Apple and The Korea Times

As I settled into my seat for the long haul back from Seoul on Saturday, I unfolded the English language broadsheet The Korea Times and happened on the following quote which I found amusing:

Subsequently, the developers of the apps fear of the possibility that their ousting from the App Store could be permanent.

As predicted, Apple Korea, which is consistently the biggest information void this side of North Korea, refused to explain why the previously-approved apps had been pulled, with its spokesman Steve ``No Comment'' Park having this reporter wonder whether he should ever bother to call again.

Journalistic challenges know no boundaries evidently.

The Book Lending Machine

Exhibiting at the Seoul International Bookfair last week was the Korean library automation company Eco Inc offering clients a full suite of automation products including OPAC, RFID and Hardware. It was the hardware that grabbed my attention and in particular the book vending machine - see picture. Designed both to extend the reach of a library and the hours a library is effectively open this vending machine for library books is an interesting solution. I am not sure if it is unique, but it is the first one I have seen.

The vendor explained they designed the machine to provide easy pick-up and drop off of books at places like train stations, offices and shopping malls. Additionally, the machine could also sit outside an existing library location so that patrons can collect and drop off their books after hours.

The machine integrates with the lending function the library offers. A patron selects a book(s) from the catalog and reserves it for pick-up at one of the locations. Once reserved online, the patron visits the machine location and using their activated library card retrieves their book. Each of the numbered slots in the picture is a hinged door behind which is 'mailbox' which can hold up to three books. The door pops open, the patron collects their book together with a printed receipt with their details. The patron can repeat the process to return the book or simply drop it off at the library as they would normally.

The machine isn't cheap: $25,ooo for the unit in the picture which includes the control panel and two vending bays. Additional bays are $5K each sold two at a time. There is a limit of six bays per installation - although I'm not sure if this isn't an artificial limit designed to increase the number of expensive control units they sell. While not new to the market the company only has several locations currently installed and pricing must surely be a consideration. While libraries are decreasing staffing and hours, this machine could be viewed as costing (perhaps) one headcount with the added benefit of extending library hours; however, this is a large capital expense and I suspect beyond the abilities of many libraries to justify. I would think pricing would need to come down below $10K for this to gain any substantial penetration or for leasing to be an option.

Building wider distribution for library materials is also a benefit and even at a cost of $25K there could be payback versus establishing new facilities. Regardless, if installed in a local mall or mass transit location the library would need to see high utility to justify the purchase. There are also practical considerations in that the machine needs to be filled either continuously as 'orders' are placed online or on some set schedule. If the machine is located at a current library location, the process of fulfilling on-line 'orders' is straight forward as books can be placed in the machine as the orders are placed. That would not be the case if the machine sits at the local mall. In the latter case, a schedule for filling (and emptying) the machine would need to be established to manage the expectations of the patrons. You wouldn't want a patron arriving at the vending machine only to find their selection had not been placed in its mailbox. I would also suggest the 'loan' period starts when the order is placed rather than when the book is collected by the patron and I am not sure how the software manages this. If the book is in a mailbox it is not available to other patrons.

In my view, the most likely use of the machine would be where it was located immediately outside a current library location. In this instance the machine could be filled and emptied frequently (but not after-hours) and could be an effective automation tool for both patrons and librarians. Whether that is worth $25K (or $10K) I am not sure but nevertheless an interesting product.

(Of note, it did occur to me that the machine could be used for other completely different applications where materials need to be tracked. For example, it could be used effectively to administer items as diverse as office supplies or even food and groceries - although the mail boxes would need to be re-architected).

CA Bill to Prohibit Proposed Tx Education Changes

From the San Jose Mercury News a report on proposed state legislation that would ensure CA state educators be on the look out for some questionable changes to Texas' education texts:

Under Yee's bill, SB1451, the California Board of Education would be required to look out for any of the Texas content as part of its standard practice of reviewing public school textbooks. The board must then report any findings to both the Legislature and the secretary of education.

