornell, and the researchers plan to open it to the public in an effort to collect three-dimensional renderings in cities like New York and San Francisco. Contestants will be able to use either an iPhone application that uses the phone’s camera, or upload collections of digital images.

“The obvious thing to do is to try to mobilize a lot of people and get them to go out and take snapshots that contribute to this 3-D reconstruction,” he said. “But maybe if enough people are involved someone will come up with a better idea of how to go about doing this.”

If Apple cut the price of each TV episode in half — to 99 cents, from $1.99 — would sales on iTunes increase enough to offset the price drop?

Separately, Apple has proposed to some networks that the store sell a subscription package of popular TV shows. At a price some reports have set at $30 a month, the subscription service would be a direct threat to entrenched cable and satellite providers.

Pricing is coming up now in part because Apple is keen — some TV executives privately say desperate — to line up content for the iPad, the tablet computer to be available in March.

Too few emerging online journalists understand that the function of news publishing has changed in the Internet era. Simply reporting the news, however you might define that, is no longer enough, not when you are publishing in such a competitive environment. The journalists who succeed online are the ones who understand that they are no longer simply reporters... they've become community organizers.

you have to have a community that supports you, if you want to make a living online.

your past earns you nothing online. Whatever audience you will have there, you must build yourself

By mid-2010, there will be 6.8 billion humans on this planet. According to United Nations estimates, there also will be five billion cellphone subscriptions.

The iPad could give rise to a new creative self-publishing crowd that could, in turn, become competition for the established publishing industry.

A funny thing happened once the actual SDK was released to the broader development community: small houses and individual programmers delivered the first round of best selling games before the big companies got their products to market.

I suspect the first group to really embrace this will be educators who have created course material that includes audio and video, along with standard text. Authors of how-to books may also embrace video to enhance the learning process. Better yet, authors can take advantage of Apple's distribution power by making each book an app that can be sold through the iBookstore. By doing this, authors bypass publishers altogether.