Links to Colleagues & Friends of Publishing

There are a huge number of websites out there that can benefit the student of the future of publishing. This listing is not intended as a comprehensive compendium of those sites: you’ll find many valuable websites listed throughout the essays and links in every part of TheFutureOfPublishing.com.

Instead I wanted to mention some associates, friends and colleagues whose sites give me particular pleasure, insights and knowledge.

The Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) sounds kind of dull, but is instead an incredibly robust organization with an interest in every aspect of where technology is taking us. The ACM digital library is an absolute treasure trove, and the weekly ACM TechNews has given me more leads to fascinating data and analysis than any other newsletter I read.

BoSacks
Bob Sacks has been in the publishing industry since 1970, and has done it all, from pressman to editor to publisher, and with some of the largest magazine companies in the U.S. (and a few alternative newspapers). As a recent subscription-only Seybold Report profile of BoSacks (as he is known) stated, “He consistently challenges past assumptions and his measured skepticism, combined with his vast expertise in media of all kinds (his first publishing venture used hot type), make him a valuable voice in the publishing industry.” He operates separate blogs on ePaper and Pulp and Paper, but most significantly offers the thrice daily (!) free newsletter, “‘Heard on the Web’ Media Intelligence,” which you can subscribe to from his main site.

Eoin Purcell’s Blog
Focused on book publishing, this is a very fine blog. I sing its praise in this blog entry.

The Gilbane Group
I serve part-time as a Senior Analyst with the Gilbane organization. Everyone in our industry should get to know the Gilbane Group. Founder Frank Gilbane has been working on publishing standards and technologies since SGML was contentious, and has assembled a fascinatingly diverse set of talented individuals who collectively know more about how publishing works today than those in any other organization I’m familiar with.

Brian Lawler
Brian is a long-time friend and colleague who understands print production processes as well as anyone in the business. His website offers lots of goodies and some excellent links.

Bill Rosenblatt
Bill Rosenblatt is a top authority on digital media technologies, including digital rights management, content management, cross-media strategy, and content production systems, as well as on issues related to intellectual property in the online world. He is the author of Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology (John Wiley & Sons) and has a great blog called Copyright and Technology.

Rex Hammock
Rex Hammock’s 8-year-old blog offers great links and wonderful commentary. Hammock is founder & CEO of the content marketing and media firm, Hammock Inc. He describes his blog as “curating news about media, community and technology for people who aren’t geeks. I quote from Rex in my blog entry here.

Scripting News
As far as I’m concerned, the blog really started with Dave Winer at this site, and it’s still the place to go if you want to understand what a blog should be. Dave is also incredibly smart, and connected to many of the most interesting and important technology developments in our industry.

The Shatzkin Files
I’ve known Mike Shatzkin for a long time…he’s certainly got publishing in his blood also. Mike has become one of the most respected analysts and commentators on where book publishing is headed. (And he’s based in New York City, and therefor knows even more!)

Strategic News Service
Mark Anderson’s Strategic News Service should be world-famous. Instead it’s a relatively well-kept secret. Its subscribers are a who’s who of the high-tech and investment community, but somehow the newsletter is not as often noted as it should be. Part of it may be the price: $595 is not inexpensive for an online newsletter. But I can strongly recommend the one-month $14.95 trial pack — I suspect you’ll want to find a way to afford the full subscription after you given it a try. No writer I know has the range of knowledge and depth of insight, and his very smart readers are frequent contributors, making the whole package a very fine offering indeed. You can sample a smattering of some of Mark’s earlier entries on the Industry Standard website.

Acknowledgements

This project began some nine years ago when I was the Program Director for (the now defunct) Seybold Seminars. I thought that exploring the current state of publishing and its future was a worthwhile endeavor for the Seybold organization. I received tremendous support from Seybold’s then president, Gene Gable, and the vice president of content, Craig Cline (sadly now deceased). I also received support from many of the Seybold editors; I think in particular of George Alexander. Gene was able to find funding for the project, which allowed me to bring in outside researchers. John Sugnet supervised the design of the very effective slides for my initial presentation, made at Seybold San Francisco, 1999. (It went over like a lead balloon!)

The site itself would not exist without the enormous efforts of Elia Kanaki and Evan Thompson: they made it possible for me to clarify my muddled thinking on how to turn what was once to be a book into a living, breathing site: without their insight and hard work, you would find nothing here.

I am thoroughly indebted to each of them for their support, and dedicate this site to the entire team.