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Four short links: 19 November 2009

By Nat Torkington
November 19, 2009

Chumby One (Bunnie Huang) -- new Chumby product released. In addition to being about half the price of the original chumby, the new device added some features: it has an FM radio, and it has support for a rechargeable lithium ion battery (although it’s not included with the device, you have to buy one and install it yourself). There’s...

Unity 3D is Now Free

By Andrew Trice
October 30, 2009

I read today that a new version of Unity, a 3D Platform for the web, was released yesterday. It is full of new features, but most importantly, it is now free.

Four short links: 20 October 2009

By Nat Torkington
October 20, 2009

Poles, Politeness, and Politics in the Age of Twitter (Stephen Fry) -- begins with a discussion of a UK storm but rapidly turns into a discussion of fame in the age of Twitter, modern political discourse, the "deadwood press", and The Commons in Twitter Assembled. There is an energy abroad in the kingdom, one that yearns for a new...

Microsoft/O'Reilly Alliance Means DRM-free Ebooks Coming from MS Press

By Andrew Savikas
September 24, 2009

Full details are in Tim's post on the Radar blog (and in the Press Release and in the statement from Microsoft ), but thought one part of this deal worth...

Anderson: "It's All About Attention"

By Andrew Savikas
July 29, 2009

Over on Spiegel Online, Chris Anderson does a great job responding to nearly all of the standard old-media responses to new media. Unsurprisingly (I'm sure Wired would have done...

Content is a Service Business

By Andrew Savikas
July 12, 2009

What you're selling as an artist (or an author, or a publisher for that matter) is not content. What you sell is providing something that the customer/reader/fan wants. That may be entertainment, it may be information, it may be a souvenir of an event or of who they were at a particular moment in their life (Kelly describes something similar as his eight "qualities that can't be copied": Immediacy, Personalization, Interpretation, Authenticity, Accessibility, Embodiment, Patronage, and Findability). Note that that list doesn't include "content." The thing that most publishers (and authors) spend most of their time fretting about (making it, selling it, distributing it, "protecting" it) isn't the thing that their customers are actually buying. Whether they realize it or not, media companies are in the service business, not the content business.

Ebook Piracy is Up Because Ebook Demand is Up

By Andrew Savikas
May 12, 2009

My email, twitter, and "real-world" information stream is abuzz today with references to a New York Times story about the increase in piracy of ebooks: “It’s exponentially up,” said David...

Over 160 O'Reilly Books Now in Kindle Store (without DRM), More on the Way

By Andrew Savikas
April 17, 2009

I'm happy to announce that more than 160 O'Reilly books are now available on Kindle, and are being sold without any DRM (Digital Rights Management). Though we do offer more...

Four short links: 30 Mar 2009

By Nat Torkington
March 30, 2009

A great free book, dead newspaper dig, movie Torrent wakeup, and money from free: Digital Foundations with Adobe Illustrator -- CC-licensed book that gets you started using Adobe Illustrator. I'm loving it, and I have the artistic ability of a particularly philistine rock. See also their advice to authors on how to negotiate a Creative Commons license. (via bjepson's delicious...

Expectation of Fair Pricing, Not Free

By Peter Brantley
February 23, 2009

At Dear Author, a post stating that not all content should be expected to be free; rather it must be provided, free or not, in a realistic understanding of consumer...

The Realities of Big Web Traffic and Advertising

By Mac Slocum
December 18, 2008

Major news sites that rely on advertising as their primary revenue stream need to log hundreds of millions of page views per month to attract significant attention from advertisers, according...

Change Always Leaves Someone Behind

By Mac Slocum
November 11, 2008

Seth Godin discusses the realities of digital change and free distribution in an interview with HarperStudio's The 26th Story: ... the market and the internet don't care if you make...

Taking the Leap into All-POD

By Mac Slocum
September 30, 2008

James Bridle has launched Bookkake, a print-on-demand (POD) publisher focusing on transgressive literature. From booktwo.org: ... Bookkake is not in the fortune-building or the fortune-breaking business. Print-on-demand and direct sales...