The bill describes the Texas curriculum changes as "a sharp departure from widely accepted historical teachings" and "a threat to the apolitical nature of public school governance and academic content standards in California."

"While some Texas politicians may want to set their educational standards back 50 years, California should not be subject to their backward curriculum changes," Yee said. "The alterations and fallacies made by these extremist conservatives are offensive to our communities and inaccurate of our nation's diverse history."

But some publishing industry experts say worries that the Texas standards will cross state lines are unfounded.

"It's an urban myth, especially in this digital age we live in, when content can be tailored and customized for individual states and school districts," said Jay Diskey, executive director of the schools division of the Association of American Publishers.

NYC 5:30am Monday

Korea Publishers Conference Presentation

I was in Korea all last week - more on that later - and my presentation and conference speech is here: The full text should be available if the file is downloaded.

Korea Publishing Conference 2010: The United States of Publishing Status and Predictions from Michael Cairns

And holiday snaps.

Booksellers Unite

Here in Seoul things are just the same. That's to say the first question - of a planned 10 to be asked within an hour and with serial translations - was something like ' as small and medium sized independent booksellers how do we complete with ebooks?' Bookselling for these retailers in Korea is little different than many other countries and there are increasing worries about what they sell, to whom and in what quantity.

We never got through the 10 questions but we did exceed our time slot by 30mins; however, I don't believe our suggestions about building community, looking at POD machines such as the espresso machine, selling ebook content and many other suggestions really alleviated the booksellers' concerns about their future.

Books in Korea have price controls but eBooks do not and booksellers here are beginning to feel marginalized and excluded as the business inexhorably migrates to eBook content. As this happens they face an economic disadvantage on pricing and in a marketplace that is relatively small changes often produce significant financial consequences. During the conversation, the theme of our discussion was so familiar to me, having listened to similar concerns from booksellers in the US, UK and Australia that I wondered at the opportunity for some international convention. Sharing concerns and ideas could produce a collective improvement in independent book retailing across the world. It would certainly save a lot of time.

Having said that, as the final set of questions from the group of 10 retailers dealt with ideas about 'other products' and 'other retail options' they should explore I wondered whether the answer isn't more basic. Doesn't success come down to individual ingenuity, the willingness to experiment, building real connections with customers and an understanding that reliance on a single solution is tantamount to failure? The best examples of independent book retailers from Readings in Melbourne to Northshire in Vermont to Hatchards in London all depend on a combination of strategies to survive. Some work out and some don't and that's the lesson we tried to impart to our South Korean hosts.

MediaWeek (Vol 3, No19): Book Jackets, Social Media in Education, For Profit Colleges, Mobile Media Forecast

From the Observer this morning an interview with a book designer about why covers have to change from country to country (Observer):

What possible discussions took place in Germany, for instance, when publishers first received the manuscript for Martin Amis's House of Meetings – a novel that describes the misery of life in a Russian gulag – and set to work on a cover that featured six figures body-popping in the windows of a modern apartment block? What prompted Italian book designers to give junior wizard Harry Potter a hat shaped like a mouse, and why did the French opt against the monochrome design that jacketed Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated in the UK and the US, concocting instead a watercolour of somebody fondling a woman's breasts? "What you are trying to get across on a cover is the essence of a book, quite an ambiguous thing," says Nathan Burton, a British designer who created the striking cover for Ali Smith's The Accidental, based on an image of a dead woman. "Designers in different countries read and interpret the fiction in different ways." It doesn't quite explain how Germany arrived at silhouetted dancers for House of Meetings, but "the germ of an idea can come from anywhere," says Burton. He points to the Swedish cover of The Accidental, on the surface a starkly different treatment – "but there's a photograph of a girl, bold sans serif type... You could argue that they are born out of a similar thought process."

