Bloggifying the NYT–and e-books
Check out the New York Times’s somewhat bloggish redesign. Also see Anil Dash’s observations, spotted via Robert Scoble.
So how long until certain e-books can take on a truly bloggish air–both fiction and nonfiction? I can envision a mix of a main text, reader comments and a blog where the author could do updates or highlight the more interesting of the comments.
In fact, there might be many blogs, all embedded inside the book. This would go far beyond the New York Times–in the prominence of the many-to-many approach, as opposed to mostly layout changes.
Such innovations will be possible much sooner if the book industry stops kowtowing to the standard suspects within the IDPF. Publishers have finally discovered graphic novels; will bloggified e-books be next, assuming that editorial and technological reactionaries don’t get in the way? OpenReader’s first implementer, OSoft, is keen on bloggified e-books and happy to talk to open-minded publishers that want an edge on the competition.
The editorial quality angle: Imagine if James Frey’s dubious “nonfiction” had allowed for a many-to-many approach. His lies would have been shown up much earlier. Needless to say, the same might have been true of Jayson Blair at the NYT, who couldn’t have dreamed up fantasies with so much impunity–not when eyewitnesses might suddenly materialize. Simply put, it isn’t just the rebel in me calling out for bloggified books and newspapers; it’s also my stodgy MSM side.
If the mass media want credibility and genuine truth-seeking, then they need to open up. Book publishing is an especiallly good candidate, given the aversion of some publishers to fact-checking. Perhaps with the public expecting blogs in nonfiction books, certain houses would care more about the veracity of their writers. Mostly, however, we’re not talking in the least about hoaxes, but rather routine details. No one can get the facts right all the time (no perfection claimed for the TeleBlog!), and bloggified books could help.
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