What Could be "Cheaper" than "Free"? My Local Library Card Allows Internet Access for $10 Membership -- Good for 3 Years !
Quit Marketing By the Book
From ClickZ's R. Lieb
"While they didn't break their necks rushing to get with the program, media companies have nevertheless made major concessions and changes to their business models over the past couple of years.
Meanwhile, most of their counterparts in book publishing are still stubbornly digging in their heels. Google is determined to smooth their path to digital enlightenment.
Come on, Rebecca Lieb, isn't the notion of ENLIGHTENMENT a little TOO RICH ??? After all, paper-based publishers have a longer track record at this than Google, Rebecca. You have to admit that!
Why would a search engine care about all that printed and bound paper? Google Book Search is why. If Google can persuade publishers to digitize their backlists and let Google crawl them (for starters -- the best-case scenario is all new releases), Google can offer more content to searchers, and more inventory to advertisers. Perhaps it can even collect more fees from its nascent Checkout service.
So in typical Google style (big!), the search engine invited publishers in for a day of talk at The New York City Public Library. The event was dubbed Un-Bound: Advancing Book Publishing in a Digital Era.
The Web evangelist speaker line-up was nothing short of stellar (although their names may be more familiar to you than they were to most of the publishers in the audience): Wired magazine's Chris Anderson (author of 'The Long Tail'); author and marketing guru Seth Godin ; Cory Doctorow, author, BoingBoing co-editor and USC Fulbright Chair; and Tim O'Reilly ."
Blogaulaire - a minor SIC to the quote: professor Cory Doctorow 'holds' the University of California chair; he is not the 'chairman' of the Fulbright anything.
Who is eponymous versus who is a blood relative? It alway confuses us.
I always think of author E. L. Doctorow ('Daniel', 'March') and my own dear colleague Cory Anderseed every time I see Cory Doctorow's name. (Every single time I go on the Internet it seems!)
Speaking of 'Doctorow's and Cory's
I have not searched it, but still wonder whether E. L. and C. Doctorow are related.
Anybody out there know the answer?
Other than Cory Anderseed and Cory Doctorow, the only other "famous" Cory I know is is our local boy wonder from wealthy Westmount (the hometown, BTW, of poet-song-writersinger Leonard Cohen who was discovered by Columbia Records of New York, through family conn . . .
. . . But I digress . . .)
Well, the only other Cory I ever knew was Cory Hart**.
** Cory Hart is/was a pop singer -- once-upon-a-time Idol of nearly every Québecoise teeny bopper in the 1980s.
5 comments:
Hi Cy,
Why are you coming on like you want to diss people we know you love dearly like Cory Doctorow and Leonard Cohen? I know you have respect for both these displaced Canadians living in the States so why not show it up front? Basta, enough morals.
No, the two Doctorows are not family relations. (Cory's parents tried to dig up something genealogic but it is far-fetched at best.)
Heah, I'll still talk to you so calm down. Even if you keep misspelling Andersede.
After all, the Andersede name is Spanish, not Anglo-Saxon. It roughly translates to 'the seat of the wanderer'. Not that ridiculous Asian spice connotation you keep making when your crooked left middle finger incessantly slips off the key of D!
But HEAH, again, Cy. All the Cory's forgive you I'm sure. Just do not bite the hand that feeds you. OK buddy?
Hasta la vista amigo.
Google getting involved in the "publishing" business is a huge red light. Amazon's numbers are probably behind all the "potential" as well. Have people finally lost the need to actually go to a bookstore? Hopefully not, but it is easy to see the giants once again moving towards taking out the middle man again.
Neath
Neath: I agree with how you read the trend. Anonymous: Thanks for the bit about the two Doctorow guys; I did see the announcement when Cory was 'throned' with the joint US - Canada chair on international -- I seem to remember it as 'Diplomacy' at the University of Southern California.
Neath - Google also touches photography. And their use of satellite images of the entire globe may come into play with some eventual inventory of photos from every corner of the globe. Like you pointing to bookstores as middlemen who are threatened by this, I wonder what threats you see if the corporate side of the Internet stockpiles and distributes photographs. You know they have the technology to digitize prints and negative big time as well.
I'm not against a universal gift economy in all this material, but neither the users nor the masses of people have a say - it all seems to flow through private corporations that are based on their stockmarket value and on selling ads. My main point, though, is that this is the creative work of humans (across time and continents) being funneled through a very few pipelines while the local avenues and venues for enjoying the arts hands-on seem to be drying up.
it is interesting. With bloggers we freely post each other's images, provide the proper acknowledgement, post a link, and all is swell in the blogosphere. But is the nature of the art gallery changing too? You can find just about any kind of image you want on the net, so something is democratically ok. But it's almost impossible for the majority of artists to make a living doing their thing as it has been. Would a Google driven "Museum" drive prices down? And would the average "art lover" only ever go to museums to see "classics" in person? How could you keep a gallery open if people are only buying on the net? etc, etc?
neath:
You cannot keep a gallery open for very long without govt subsidies, that's for certain. Can you publish a mag without a rich benefactor? I doubt it.
We both know the same venues. There are some interesting nooks and crannies around where exhibition space and books are freely available that are easy to miss. Like Blue Mondays, Cosmik. Some people use their apartments to exhibit. (No names to protect people who do not advertise this sideline.)
We should put together a visitors guide for the southwest corner of Montreal.
Near me is a pizza joint I would never visit for a cup of java except it is the only place I know that subscribes to National Geographics (I think the Can version - not much difference there, though). I know a waitress who gives away pop fiction to clients and friends and we see that she always has a cheap supply!
Well, my advice is to get paid for artistic and image work where possible and to not give away high resolution images with commercial potential until it is okay with potential 'buyers'. Who needs hi-res on the Internet anyway? I think 60 pixels/inch are too high.
People should also learn how to market their skills, talents from two or three mentors and make sure one of them is totally computer ILLITERATE. The old school had/still has stuff to teach cyber artists about finding clients and marketing ones abilities down at street level.
Ciao
Post a Comment