And at the end of that is an insult for the designer of the UK versions of the Stieg Larsson books. Survey reveals wide differences in how technology and social tools can be integrated into education (e-School News):

Still, the latest Speak Up survey reveals significant gaps in how education technology is perceived among various groups of users. One of the most surprising disparities was how respondents view the importance of online tools for communicating and collaborating in the classroom. When asked to describe their vision for the ultimate “school of the future,” 67 percent of district administrators and 51 percent of school principals said it should include the use of collaborative tools. But only 27 percent of teachers agreed—and teachers still are much more likely to communicate online with their peers or with students’ parents (90 percent) than with students themselves (34 percent). Evans said there are a few factors that might explain this difference. For one thing, many teachers “are not familiar with how to incorporate these collaboration tools into [their] instruction, and thus … they don’t have the personal familiarity that you need before adoption can take place,” she said. “Second, we continue to hear from students that their teachers are very concerned about the potential dangers of internet use in the classroom—the student safety and personal liability issues. So, in some ways, the ‘fear factor’ may be holding back their interest.” She continued: “Teachers also are still not fully buying into the concept that social networking sites can have educational value for students. They see the social components, but not necessarily how to leverage the tools for academic reasons.”

Interesting rebuttal to a PBS documentary on for profit colleges (and education). It is longish and there are some good quotes throughout (Link):

For instance, viewers are told that students from for-profit colleges have higher debt loads than those from non-profit or public institutions, but do not hear that for-profit colleges have exceptionally high rates of degree-completion, given the students they serve. We hear that Clifford, the former rock star and cocaine addict, admits he is under-qualified to manage a college, but never learn that most instructors at the largest for-profit colleges and universities have advanced degrees and are evaluated and promoted based on how well they educate their students. While Martin Smith tells us that regional accreditors are cracking down on the practice of "buying accreditation," he fails to explain how accreditation is a coarse and often ineffective quality control mechanism. Observers lament online education's lack of meaningful interpersonal interaction, but fail to cite high-profile research by the Department of Education which shows that online education is just as effective as in-person instruction, and that hybrid programs are superior to both. The picture of for-profit institutions of higher education is neither all good nor all bad. Unfortunately for those institutions that are operating in good faith, zeroing in on the sector's blemishes is admittedly easy. As College, Inc. outlines, the story of fraud in the for-profit higher education world is almost as long as the story of the sector itself. In the 1990s, Congress embarked on a series of high-profile investigations of student aid fraud at proprietary colleges, and the revelations were not pretty: some for-profits enrolled anyone off the street, including the homeless, to capture student aid dollars. More recently, BusinessWeek reporter Daniel Golden (who appears repeatedly in the documentary) found that for-profit schools across the country were paying homeless individuals to enroll in courses, flush with loans from the federal government. .... Second, the documentary seems to suggest that for-profit schools are subject to less accountability than traditional colleges and universities, and that these institutions should be subjected to additional regulatory burdens because of their profit motive. Barmak Nassirian, a lobbyist for the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers interviewed in College, Inc, is only half right when he argues that "one requirement for all of their practices to ensue is that billions of dollars of federal money flow with no accountability, no oversight, and minimal regulations." Many non-profit colleges and universities, some of which are of exceptionally low quality, also reap benefits from billions in federal aid; but, outside of the restrictions inherent in their tax status and some licensure requirements that vary across states, they are rarely subject to much more stringent accountability measures than these for-profit institutions. In order to receive federal student aid dollars, institutions must be accredited by the regional bodies, but accreditation is a sorry substitute for meaningful quality control (see here). The idea that the patchwork system of higher education accountability is only lax vis a vis for-profit institutions, but ensures quality and good faith among all public and non-profit colleges, is a fallacy. Surely, the profit motive can lead to severe problems when educational quality cannot be mandated, but the same goes for traditional schools that offer little by way of return on the federal investment. ... Like most business ventures, for-profit colleges are filling a void that existing providers are leaving open. As Smith points out in the documentary, community colleges are unable, or perhaps unwilling, to fill this demand themselves. Clearly, these public schools are under incredible fiscal pressure, and many must often turn students away. However, these traditional institutions, and their four year brethren, have shown little inclination to search for innovative ways to serve more students and leverage their best faculty by harnessing technology. The for-profits have done so with gusto, and may provide lessons to these traditional institutions on how they might create and implement such practices.

