From Bob Stein at if:book…

Joseph Pearson of Inventive Labs, the developer of Monocle Reader and Booki.sh recently wrote an eloquent explanation of why we should bother to maintain some form of pagination even in the digital era. [this originally appeared on the private Read 2.0 list serve, re-posted here with permission.]

I’m perplexed by the suggestion that we chose pagination “for the sake of tradition”, since pagination is the one and only difficult problem with building a browser-based reader. It’s actually the only thing Monocle does, and I didn’t waste this year doing it without reflecting on it.

I’m delighted by the proposal that someone should build a serious scrolling browser-based reader, because I’ll have somewhere to send people who ask this question. And I’m greatly amused by the idea that we should inplement both modes and make it the reader’s choice — as if a responsible software designer COULD actually shrug their shoulders and say “Damned if I know, you decide.”

The software designer has to make the call — has to ask: “what is the best way to read content with these characteristics?” I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. Back in March I wrote up some notes on it, but didn’t publish them. I’ve pasted them below. More…

(Image)

New paradigms for socio-technical knowledge exchange, especially within and across academic disciplines, is important in order to generate insights about how new knowledge is (and can be) created. Academic researchers regularly use Web-based tools such as wikis, blogs, electronic repositories and open publishing systems to promote the open exchange of knowledge, but with varied levels of success. These tools are increasingly being used to support conferences. The survey linked to below, prepared by researchers at NJIT and Massey University as part of NSF’s social-computing research program, is designed to gather data about potential user behaviors and their sense of user rights and responsibilities regarding such a conference support system.  By taking the survey, you will help the NSF project investigators in designing online functions that are relevant, adequate and pertinent to community-mediated systems of open academic exchange.

Access the survey here.

The survey is the beginning of work that will identify new knowledge about the participants, interactions, and contributions required for a successful, community-mediated system of open academic exchange.  Your responses will contribute to the design of an open source, Web-based conference content management system that is based on socio-technical principles and making use of successful social media tools. More…

Questions may be directed to:
Rob Friedman, PhD
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Humanities

431 Cullimore Hall
Newark, NJ 07102
Telephone: 973 596 5765
Email: friedman@njit.edu

From Greg Lawrence Vanity Fair…

Norman Mailer once called her “the Prisoner of Celebrity,” aptly characterizing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as the ultimate object of media mythmaking. But Mailer was unaware that by the time he wrote those words, in 1983, the world’s most famous woman had already masterminded what was to be her escape from the constraints of fame. After two chapters of Jackie’s life had been defined by two extraordinary men, after she had been venerated by the world as the widowed First Lady and then vilified for marrying the unworthy Greek, after being portrayed as an extravagant, gold-digging spendthrift in the thrall of jewelry and couture fashion, she was going to find fulfillment on her own terms, and she would do so for the most part comfortably outside the media glare and public awareness.

If you produce one book, you will have done something wonderful in your life.
—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Whatever else she may have been during her lifetime—tragic heroine, elusive sphinx, reluctant icon—Jackie also distinguished herself as an intensely dedicated career woman who left behind an impressive legacy of books. More…

From Onnesha Roychoudhuri at Boston Review…

The man sitting next to me takes out his new Kindle. “How do you like that thing?” I ask. He instantly becomes animated, angling the Kindle toward me so that I can better see its face. “It’s great,” he says. “I can download tons of different books and magazines.” Then, eyeing my hefty, hardback of John Dos Passos’s USA trilogy, he adds, “Cheaper than that, too. $9.99.” There, our conversation ends. I am unsure of where I fall on the Luddite spectrum, but I’ll admit to inhaling the odor of leather-bound volumes. Having moved over a dozen times, though, I’ve also found occasion to curse their weight.

So, too, has Jeff Bezos. Bezos calls the Kindle a response to “the failings of a physical book.” He told attendees of a technology conference in New York: “I’m grumpy when I’m forced to read a physical book because it’s not as convenient. Turning the pages . . . the book is always flopping itself shut at the wrong moment.” His conclusion? “It’s had a great five-hundred-year run . . . but it’s time to change.” More…

www.Book-Conference.com
2011 Book Conference
University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
14-16 October

Call for Papers

If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins by submitting a paper proposal. More information on proposals, presentation types, and other options available here. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the conference.

Registration

Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register at any time. 2011 Book Conference registration options.

