John W. Warren, RAND Corporation, UK
www.Book-Conference.com
John W. Warren is Director of Marketing, Publications, at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institute that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. John has nearly two decades of experience in the publishing industry, with special focus on marketing and digital publishing. Previously, John managed marketing efforts for Mexican publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica, Sage Publications, and Sylvan Learning, Inc., and has provided consulting services to firms seeking to expand business in Mexico and South America. He has presented at major publishing conferences in the United States and internationally. He has a Masters in International Management from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego.More…
Lorraine Fannin, Scottish Publishers Association, Scotland
www.Book-Conference.com
Lorraine was Director of the Scottish Publishers Association and CEO of its successor organisation, Publishing Scotland from 1987 – 2008. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Scotland and of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature. She was formerly a member of the British Council Publishers Advisory Committee, the Publishing Qualifications Board and the Institute of Publishing Advisory Board.
Michael Frase, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
www.Book-Conference.com
Professory Michael Fraser is the Director of the Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology Sydney. Professor Fraser was CEO of Copyright Agency Limited for twenty one years, and a founding director of Australian, foreign and international copyright management companies and organisations. He is highly influential in changing policy in Australia and internationally, to develop copyright, communication and commerce for creators, the content industries and the public interest. He has changed attitudes about access to content and copyright, and provided commercial returns for rights-owners as well as social and cultural benefits for stakeholders. He is an innovator who, without precedents, created new markets that provide consumers access to creative content and copyright management. He has extensive knowledge and experience in digital media and is a noted figure in Australia and overseas for his constructive role among key decision makers in envisioning and building the knowledge economy. He established and led a not for profit copyright management company (CAL) from start up to achieve annual revenues of over $120m with double digit growth each year. More…
Bill Bell, Centre for the History of the Book, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
www.Book-Conference.com
Bill Bell is Director of the Centre for the History of the Book at The University of Edinburgh where he teaches in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. He specialises in Nineteenth Century literature and culture and has written extensively on the sociology of the text, the history of the book, and theories of cultural production. He has held visiting posts at The Australian National University, The University of Ottawa, and St John’s College, Oxford. More…
From Priya Ganapati at Wired:
As books make the leap from cellulose and ink to electronic pages, some editors worry that too much is being lost in translation. Typography, layout, illustrations and carefully thought-out covers are all being reduced to a uniform, black-on-gray template that looks the same whether you’re reading Pride and Prejudice, Twilight or the Federalist Papers.
“There’s a dearth of typographic expression in e-books today,” says Pablo Defendini, digital producer for Tor.com, the online arm of science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books. “Right now it’s just about taking a digital file and pushing it on to a e-book reader without much consideration for layout and flow of text.”
With the popularity of the Kindle and other e-book readers, electronic book sales in the United States have doubled every quarter. Though still a very small percentage of the overall book industry, sales of e-books touched $15.5 million in the first quarter of the year, up from $3.2 million the same quarter a year ago. By contrast, the printed book market sales in North America alone was nearly $14 billion in 2008. More…
Martyn Wade, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK
www.Book-Conference.com
Martyn Wade joined the National Library of Scotland (NLS) as National Librarian in 2002, after 25 years experience in the public library sector. During this time he worked in a number of rural and urban authorities, including London Borough of Sutton, Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire, and was formerly Head of Libraries, Information and Learning with Glasgow City Council.
Throughout his career he has taken a particular interest in developing integrated customer and citizen focused services, and under his leadership NLS has developed a reputation for innovative developments aimed at widening access to the Library’s collections, expertise and services. More…
Dylan F. Tweney, Wired Gadget Lab:
Amazon is almost certain to announce a large-screen Kindle on Wednesday.
In the world of e-book readers, that’s huge. But if Apple fulfills expectations and releases a tablet-style computer later this year, it’s going to render the Kindle — no matter what screen size — almost instantly moot.
Amazon’s Kindle is far and away the most popular e-book reader; Amazon probably sold half a million last year and may sell a million Kindle 2’s this year. Yet the Kindle’s 6-inch screen, while impressively readable and crisp, is only slightly larger than a 3? x 5? index card. That’s why many magazine and newspaper publishers are excited about the prospect of a larger Kindle — let’s call it the “Kindle XL.” Even if it’s not as large as Plastic Logic’s promised 8.5? x 11? screen (due in early 2010), a larger screen would provide lots more room to display the day’s news, attractively laid-out feature stories, and, of course, advertisements.
From Brad Stone and Motoko Rich of The New York Times:
Most electronic devices are getting smaller. Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reader is bucking the trend.
Amazon on Wednesday introduced a larger version of the Kindle, pitching it as a new way for people to read textbooks, newspapers and their personal documents.
The device, called the Kindle DX (for Deluxe), has a screen that is two and a half times the size of the screens on the two older versions of the Kindle, which were primarily aimed at displaying books. The price tag is also larger: the DX will sell for $489, or $130 more than the previous model, the Kindle 2, and willgo on sale this summer.
Jeffrey P. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, speaking to a crowd of journalists and Amazon employees and business partners on the campus of Pace University, said the new Kindle was a step in the direction of a long-dreamed-of “paperless society.” More…
6-8 November 2010
University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
http://booksandpublishing.com/conference-2010/
Gobinda Chowdhury, Professor, Information and Knowledge Management Programme, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Technology Sydney, Australia.
Gobinda Chowdhury is a Professor within the Information and Knowledge Management programme in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at University Technology Sydney, Australia. After acquiring an honours, a postgraduate and two PhD degrees, he worked as an academic and a researcher in different parts of the world for nearly two decades. Before joining UTS, he was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK, and prior to that an Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. More…
Michael Fraser, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.
Michael Fraser is a Professor with the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His areas of expertise include copyright law, copyright licensing, communications and media law, and digital and content and e-commerce. More…
16-18 October 2009
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
www.Book-Conference.com
