will work for books: IT

The eBook Reporter has put together a timeline for ebooks that starts in 1971. Reading through it reminded me of my first glimpse of the World Wide Web back some time in the 1990s. I had been using the internet at that point, but couldn't really conceive of the internet with images (which is the way I had heard the WWW described). I was taking a typography class taught by George Tuck and he had us all squeeze into his little office so we could see the computer that had Mosaic on it.

I particularly remember that in our discussion afterward we talked about how in the future publications would probably list URLs as commonly as phone numbers or addresses, and how weird that would be.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Hopped up on the www

Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal explains Why We're Powerless To Resist Grazing On Endless Web Data:

In other words, coming across what Dr. Biederman calls new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom.

It is something we seem hard-wired to do, says Dr. Biederman. When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us 'infovores.' "

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

From the article:

From the consumer's perspective, though, there is a huge difference between cheap and free. Give a product away and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you're in an entirely different business, one of clawing and scratching for every customer. The psychology of "free" is powerful indeed, as any marketer will tell you.

. . . in the digital realm, as we've seen, the main feedstocks of the information economy—storage, processing power, and bandwidth—are getting cheaper by the day. Two of the main scarcity functions of traditional economics—the marginal costs of manufacturing and distribution—are rushing headlong to zip.

Some thoughts: in order to take advantage of this publishers need to maintain a stable and strong technology infrastructure so that as new possibilities arise they aren't cost-prohibitive because you're playing catch-up. This doesn't have to mean a huge IT department (judicious outsourcing is a good thing), but it's not an area you want to skimp on. A solid IT infrastructure/strategic plan should strive to be flexible and scalable enough to incorporate new technologies as they arise and anticipate them whenever possible (without too much pain. A little pain is to be expected :).

Also check out the free how to wiki.