The recently concluded O'Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) for Publishing Conference marked the digital publishing conference's fifth anniversary, with the show reportedly on an upward growth trajectory. Since its inaugural event, which drew 400 to San Jose, California, in 2007, attendance at TOC has more than tripled, with nearly 1,400 total attendees at this year's show, which was held from February 14-16 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in New York City.
Reflecting on the conference's history, Andrew Savikas, VP of Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media and Program Chair for the TOC for Publishing Conference, noted that at the first conference, there was no Kindle, Kobo, or Nook, no iPhone, Google eBooks, and EPub. Jimmy Wales had then spoken about Wikipedia, Chris Anderson about "free," and Tim O'Reilly about the power of Web 2.0 and user-generated content. There was some discussion about e-books, Savikas recalled, but there wasn't a platform or market for consumers. The rise of Twitter in 2009 was also recalled. The conference was even on Twitter's Trending Topics for a while.
As this year's conference opened, e-books are surging. Amazon has reported that it now sells more Kindle editions than paperbacks. And since last year's conference, the iPad has launched and become the fastest-selling consumer electronic device in history, bringing with it a vibrant new app market. So, too, has Google eBooks, making three million e-books available, many for free, spreading its cloud-based vision to the publishing world.
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