Canada's National Post takes a look at economics in the e-Book age (NatPost):

Amazon currently gives authors 35% of the money made from each sale of a digital copy of their books, compared with the 7% to 15% royalty cut authors typically get for each hardcover sold. The publisher gets the same, and Amazon keeps the remaining 30%. But under the terms of a new deal effective June 30, authors that self publish can receive the publisher's cut as well, getting 70% of the revenue from each e-book sale. It is a clear attempt to compete with the 60% fee authors make from e-books sold through Apple. Kobo is staying quiet on the details of their own agreements but Author Solutions, one of Kobo's suppliers, says it typically provides 50% royalties to authors. "I did the math on [Amazon's] new deal," said Peter Nowak, Toronto-based author of Sex, Bombs & Burgers. "If I were to sell my book [on Amazon] for five bucks, I would make more per book than selling the book to a conventional publisher." Stephen King showed the world just how profitable the e-book business can be. In 2000, his novella Riding the Bullet was the first book to be released in a solely digital format. After 400,000 downloads in the first 24 hours, the horror king netted himself US$450,000 after the third day. But self-publishing an e-book is not a sure-fire recipe for riches.

Morgan Stanley Analyst Mary Meeker: Mobile Internet Will Soon Overtake Fixed Internet (GigaOm):

And what does Meeker see in her crystal ball this year? Two overwhelming trends that will affect consumers, the hardware/infrastructure industry and the commercial potential of the web: mobile and social networking. Such a conclusion is hardly earth-shattering news to GigaOM readers, for we have been following these trends over the past year or two, but Meeker puts some pretty large numbers next to those trends, and looks at the shifts that will (or are likely to) take place in related industries such as communications hardware. She also compares where the rest of the developed world is in terms of mobile communications and social networking with Japan. Again, not a radically different approach to the one many tech forecasters take, but Meeker has the weight of some considerable research chops on her side.

From the twitter this week:

Former Lexcycle CEO Neelan Choksi Leaving Amazon - NYT

Court Says Internet Filtering in Public Libraries Not Censorship - NYT Determine it is collection development

White Pages May Go Way of Rotary-Dialed Phone - NYT Hundreds of N.J. librarians protest $10.4M proposed budget cuts. Bad news in library funding for NJ. (NJ.com) "The Sorter" from The New York Public Library. And snazzy music. (NYPL) Off to Seoul Korea this week. Football ended as a dud. In cricket England beat SA in the Twenty20.

Hail the Death of the Book Review Section - Repost

A return to my lazy practice of re-posting this time on the supposed death of newspaper book review sections. Given that PW, LJ and SLJ are now under new management will we see a re-invigoration of the reviewing of books? Originally published on April 30th, 2007.

Over the past several months, there has been a lot of hand wringing and wailing regarding the demise of newspaper book review sections. The prevailing view is that if books are not supported by reviews in these publications then books will be less read. This is nonsense. I am a staunch supporter of newspapers, but they are locked in a vortex of decreasing print circulation which the reviews sections are just a part. Perhaps it should be no surprise that publishers do not want to believe that a paper based medium is fast becoming irrelevant, but rather than try to buck a trend, publishers should be evacuating this medium just as other advertisers have already done. If I advertised on a bill board at an intersection that was made redundant by a by-road, I would be a mug if I continued to advertise on the same billboard rather than seek to advertise closer to the bi-road.

