"The overall effect of 'distributed navigation' brought upon by content aggregators is that we’re witnessing the control of content shift from designers to users. Users are finding new, highly effective aggregators much to their liking, and in doing so are bypassing much of what we’ve built for them. In one sense it’s scary, because we won’t be able to control the user experience as much. In another sense it’s rather exciting. We’re becoming caretakers of content, creating quality Web pages to be judged on their own merit in an ever-aggregating world." - Home Alone? How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content, in Digital Web Magazine.
posted by David Rothman at 2:04 PM | permanent link

Isn't this a little bit of an oxymoron if considered in the future tense? Some 15 supposedly "independent bloggers" will be paid $800 a month and sales-lead-based commissions to mention Marqui's hosted communications management services. I want to find out more about this rent-a-blogger effort--and I don't mean for the purposes of selling out to Marqui.

Advertising in blogs is fine. And I myself plead guilty to mentions of, say, Open Reader or, gasp, TeleRead--this is, after all, the TeleRead blog, and if you're going to preach in favor of well-stocked national digital libraries, you might as well contaminate yourself with open-standards advocacy at the same time. But paid mentions, systematically planted? That's the last thing the Blogosphere needs when ignorant journalists and librarians are eagerly badmouthing blogs.

Interestingly, PR man Steve Rubel, author of the Micro Persuasion blog, believes that the paid-mention approach is tainted. Let's hope that enough others in PR and elsewhere feel the same. An advisor hired for the paid-plug experiment is Marc Canter who cofounded Macromedia and is now working on the laudable OurMedia project. Let's hope that he has second thoughts. "This is a stupid idea," says a skeptic who apparently moves around in the same circles as Canter. "Remind me to smack Marc next time I see him."

Related: Bloggers & Affiliate Marketing - They're Calling it "Product Placement," found at Threadwatch.
posted by David Rothman at 1:49 PM | permanent link

Kudos to David Moynihan and his Blackmask site for making e-books--both for-sale titles and free public domain classics--available in the .imp format used by the eBookWise-1150 from Fictionwise. You can already buy a DVD with Blackmask's PD titles in the new format, not just download them.

We 1150 owners--I have one on order myself--will enjoy other help. A new flavor of the GEB eBook Librarian will let us convert book from ASCII, HTML, Word and other popular formats. I'm all in favor of action in the here and now to address format concerns. Of course, the true solution remains OpenReader, so readers, writers and publishers can focus more on books and less on the technology. We still need to tear down the Tower of eBabel that makes so many people dislike e-books in their present form.

Related: You can download Fictionwise's a QuickStart guide in PDF for the 1150. Also of interest is Blackmask's DVD upgrade.
posted by David Rothman at 5:12 PM | permanent link

For blog-hating librarians too worshipful of the "mainstream" media, I'd recommend the movie Shattered Glass or a study of the Jayson Blair affair. The problem isn't too much blogging for the good of society. It's too little.

Alaskan Librarian slams bloggers as ignorant, a post in nbruce's blog in LISNews, is Exhibit A of the need for open-mindedness. Fairbanks librarian Greg Hill, alas, belongs to the "In editors we trust" school. In a newspaper column, Hill also takes a crack at the Wikipedia. Netfolks are firing back even though some wired librarians are surprisingly easy on the guy.

Laughably, Hill questions the accuracy of material on the Net while himself misspelling the name of journalist Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media. Oh, and adding to the fun, Hill refers to "Gillmour's" book as "Making the News"--a title Gillmor used in a draft online but not in the final book.

Far North hypocrisy

The horror! To think that Hill relied on a Net-distributed draft of the book rather than the sacred words published on paper. I wonder if the Fairbanks News-Miner will issue a correction.

If Hill had been contributing to a Wiki and if others regularly monitored his output, the issue of a correction wouldn't be so iffy.

The "infallibility" syndrome

No perfection claimed at this end. In this blog, I myself have sinned with another variation of "Gilmour's" name and commited other atrocities, some involving book titles. Still, I doubt that the "mainstream" news organizations are infallible. The difference is often that the better bloggers will admit their inevitable mistakes. By contrast, many old media people either won't do this or will take forever--a syndrome to which some librarians are hardly immune, given their worship of editors.

Granted, traditional copy desks are essential for major and minor news organizations alike, and if anything I'd like to see book publishers do more fact-checking, not less. Still, in the Net's own ways, debates between crosslinked blogs can often spot major errors much faster than the usual media suspects can. Blogs and Wikis, while hardly a panacea, are the built-in copy desks of the Net. Dan Rather and his people have might well have gotten away with their mistakes if bloggers hadn't been on patrol.

Why bloggers are gaining and CBS is losing

Any surprise that the better blogs are gaining credibility while CBS and the like are losing theirs? No ideology here. I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat who voted against George Bush. But facts are facts. Dan Rather actually hurt the Democrats by not being able to verify his anti-Bush assertions and taking too long to fess up. Perhaps at times accuracy can best flourish when someone's job is not on the line, and when the honest can make corrections in a flash by way of easy updates.

