Delusions, Illusions, and the True Costs of Digital Publishing
(scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org): A premise of the Internet publishing revolutionaries has been that because distribution is ubiquitous, the marginal cost of content approaches zero, meaning that information should become much cheaper than it once was. In fact, it should be free once a modicum of cost is paid for — hence, the… Read More
Emerging-technology expert calls for open access to academic knowledge
(timeshighereducation.co.uk): It is almost "criminally irresponsible" to hoard academic knowledge in the digital age, according to a Canadian specialist in the field. Brian Lamb, manager of emerging technologies and digital content at the University of British Columbia, also said that open educational resources (OERs) could help to reassert the academy's… Read More
Scenes from the Open Science Summit
(reason.com): The inaugural Open Science Summit kicked off Thursday afternoon at the University of California, Berkeley’s International House. Some 200 participants have gathered to “update the social contract for science.” The summit’s chief organizer, a young intellectual entrepreneur named Joseph P. Jackson III, says his aim is to jumpstart Enlightenment… Read More
Metadata, Not E-Books, Can Save Publishing
(toc.oreilly.com): E-books represent a format, just like hardcovers and paperbacks. Because they are a different format, they require different pricing. Things that are consumed and priced differently do open themselves up to a new market but unless that new consumption method is revolutionary, the growth (new readers) to the market… Read More
As e-readers and tablets flood the market, how should you respond?
(inlandpress.org): E-readers and tablets—like the Apple iPad—are sure to have a growing impact on the newspaper industry, but the devil is in the details as to whether they represent a viable new revenue stream for publishers. Given the huge success of the iPad, other manufacturers have announced plans to release… Read More
Information Explosion & Cloud Storage
(wikibon.org): Even in 2009′s “Great Recession,” the amount of digital information grew 62% over 2008 to 800 billion gigabytes (0.8 Zettabytes). It is projected that the amount of digital information that will be created in 2010 could fill 75 billion fully-loaded 16 GB Apple iPads. What’s critical to realise is… Read More
Industry-paid studies likely to favor company drug
(reuters.com): When drugmakers fund studies of their own products, the results are much more likely to be positive than when the government picks up the bill, US researchers have said. They found that about 85 percent of industry-backed studies reported positive outcomes, compared to only half of those with federal… Read More
Open source book publishing gets a boost
(networkworld.com): The idea of using open-source functionality in the book publishing field has, slowly but surely, gained more momentum lately. The ever-increasing costs of textbooks, not just on the college level, is a sore spot, especially when, in some cases, the content has changed little (math, for example). And with… Read More
Hard times for traditional books as China’s digital publishing industry grows
(independent.co.uk): The days of the traditional book in China are numbered, according to figures just released by the central government, as it seems that more and more people are now turning their attention to digital forms of publishing. China's General Administration of Press and Publication says that in 2009 for… Read More
The Open Access Availability of Library and Information Science Literature
(crl.acrl.org): To examine the open access availability of Library and Information Science (LIS) research, a study was conducted using Google Scholar to search for articles from 20 top LIS journals. The study examined whether Google Scholar was able to find any links to full text, if open access versions of… Read More
