Thad McIlroy - The Future 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.homestead.com
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.

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.

www.billtrippe.com
One of the key senior publishing analysts at Gilbane, Bill offers a fascinating and tuned-in blog.

GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies
I couldn't have said it any better myself: "Bill Rosenblatt is a recognized 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 managing editor of the Jupitermedia newsletter DRM Watch." He's also a Gilbane Senior Analyst.

www.rexblog.com
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.

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 Mark's fine insights on the Industry Standard website.