Social media: dangers in the backchannel?

Posted on by John Helmer
Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with social media will know that using it as a backchannel is not an option you switch on or off. It is, inherently, at least 50% backchannel. Social media’s most salient characteristic, in fact, is its interactivity. So much so that one has trouble disentangling message ‘push’ from what you almost immediately get back. Post to a LinkedIn group, say, and people reply. And they expect a reply in return. You might have been trying to do a bit of PR, but what you get drawn into is a conversation. This diminution of lag between messaging and response – coupled with the transparency of that response to the whole community (be it positive or negative) is what makes social media so hard to fit into traditional models of business communications. Continue reading →

The digital divide: past, present and future

Posted on by Clare Wratten
Here’s your chance to listen to Richard Padley being interviewed at the 2010 Tools of Change for Publishing conference in Frankfurt. He spoke at the conference about mobile platforms from the perspective of publishers faced with multiple delivery models including apps and the web. Have a listen and let us know what you think. http://soundcloud.com/toolsforchange/the-digital-divide-past#    

Will e-reading make us stupid?

Posted on by John Helmer
A recent Gartner report marked a minor milestone for e-reading. Apparently, time spent reading on screen is now almost equal to the time spent reading printed paper text. And this apparent vote in favour of digital by readers is not only quantitative but also qualitative: ‘The huge majority of tablet and iPad users say they find screen reading either easier than reading printed text (52%) or about the same (42%)’. Some educators and academics however, have doubts about whether screen reading really does offer an experience of comparable quality to print. Much cited in these debates is Anne Mangen’s article ‘Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion’ published in the Journal of Research in Reading (2008, pp. 404-419), which asserts that digital text makes us read, ‘in a shallower, less focused way’. As we pass yet another significant milestone, the 100th birthday of Marshall (‘the medium is the message’) McLuhan, our attention turns readily to the issue of how screen-based reading might affect not only reading habits but also our wider culture. According to Kevin Kelly we are undergoing ‘a second Gutenberg shift’ in the move to what he calls ‘screen literacy’. But will the results of this shift be injurious for the culture that print reading has given us? Will more e-reading make us all stupid? Continue reading →

Facebook to integrate Push Pop's enhanced ebook technology

Posted on by Clare Wratten
Facebook has acquired Push Pop Press, creators of Al Gore’s enhanced ebook Our Choice (full story here). This doesn’t mean that Facebook is going to start publishing ebooks. “The ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories,” explain co-founders Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris. This is thought to be a defensive move on Facebook’s part, which is facing competition from Google +. The video below gives a great demonstration of Push Pop’s enhanced ebook technology – but for many it will prompt the question: is this a book?

Time to get paranoid about Android?

Posted on by John Helmer
Android logo Followers of this blog will have read quite a bit about Apple products for which we make no apologies. After all, Apple has been making most of the running in developing both the smartphone and the tablet computer as serious platforms for publisher content. Up to now, that is. Recent reports show Apple is facing some stiff competition from Google’s operating system, Android. In the smartphone category, Android has been ‘surging’ since last year according to Wired. Last October, Neilsen reported that Android was the most popular operating system among people who had bought a smartphone in the previous six months, with Blackberry RIM and Apple iOS tied for second place. When it comes to tablets, Wired has quoted a Wall Street analyst as saying: “Long term, we believe Android could surpass the iPad in tablet market share”. Now Android looks to be winning the content battle as well. Distimo’s report said that Google’s Android Market eclipsed Apple’s App Store for iPhone in terms of free applications. At current rates of growth, Google Android Market looks likely to beat Apple into second place for overall number of apps available later this year. Those who dislike Apple’s ‘closed’ model and the tight control the company exerts may well be cheering at this news. Android is open source after all: isn’t it? Well, up to a point. Some think that Android is becoming less and less open source, and for publishers this might not be bad news. Continue reading →