Mind you, I'm not saying that the average blog will contain fewer misspellings or other factual errors than the New York Times. But over time, the better blogs can not only work toward accuracy but also toward the finding and dissemination of truth--perennial challenges for the media. During the McCarthy years, wire services all too often quoted smears without shooting them down. Although old, this is still the classic illustration of the shortcomings of traditional journalism, especially as practiced on deadline.

The Atlantic's truth problem

Even off deadline, the mainstreamers can spread falsehoods and fail to give the public the full story. Just how truthful, for example, is a 9,000-word Atlantic article that writes up massive Hollywood contributions and alludes to the good intentions of Tinsel Town liberals--while leaving out mention of Bono, the DMCA and other industry-bought laws? Misspellings can often be detected instantly, but truths may take far longer to sort out, a task at which bloggers excel.

Simply put, journalists and librarians alike would be fools to swallow Hill's bilge. Instead they should welcome blogs and Wikis not as a replacement for newspapers and libraries, but instead as a way for members of the two professions to do their jobs better. Accuracy-minded information pros, in fact, should not just read blogs; they should also start them and join the dialog. How about it, Mr. Hill? I hope to see you online soon. Meanwhile, you could do worse than to read Gillmor's clueful book carefully--on paper, if you prefer--so that you yourself can be a clueful part of "We the Media."
posted by David Rothman at 8:08 AM | permanent link

"...the University of Phoenix, a for-profit system with a national presence, converted to electronic books several years ago, in part to reduce costs and therefore compete better for students." - Chapter and purse in Atlanta Journal-Constitution (reg. required).

The TeleRead take: "Previously," the Consitution reports, "the university's students--mostly working adults--used standard college textbooks, according to Shane Clem, who directs the school's operations in Georgia. The cost ranged from about $70 to $200 per book, he said. The customized online textbooks and materials that students now use run about $60 per course for undergraduates." So when are these economies going to reach other educational institutions on a mass-scale--especially cash-strapped K-12 schools. The basic situation described in Copyright and K-12: Who pays in the network era?, written in the late '90s, still exists.

Also about Phoenix: Higher learning gets mobile with digital textbooks, via the Blackbird Free Press Web site. What's interesting is that the actual collection of library e-books associated with the University of Phoenix is so small, just 500 e-books compared to more than 27 million other items in the library.
posted by David Rothman at 3:59 AM | permanent link

Oh, yes, video games and DVDs and other distractions abound and drain off money that might otherwise go for general trade books--both paper and electronic. Other factors also could help explain the disappointments in consumer book sales overall and the underperformance of e-books despite the growth there. Here's something else to consider. Could ordinary people simply have less to spend than before, after shelling out money for the essentials? Again, we're talking about a mix of factors. In e-books' case, Draconian DRM and the Tower of eBabel don't help. (Item on consumer spending found via Idiotprogrammer.)
posted by David Rothman at 11:39 PM | permanent link

"A lawsuit brought by a group of Internet archivists against recent congressional actions expanding copyright protections has been dismissed by a federal judge." - CNET.

The TeleRead take: Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive plans to appeal the ruling. I myself wish there'd be more efforts on the political front to educate the Bush Administration. The Republican South, lowest in library rankings, is the very region that could benefit most from full-strength digital archives of literature. Gov. Terminator notwithstanding, Hollywood generally hates the GOP.

Related: U.S. vows to “fight” the Push for WIPO Reform, from Intellectual Property Watch. Expected but still a setback for the white hats. In other IP-related matters, see Larry Lessig's Byte and Bullets op-ed in the Washington Post, as well as Viewing The Customer With Spite by Post columnist Marc Fisher, who makes some clueful comments on the jihads that the movie and recording industries are waging against downloaders. Karl Rove ideally will understand the potential of wooing the download vote and worrying less about the egos and dollars of the entertainment moguls who have tainted us Dems. Also see A Kinder, Gentler Copyright Bill? in Wired News.
posted by David Rothman at 10:07 PM | permanent link

"Buried inside the massive $388 billion spending bill Congress approved last weekend is a program that creates a federal copyright enforcement czar." - Lawmakers OK antipiracy czar, via CNET.
posted by David Rothman at 1:02 AM | permanent link

Found via Branko Collin through the TEI mailing list:

The 9th ELPUB conference will keep the tradition of the eight previous international conferences on electronic publishing [...], which is to bring together researchers, lecturers, developers, businessmen, entrepreneurs, managers, users and all those interested on issues regarding electronic publishing in widely differing contexts. These include the human, cultural, economic, social, technological, legal, commercial and any other relevant aspects that such an exciting theme encompasses...

ELPUB 2005 will focus on challenges for the digital content chain.

