I learned recently that home subscribers to the Washington Post newspaper also receive the digital edition, so I added it to my wife’s iPad Mini. What follows is a description of my initial reactions as a reader.
All in Publishing
How I Speed Up Writing & Editing
Kelly Griffin’s “11 Tips For Editing Your Own Writing” is a great list. As she says, “… editing your own writing is downright painful.”
A Progress Report on Reading Electronic Books, Especially Kindle
I remember being a bit surprised at how easy it had been to “weed” the collection of harcover and paperback book we had built up over the years. Now I’m reading a book — a “real book” printed on paper — in amongst the books and various documents I’m also reading via my Kindle devices and software. Reading this physical book is a pleasure so I thought I would put some of my thoughts about the experience in writing.
How Has the Definition of "Scholarly Journal" Changed?
I think this is another case where to change behavior you need to change motivation and the only way to that in such a complex environment is through education and through support of viable alternatives.
The "Open Movement" Continues: Big Pharma Company Opens Up Access to Clinical Trial Data
I was serious when I suggested it would be to Apple’s advantage to open up to the public on how it is repairing its Maps app problem.
What Does "Open Access" Mean, Really?
Having devoted part of my career to electronic publishing systems for scientific and technical publishing I’ve tried to follow the “Open Access” movement, but I have never quite understood what “Open Access” means.
"White Papers" Need to be Mobile, Too
Are your white papers easily accessible on mobile devices? Viewed by some as “old school” marketing devices, others still use and expect them. Just last week, for example, I was asked for a set of my own white papers by a business prospect. That experience led me to write this article.
Peer Review in Scientific Journals Isn't Perfect - So What Else Is New?
In “Stop deifying ‘peer review’ of journal publications” Jonathan Eisen skillfully walks the reader through three realities of how peer review works with scientific journals:
Content May Not Be King But It Still Behaves Like Royalty
One of my favorite media commentators is Jeff Jarvis. I especially enjoy his weekly converaations hosted by Leo Laporte on This Week in Google. Jarvis’ perspective always gets at the big picture of what’s happening with the web economy.
Can Online Public Dialogs Succeed With Anonymous Participants?
I used to think that if you want to be taken seriously online, and if you want to actually participate in an ongoing dialog with a sponsor or other participants, you need to post using your own name and identity so that others know who you are.
Amazon Kindle Orwell Deletion May Be Legal -- But It's Still Doubleplusungood
I know I know — the Orwell titles deleted from customer Kindles by Amazon were unauthorized copies. I’m still concerned. Why? Because it demonstrates how this technology can be applied and managed remotely without the owner’s involvement.
It will be interesting to see if Amazon can succeed with the expensive ($489) new Kindle DX without negotiating exclusive licensing and distribution deals that lock in and control distribution of different ebooks in selected vertical markets.
“Web 2.0 Is Dead” posts are a dime a dozen. It’s a pleasure to read one with real content. Andrew Chen’s Which startup’s collapse will end the Web 2.0 era? warns that business models that don’t include secure revenue streams are hazardous to corporate health. At minimum, if you have valuable content parked in the cloud on a network you use for free, consider yourself warned, especially in these perilous economic times.
How We Use Media Will Drive Development of a Real Time Web
Why do we use media?
What got me thinking about this was a recent post by Robert Scoble about the “real-time web.” Scoble’s focus was on the technical standards and processes that are evolving to support the use of the web for instantaneous two way communication.
Why Books Will Survive
These days there is no shortage of ways to express ideas in a variety of media, ranging from less-than-140-character Twitter messages to self-produced Flip camera snippets complete with sound.
This has to be one of the most amazing examples of news-stream integration I’ve seen, a plugin based on Sprout technology:
I Bought a Magazine Today!
I know, I’ve criticized magazines before as vestiges of an old fashioned past, but I confess: I bought one today.
A friend, a professional engineer, asked me for tips on establishing a “web presence.” This is what I wrote:
Do Real People Care About Disruptive Technologies?
One of the most interesting blog post I’ve read recently is 8 Disruptive Technology Changes by Robin Bloor. Here is his list:
Craig Thomler’s Make government data freely available neatly lays out, from an Australian’s perspective, a discussion of how the public can benefit if government agencies make raw data available for access by individuals and organizations who then analyze or present that data in a useful way. These points are from Thomler’s conclusions: