by Joe Wilkert
The textbook publishing industry certainly has its share of challenges. It’s hard telling whether upstarts like Flatworld Knowledge will ever fully disrupt this sector but as the textbook-buying parent of two college students I admit I’m pulling for underdogs like Flatworld. Everyone knows textbooks are ridiculously expensive but I’m not [...]
Entries Tagged as 'opinion'
Textbook Publishing vs. Lifelong Learning Publishing
September 7th, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
Tags: learning·lifelong·publishing·textbook
Is This the Time to Take the Plunge? New Reading Devices Appear
September 7th, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
by Rich Adin
Within the last 60 days there has been a bevy of announcements of new ereading devices. Amazon announced what is popularly called the Kindle 3 and Sony has announced 3 new models — the 350, 650, and 950. How far behind other makers will be is hard to tell, but [...]
The Scribd Archive was a bait & switch
September 4th, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
You might recall the moderate sized ruckus this week when Scribd started their archive program without telling anyone. Basically Scribd decided that any file uploaded more than a few months ago was now in the “archive”, and they started charging access.
The ruckus happened because one, they did not bother to tell anyone and two, they [...]
Cognitive Surplus Gained from Television, Cognitive Deficit Lost from Reading
September 1st, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
by John Miedema
Editor’s Note: I’m closing the comments on this post because I want you to join the discussion over on John’s blog, not here. He poses an interesting question, and I look forward to following the debate.
Clay Shirky has a new book, Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age. In this [...]
Tags: cognitive·deficit·gained·lost·reading·surplus·television
Is Scribd pirating your uploaded content?
September 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments · opinion
I’m not talking about users; I’m talking about the company. I was just sent a link to this post through Twitter. Lynn Viehl, author of books such as Frostfire, had uploaded some of her older works to Scribd so everyone could read it for free. Much to her surprise, Scribd then started charging people to [...]
Changing Educational Norms to Address Literacy
September 1st, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
by Rich Adin
I know that readers of this blog probably assign me to the doomsayer caste when it comes to literacy based on my previous posts, but I am concerned about the state of our educational system and our decline from the world’s educational leader to a pack follower whose standing keeps [...]
Tags: address·changing·educational·literacy·norms
Epub is doomed
September 1st, 2010 · 9 Comments · opinion
Sony announced their new e-readers today, and they represent another nail in the coffin of epub. You see, there’s one detail about the new devices that most people will miss: they won’t be using the new DRM (like B&N). It gets worse, actually. The current models won’t be getting an update any time soon.
This is [...]
“iBookstore vs Kindle Bookstore” & “Which Device Wins?”
August 30th, 2010 · No Comments · opinion
by Joe Wilkert
Here are two somewhat related questions I’m being asked a lot lately:
#1: Which bookstore experience do you prefer, Apple’s iBookstore or Amazon’s Kindle bookstore?
#2: Which e-reader device do you believe is going to “win”?
My answers to both of these might surprise you.
Tags: bookstore·device·ibookstore·kindle·wins
iPad Magazines
August 30th, 2010 · Comments Off · opinion
by Joe Wilkert
After much disappointment with Amazon, and their inability to offer a comprehensive magazine portfolio on the Kindle, I had high hopes for the iPad. And while the iPad is still fairly new, the magazine experience up to now has been pretty disappointing.
The dangers of enhanced ebooks
August 29th, 2010 · 6 Comments · opinion
I was exchanging emails today with Moriah Jovan and she remarked on the cost of licensing music. This reminded me of an article I read on Techdirt a couple days ago. I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere, so I thought it worth a post.
Everyone’s talking about how they want to see enhanced ebooks, and of [...]
