The Bookish Dilettante sums up O’Reilly TOC
By Paul Biba
And an excellent article it is. I’ll just quote her item 3, but you should really read the whole article for a balanced view on some things TOC did right and wrong:
3. Which brings me to:”The Elephants Not in the Room” What does it Mean When you throw a party about the future of books and don’t invite the booksellers or the Readers, for that matter?
Some advice for publishers and TOC organizers: If you want to create a working model for book publishing – consider including the end user as part of the conversation! Speakers and attendees talked about the mysterious entity know as “readers,” but actual book-buying readers were nowhere to be found. Of the sessions that focused on readers, the one I’ve heard best represented those MIA readers was the “Smart Women Read E-Books” panel with Kassia Krozser, Angela James, and Sarah Wendell. Kudos to you gals!
That said, as poorly represented as readers were at TOC, they fared quite a bit better than did booksellers.
What is up with that? Sure – Amazon (if one uses the term “bookseller” quite loosely) got plenty of snarky mention, but I’m talking BOOKSELLERS – you know – those people who sell the books we all work so hard to create… Where were they at TOC? ‘Cuz, if it’s not my imagination, they were absent in droves. And, I don’t think anyone seemed to care.
And that worries me. Was this absence intentional? Does someone’s idea of “change” mean no more booksellers?
February 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
“the production/tools are going to be the least of our worries soon”
curation, authentication, reading behaviors, ethnicity, dexterity, literacy, orality,connectivity, materiality, media, assured culture transmission, digital reseach, cost of communication, sustainable access, role of libraries, retail incentive, enclave marketing, content of news, human book classification/review, knowledge management, legacy patterns, embedded learning methods, visual linguistic, place based instruction, graceful companion, future of the book
February 21st, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Huh? What’re you trying to say, Gary?
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:04 am
A good point, as I bet the executives that add the DRM to books don’t get made to read and use their end product.