Themes

• Theme 1: Authors
• Theme 2: Publishers
• Theme 3: Typesetters
• Theme 4: Electronic
• Theme 5: Librarians
• Theme 6: Booksellers
• Theme 7: Learners
• Theme 8: Readers

From Rachel Deahl, Calvin Reid, and Craig Morgan Teicher at Publishers Weekly…

Are apps marketing devices for authors and books, or a new revenue stream? This is just one of many questions publishers are asking as they develop apps from their content. When PW approached large and midsize publishers to find out about their app programs, we discovered that many houses don’t have “programs” per se. Questions loom about what content is best suited for apps—though overwhelmingly it seems that reference and children’s are sweet spots—and how best to look at apps. Should apps be created with the goal of bringing in money independent of books, or as tools to market books and authors? And how do publishers define an app? Many said it was simply anything that could be sold in the App Store. This may soon change, as rumors have swelled that Apple will add restrictions on what can be sold in its App Store. (Currently, a publisher can adapt an e-book and sell it in the App Store even if it doesn’t feature any content added to the original.) Right now, though, publishers are dipping their feet into this market slowly and, with the exception of a few houses, cautiously. More…

From Rachel Deahl at Publishers Weekly…

The midlist is dying. That sentiment has been a mantra in publishing circles for years as agents, authors, and editors have decried that corporate publishing will no longer support the kind of author that was once an industry staple—the moderate success who was a consistent seller, if not a bestseller. With the “big six” demanding bigger sales numbers from all their authors, indie presses, which have long been the province of riskier, harder-to-market literary fiction, are finding that more commercial writers are showing up at their doors, as well as writers with serious accolades and lengthier track records.

One shift is that the definition of  the midlist author has changed. A number of agents and publishers interviewed said when editors at the big houses look at the sales performance of an author’s last book in considering acquiring that author’s new book, the number they need to see is bigger than it used to be. While it’s been rumored that a publisher at one of the major houses told his staff they couldn’t acquire authors whose last book sold fewer than 50,000 copies, most sources said they thought the so-called “magic number” was closer to 25,000 or 30,000. One agent, noting that there’s far more variation at the paperback imprints of the big six, said most hardcover publishers today “would settle for 20,000.” More…

St. Gallen’s Taglatt takes note of the 2010 Book Conference and its discussion on the future of the book (article in German)…

Das Buch ist noch lange nicht tot

ST.GALLEN. Geht es ums digitale Zeitalter, schwanken Buchexperten zwischen Enthusiasmus und Endzeitstimmung. An der HSG diskutieren Fachleute aus allen fünf Kontinenten über die Zukunft des Buches – erstmals in der Schweiz.

Odilia Hiller

Eigentlich ist es Bozena Mierzejewska zu verdanken, dass die 8. Internationale Konferenz des Buches im Jahr 2010 in St. Gallen abgehalten wird. Die Lehrbeauftragte der Universität St. Gallen war es, welche die amerikanischen Verantwortlichen der Buchkonferenz vor zwei Jahren in Washington D.C. so neugierig auf die Schweizer Stadt mit der Stiftsbibliothek machte, dass diese kurzerhand beschlossen, die jährliche Zusammenkunft von Buchexperten aus aller Welt hier abzuhalten. So kommt es, dass das Kompetenzzentrum Buchwissenschaft am Institut für Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagement (MCM) der HSG die diesjährige Ausgabe ausrichtet.More…

The 2010 Book Conference delegates and plenary speakers will gather together for the conference dinner on Sunday, 7 November at Goldene Schäfli.

Goldene Schäfli is the oldest guild pub in the city dating back to the 17th century. Join friends, colleague and plenary speakers for an evening of food and conversation amidst the historical ambiance and regional specialties of Goldene Schäfli.

To reserve your place at the dinner, or for more information, please visit the Activities & Extras webpage.

Abstract: This paper explores what I take to be a significant activity of human thought: the creation and enforcement of orthodoxies. I do so through investigating examples with which many academics are familiar: the formations both of standards for publication in peer reviewed journals, and of our allegiances with particular traditions and predecessors in our fields. Several sociological studies of these phenomena could lead one to conclude that our current methods of academic discipline stifle the progress of many fields. When the standard for publication or recognition of the merit of academic work is based on how well the work fits with established orthodoxy, an academic field can become repetitive and moribund. However, the vocabulary of Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, can give us the ability to understand a different way of relating to orthodoxies, in which our thinking is more open to novelty and creativity.