The call for papers is now open.
posted by David Rothman at 1:01 AM | permanent link

Check out the Nokia 7710 Super Widescreen Smartphone. "The preinstalled eBook reader lets users enjoy electronic copies of their favorite titles," says an accompanying news release. "The eBook reader makes it possible to purchase or download eBooks from the retail site eBooks.com." Nokia and eBooks.com have just inked a major deal. It'll be interesting to see what reader is involved and whether it can do both landscape and portrait. A version of Mobipocket--which does work on some Nokias? While hybrid cellphones as e-book devices aren't for everyone, they're a welcome addition to the hardware scene, given the decline in PDA sales. In fact, it's widely believe that the hybrids are among the major causes of the decline. Capabilities are growing. The Nokia 7710 offers "free user memory of up to 90 MB plus 128 MB" and boasts a "65,536 colour widescreen LCD touch-screen, full integrated music player with stereo audio, FM radio and a megapixel camera capable of 2x digial zoom." The price and exact shipping date for North America? Not given in the news release, except that the phone is due out in Q1 of '05.
posted by David Rothman at 9:57 AM | permanent link

A new colleague was baffled why I felt that libraries should give away classics and other public domain books rather than just lend them.

Fact is, many people want to build their own personal libraries and not ask for permission from librarians whenever they want to read a book. Oh, you could download books from the Web. But that takes time, especially if you have only a dialup connection.

Book switchers

How much better to have the books stored on one's hard drive or memory card--ready to go! Sometimes when I'm in the middle of one book, I'll take a break and instantly switch to another. This is one reason why I so fervently prefer public domain books downloaded from the Net to the library-supplied variety. Electronic library books will vanish from a user's hard drive when the due date arrives. Worse, the paper versions, if not returned on time, will lead to a fine. Fear of fines is one reason why poor people shun libraries, and public domain books are one approach to coping with the problem. Whatever the income levels of patrons, I love the idea of libraries giving away disks with thousands of public domain titles--and maybe contemporary books, too, if suitable arrangements are made with copyright owners.

Just as importantly, books are social and meant to be shared by friends. Why have to ask libraries for permission? That's especially true of e-books, which you can't show off on the bookshelf as a way of communicating your reading preferences.

No "teacher stigma"

Even better, K-12 students can unofficially spread public domain books around to their peers without the books suffering the stigma of being teacher-recommended.

If libraries don't wise up about public domain books, then the public will get them elsewhere. When will libraries learn? Their mission isn't to rack up impressive lending stats but to spread around books as effectively as they can. Granted, we're not talking massive numbers here. But considering the value of both libraries and public domain classics, shouldn't the public have a chance to befriend the classics in a library context?

Caveat: You can't share public domain books if they contain copyrighted introductions. But libraries can address that problem by linking to the introductions rather than including them in the actual text.

Related: Gutting the Collection, where Rochelle tells of a library patron ripping out pages to keep cookbook recipes. Most cookbooks are not classics, but the concept is the same. People want to own material they care about.
posted by David Rothman at 5:27 AM | permanent link

"Who wants to read old books?" an education lobbyist told me in resisting my suggestion to lobby against the elitist Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Well, at least in the past, it turns out that many plebes did, not just the upper-class. Check out The Classics in the Slums, an essay by Jonathan Rose (pictured here) in City Journal from the conservative Manhattan Institute.

A great way for George Bush and fellow Republicans to celebrate his victory would be to repeal Bono and encourage use of the Net to spread around the classics--old and new. If the President wants to build national unity and promote American culture, why not make it easier for young people to read and enjoy it?

Reminder: I'm a lifelong liberal Democrat sick of the hypocrisy of so many in my party. Remember the term "limousine liberal"? I propose a more modern substitute for Dan Glickman, Hilary Rosen and the like. How about "Bono liberal"? Signed by Bill Clinton, the Bono Act was a bipartisan atrocity. The first party to realize that will be rewarded at the polls when the public finally loses its media-tolerated ignorance of copyright law and cares about the Act's multibillion-dollar copyright giveaway.

(Thanks to Rochelle for bringing the Rose essay to my attention.)
posted by David Rothman at 4:43 AM | permanent link

eReader is now using RSS to keep customers up to date on new titles. RSS uses standards. A nice follow-up would be for eReader to consider a carefully phased migration to another standard for its software itself--the OpenReader format. Perhaps the new crew at the company will be more clueful than the earlier people about the damage that the Tower of eBabel is doing to the e-book business, in terms of costs to publishers and inconvenience, costs and confusion for readers. (eReader item found via Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research.)

posted by David Rothman at 4:28 AM | permanent link

This fair pricing should be followed by ereader.com for its pro reader version. Currently eReader pro buyers must purchase for every platform the Pro version of the company's readers for Palm, Pocket PC, Mac, and the PC. That does not make sense in the age of Cross Platform. Two thumbs up for Mobipocket!
posted by David Rothman at 4:08 AM | permanent link