TOC Recommended Reading

By Mac Slocum
September 25, 2008

Direct-To-Fan: Radiohead, Marillion And The End Of Labels (Robert Andrews, paidContent.org) 80s rock group Marillion, hardly a Top 10 draw nowadays, engages its fans so closely that they funded...

TOC Recommended Reading

By Mac Slocum
August 26, 2008

Transforming American Newspapers (Part 1) (Vin Crosby, Digital Deliverance) Contrary to myopia of many newspaper executives, advertisers aren't newspapers' primary customers. Although advertising revenues may be sunshine for newspaper executives,...

Report: Radiohead Experiment Yields Indirect Success

By Mac Slocum
August 4, 2008

A new research report says Radiohead's In Rainbows experiment diverted a degree of traffic -- and value -- toward the band's site.

News Roundup: New Kindles Rumored, Free Ebooks with Embedded Google Ads, Web Publicity and Giveaways Boost Author's Profile

By Mac Slocum
July 18, 2008

Rumor: Two New Kindles Coming This Fall Citing an inside source, CrunchGear says Amazon will release two new Kindles in time for the holiday season: The first is an updated...

Artist Brand Building: An Idea Born from Free Debate's Middle Ground

By Mac Slocum
July 7, 2008

Two analysts with opposing views of free models both see a way for traditional content companies to adapt: help creatives build their personal brands.

Using the Psychology of Free

By Mac Slocum
June 24, 2008

The psychological benefits of free products can yield business opportunities for publishers and content creators.

Putting Ebook Piracy into Perspective

By Mac Slocum
June 10, 2008

Adam Engst says ease of use and availability can offset piracy. His points also serve as a launching pad for a larger discussion on piracy perspectives.

Treating Ebooks Like Software

By Mac Slocum
June 3, 2008

In this Q&A, Peter Kent of DNAML discusses the merits of in-book transactions, affiliate marketing, and other digital initiatives that can benefit book publishers.

Essential Points in the Free Debate

By Mac Slocum
May 28, 2008

The signal to noise ratio around free models is obscuring a number of key points. Here's a few worth discussing.

Author Notes Risks and Opportunities in Free Ebooks

By Mac Slocum
May 27, 2008

A post by Steven Poole looks at the arguments and counter-arguments surrounding free digital books.

"Ask a Ninja" Creators Use Web for Shot at Hollywood

By Mac Slocum
May 22, 2008

The founders of the "Ask a Ninja" Web video series have turned popularity into revenue and opportunities in the movie industry.

Industry Questions Raised by "Potter" Encyclopedia Suit

By Mac Slocum
April 14, 2008

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling testified earlier this week against a publisher that wants to release the unofficial Harry Potter Lexicon, a print adaptation of Steven Vander Ark's popular Potter encyclopedia site. From the New York Times: ... Ms. Rowling...

Do Publishers Have the Stomach for Innovation?

By Andrew Savikas
April 11, 2008

Amid a post on what's wrong with venture investing, Umair Haque mentions publishing as a risk-averse industry unfriendly to innovation: And so what's happening isn't surprising. The dynamics of old boy's clubs are almost deterministically predictable: they fight tooth and...

Roundup: Free Doesn't Always Apply, Kindle's Ebook Impact, Indie Bookstores and Chains Face Same Competitor, UK Publishers and Amazon in Price Battle, Borders Gets a Better Deal

By Mac Slocum
April 11, 2008

Free Doesn't Work for Every Company From Peter Brantley: Hank Williams of Why Does Everything Suck? does an informal economic critique of Chris Anderson's "things tend to free" hypothesis: "Some of you will argue that Google does fine based purely...

How Do Publishers and Authors Get Paid in a "Free" World?

By Mac Slocum
April 8, 2008

Kevin Kelly's eight generatives are a jumping-off point for author/publisher payment in a free system.

To be free, information has to be smart (comments on Chris Anderson's "Free!")

By Andy Oram
March 24, 2008

WIRED Magazine's editor in chief Chris Anderson, following up on the popularity of his Long Tail meme, theorizes in the March 2008 issue of WIRED about the modern tendency to put information online at no cost. I think this is highly volatile and that the phenomenon will be driven in very different ways from his six models. "Free as in freedom" may ultimately triumph. Furthermore, professional quality doesn't come for free, so projects and industries have to find ways to fund it.