'Advertising' has to morph into something different. Word of mouth is incredibly powerful as is replicating some of the in-store benefits (excepts and chapters) which is how book focused sites and bloggers can support publisher's efforts. It is doubtful that the existing print display ads work at all. They are not frequent enough and obviously one dimensional. Other than for identifiable authors it is unlikely that one of these ads will hit a reader on precisely the right occasion. These print ads also expire virtually immediately when the paper is read. On the web however, a 'body of work' can develop around a title that includes multiple reviews and supporting material from a publisher that will grow in depth and value over time. Think about how this supports the 'long tail' of publishing.

Publishers have more not fewer options when it comes to supporting their titles via review sites however they do not seem to be doing so aggressively. Currently both publishers and book review editors seem locked into presenting reviews in antiquated ways. The branding and site traffic that newspapers exhibit on their web pages could be better maximized by publishers to support their titles. In Sunday’s NYT review section, Clare Messud reviewed Edith Wharton. There were no first chapters (excerpts), no similar titles previously reviewed by NYT, no reviews or books written by Messud and no purchase option. For many years, UK national newspapers have offered more functionality and purchase options (not via Amazon.co.uk) for their book sites, and is a lead US publishers should encourage. (The Times).

The suggestion that eliminating review sections from major newspapers will reduce exposure to books in uninformed. There has been an explosion in the number of sites dedicated to providing good, authoritative reviews of books. Most of the work of identifying the best of these has been done and some sites have become strong ‘brands’ themselves. It may require more administration dealing with these sites/reviewers versus the metro newspapers and Publisher’s Weekly but increasingly the people who buy books are looking to these types of sites to aid their purchase decisions. Not surprisingly, these sites should represent an increasing part of a publisher’s promotion plan suggesting that galleys and pre-publication materials should be circulated to these influencers to support book launch activities. (Librarian’s Place, Grumpy, TheMillions, to name three).

A hidden third benefit derives from the breadth of the web itself that begets a wide expanse of coverage. Reviews of obscure titles can be found to be supported by proficient and/or professional writing and readers do not have to wait until Sunday for the NYT or LAT to tell us what is important or not worth reading. Additionally, these reviews are supported and linked to by other reviewers and together with comments by consumers further ‘legitimizes’ the review (and reviewer). Hence, over time, a 'body of work' to support the titles and continued sales down the long tail. There is so much more the web affords in support of reading and books that it is tragic that so much attention is paid to supporting a delivery mechanism that is not only sub-optimal but in its death throws.

Articles on Reviews Sections:
The Millions
The Century Foundation
GalleyCat

Houghton Mifflin in West Virginia Education Partnership

From their press release:

The School Turnaround Plan is made possible by a $21.9-million School Improvement Grant (SIG) derived from education stimulus funds. West Virginia must use the SIG to transform the bottom five percent of its schools by replacing principals (who have served for more than two years), undertaking curriculum reform, implementing professional development and extending learning time over the next three years.

As one of West Virginia's external providers, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt can assist this transformation through its Alliance Initiative, a campaign to achieve success in underperforming schools by developing, implementing and supporting education transformation through a sustained enterprise partnership.

"The Alliance Initiative embodies a creative partnership and a comprehensive reform plan that works to ensure long-term success for districts nationwide," said Mike Lavelle, K–12 President, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. "HMH looks forward to bringing this unique and proven approach to the schools of West Virginia."

The Alliance Initiative model looks beyond content to tangible, proven progress by addressing every aspect of school reform. The district-Company partnership begins with an assessment of needs and benchmarks and continues with a customized reform plan that includes data-driven decision making, quality content and assessment, professional development resources and grant and funding support. All Alliance Initiative content for West Virginia complies with the state's Standards of Learning.

"Predatory" Open Access Publishing

In the early days of the on-line self-publishing revolution when companies like Xlibris, iUniverse, Author House and Publish America were vying for the attentions of authors of all stripes there occured the inevitable 'bad experiences'. Authors making use of some self-publishing companies were taken to the cleaners with bad contracts, poorly printed books, content they couldn't gain access to and a host of other things. Online research into the experiences of others now enables more recent self-publishers to avoid the rookie mistakes and nefarious companies.

