December 31, 2011
Robotics is advancing by leaps and bounds, in no small part because of the superb FIRST robotics competition launched by Dean Kamen in 1989.
A new development with value to the future of publishing is Boxie, the Story-Gathering Robot, invented by Alexander Reben at the renowned M.I.T. Media Lab. Boxie is a robotic journalist; it could handle those “man on the street” videos with ease. (more…)
December 7, 2011
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) today published its new policy for best practices in assigning ISBNs to digital products, aka ebooks. With endorsement from BookNet Canada, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), and IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, it’s therefore applicable across North America (“but could be applied elsewhere as well”). (more…)
December 4, 2011
His fascinating and important Domino Project concluded, Seth Godin is still pondering writing and reading and all things in between. Godin’s latest post, Selling vs. Reading, includes the usual ramblings, some meaningless, a few trenchant, and one entirely ingenuous. (more…)
December 1, 2011
The Guardian in the U.K. has asked me to participate in an online chat at 12-2pm GMT (7-9 am EST) this Friday, December 2nd, for an insider’s guide to self-publishing. The focus is on academics and researchers as the chat comes via Guardian Professional’s Higher Education Network. Key issues differ between academic publishing and trade publishing to a general audience most author concerns overlap. I’m going to cover the common ground here, and save the specifics for the chat. (more…)