page near you
“One area covered by the important new Google Book Search settlement is that of out-of-print books, which are now on a path to a page or screen near you. The agreement gives Google broad opportunities to sell display or print-on-demand access to out-of-print titles, potentially providing easy access to nearly the whole of human thought and knowledge when the scanning project is complete.”
ars technica
It will be fun to see the market fulfillment as Google Print expands. Will the long sought titles be desired in their print embodiment and to what extent? And what will be the manufacturing qualities of the POD fulfillment? Will we republish print libraries?
“Other Potential Commercial Uses: In the future, Google
and the Registry may agree to develop other Access Uses,
including consumer subscriptions (similar in concept to theinstitutional subscriptions); print on demand Books; custom
publishing (per-page pricing of content for course packets
or other forms of custom publishing for the educational and
professional markets); PDF downloads (consumers would
be able to download a PDF version of a Book); and summaries, abstracts or compilations of Books.” Google Book search settlement
The parsing of the bibliographic entity of the book may be the sleeping issue. Much like the conversion of status from libraries to storage, the collections and books are demoted from knowledge base to cellulosic commodity.
re-reading president
During his first press conference, Obama was asked what he is reading. He mentioned that he was re-reading writing of Lincoln. Re-reading, even beyond the first reading, is one of the vital functions provided by the print book. Print assures static transmission across time and cultures to sustain entirely new interpretations (and re-interpretations).
parallel
“Officials in Lyon, one of the first cities to institute a large technology-driven bike program, estimate that bike-sharing has eliminated tons of pollutants since its inception in 2005. But more than that, they say, it has changed the face of the city. ìThe critical mass of bikes on the road has pacified traffic,î said Gilles Vesco, vice mayor in charge of the program in Lyon. ìNow, the street belongs to everybody and needs to be better shared. It has become a more convivial public space.î
Using all the attributes of electronic membership and subscription, bicycle transportation is proving its relevance to urban traffic congestion. The digital revolution has engendered both an infrastructure and behavior revolution all based on the bicycle. Is this another template for the continuing role of the print book in the context of digital communication?
post kindle
“If you are a reader of this
blog, you may have noticed that there havenít been any posts in a while. Why? Because there are so many blogs on the Kindle these days that itís impossible not to become ìjust another Kindle blog.î For that reason, Iím working on some other plans for this site and will be focusing more on my book and other Kindle topics rather than Kindle news ìas it happens.î
A post Kindle status may be signaled by its assimilation into conventions of reading.
(Amazon blog)
fast food
“For all its convenience, Google’s snippet-view of information flattens knowledge, erasing context. Sometimes truth lies not in the needle but in the haystack.” Nicholas Carr
On-line search, like fast food, has fast delivery. But the provider also encourages fast consumption. And the dinners are never really sure what they are missing.