That's not the case in the Open Access Journal market which according to a recent article in the Charleston Advisor is seeing a rash of so called OA journal publishers preying on researchers for their content. They are up to many of the same tricks that some of the early book self-publishing companies got up to that left customers frustrated, disappointed and poorer.

In the article entitled 'Predatory' Open Access Scholarly Publishers, the author takes a close look at nine companies that are offering questionable services. They conclude:

These publishers are predatory because their mission is not to promote, preserve, and make available scholarship; instead, their mission is to exploit the author-pays, Open-Access model for their own profit. They work by spamming scholarly e-mail lists, with calls for papers and invitations to serve on nominal editorial boards. If you subscribe to any professional e-mail lists, you likely have received some of these solicitations. Also, these publishers typically provide little or no peer-review. In fact, in most cases, their peer review process is a façade. None of these publishers mentions digital preservation. Indeed, any of these publishers could disappear at a moment’s notice, resulting in the loss of its content. While we were researching this review, one publisher, Academic Journals, was hacked and the site replaced with radical Islamic propaganda for about a week.

Why would authors pay to have an article published when there are so many free outlets where they could publish, including free Open-Access journals? In many cases, the answer is that the quality of the articles is poor, and they were rejected by the mainstream journals.
...
Predatory publishers use words such as “Academic” and “Scientific” in their names to falsely add a veneer of legitimacy to their business. Practices such as these, according to Harnad, “are now being taken to a grotesque extreme because of the ease of entry into online publishing and a perceived instability in the traditional journal publishing trade, owing to the growing clamor for OA.”

More Content, More Screens, More Questions

In their continuing education series beyond the book, CCC speaks to Bill Rosenblatt on mobile applications of content (BTB):

Author and digital media authority Bill Rosenblatt examines how the proliferation of mobile phones and other networked devices is giving rise to an accompanying mobile screen culture – and what publishers need to do to survive and thrive in such an environment. A special presentation from Copyright Clearance Center’s Educational Services team.

To access a copy of Bill Rosenblatt’s just-published white paper, The New Content Monetization Opportunities for Publishers, go to www.copyright.com and in the Latest News and Events section, click “White Paper: New Content Monetization Opportunities for Publishers.” You will have the opportunity to complete a brief survey to help us develop future educational programming, and you will be provided with instant access to Bill’s paper.

Content Farms

The Economist takes a look at the editorial operations of Demand Media and AOL (Economist):

Demand Media’s approach is a “combination of science and art”, in the words of Steven Kydd, who is in charge of the firm’s content production. Clever software works out what internet users are interested in and how much advertising revenue a given topic can pull in. The results are sent to an army of 7,000 freelancers, each of whom must have a college degree, writing experience and a speciality. They artfully pen articles or produce video clips to fit headlines such as “How do I paint ceramic mugs?” and “Why am I so tired in winter?”

Although an article may pay as little as $5, writers make on average $20-25 an hour, says Mr Kydd. The articles are copy-edited and checked for plagiarism. For the most part, they are published on the firm’s 72 websites, including eHow, answerbag and travels.com. But videos are also uploaded onto YouTube, where the firm is by far the biggest contributor. Some articles end up on the websites of more conventional media, including USAToday, which runs travel tips produced by Demand Media. In March, Demand Media churned out 150,000 pieces of content in this way. The company is expected to go public later this year, if it is not acquired by a big web portal, such as Yahoo!, first.

AOL, a web portal which was recently spun off from Time Warner, a media giant, does not like to be compared to such an operation. Tim Armstrong, its boss, intends to turn it into “the largest producer of quality online content”. The firm already runs more than 80 websites covering topics from gadgets (Engadget.com) and music (Spinner.com) to fashion (Stylelist.com) and local news (Patch.com).

I predict this type of content will start to show up on book and (with increasing regularity) magazine publishers looking to maintain consumer interest in their sites and in efforts to build or maintain their audiences.