The economics of information, tekom/tcworld 2011

The Economics of Information

Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing

background imageflickr: thelastminute

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Sarah O’Keefe

❖ Founder and president, Scriptorium Publishing

❖ Content strategy fortechnical communication

❖ Interested in collision ofcontent, publishing, andtechnology


Twitter

❖ My ID: @sarahokeefe

❖ Scriptorium: @ScriptoriumTech

❖ #tekom11 for the conference


Eat your vegetables

Flickr: arnold


The text cycle

Hillesund, Terje. "Reading Books in the Digital Age subsequent to Amazon, Google and the long tail" First Monday [Online], Volume 12 Number 9 (3 September 2007). Retrieved on June 30, 2011.


The text cycle

Hillesund, Terje. "Reading Books in the Digital Age subsequent to Amazon, Google and the long tail" First Monday [Online], Volume 12 Number 9 (3 September 2007). Retrieved on June 30, 2011.

reading writing

production

storingrepresentation

distribution

content


Written content(once upon a time)

reading writing

production


distribution


Printed content, 1450ish

reading writing

production


distribution


Digital text content

reading writing

production


distribution


Digital audio/video/graphical content

reading (consumption) writing (authoring)

production


distribution


No more vegetables

Flickr: theleggett


Disruptive change

Flickr: stevecadman


Flickr: tm-tm


❖ Hand-copied manuscripts

❖ Every copy unique and usually commissioned for a specific buyer

❖ Years-long process to make a copy

❖ Great artistic achievements

Content before Gutenberg


The Book of Kells

Flickr: spleeney


Flickr: munksynz


❖ Printed books

❖ Years-long process to set up press; but unlimited copies possible

❖ Craft rather than art

Content after Gutenberg


Flickr: pathawks


Flickr/kellymccarthy


Rosenwald Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division (1)


Singer Featherweight Manualca. 1930s


There was some progress…

Head First Java, Kathy Sierra


http://idsgn.org/posts/award-winning-print-design-from-cannes-lions-2010/




Progress?

Image: hanselman.com


Quality versus cost

Flickr: bradipo


❖ Printers

❖ Literacy

❖ Information becomesaccessible

❖ Newspapers, but not for 150 years

Winners after Gutenberg


Losers after Gutenberg❖ Scribes

❖ Illuminators

❖ Censorship

❖ Political control


Books in Europe

0

4,000,000

8,000,000

12,000,000

pre-Gutenberg50 years after Gutenberg

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/books/legacy/




eBook revenue estimate, millions of US dollars

http://idpf.org/about-us/industry-statistics

0

100

200

300

400

200220032004200520062007200820092010 (through Oct)




Books vs. ebooks at amazonAmazon tablet announcement, September 28, 2011

Silicon Alley Insider: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-28/tech/


http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-28/tech/30211845_1_ebooks-phenomenal-growth-slide

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-28/tech/30211845_1_ebooks-phenomenal-growth-slide

The rules are changing

❖ iPad tablet publishing didn’t exist three years old.

❖ Kindle publishing didn’t exist five years ago.

❖ What can we expect?


Streamlined publishing workflows

I Love Lucy, The Candy Wrapping Job, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uztA6JCKB4s


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uztA6JCKB4s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uztA6JCKB4s

Design work continues


Best practices for graphics

❖ Reusable components

❖ Layers

❖ Pay attention to localization issues


Data-driven, user-customizable graphics

Google Analytics


Use of audio and video limited by development process.

❖ Content storage and representation are often tied together. Exceptions:

❖ Text-to-speech functionality

❖ Animation with layers

❖ Need the ability to separate audio and video into cycle components


Complex notation

flickr: pfly

<note><pitch><step>G</step><alter>1</alter><octave>5</octave>

</pitch><duration>2</duration><voice>1</voice><type>eighth</type><accidental>sharp</accidental><stem>down</stem><beam number="1">end</beam><notations><slur type="stop" number="1"/>

</notations></note>


Changes to publishing workflow̶Gutenberg and XML

❖ Separate roles and responsibilities

❖ Publishing velocity

❖ Customizing content


Velocity, volume, and versioning


Velocity

Flickr/kellymccarthy


Flickr/kossy


hubblesite.org


Time required to publish books, years

0

4

8

12

16

Before GutenbergGutenberg

XML

Copy 1Copy 2Copy 3Copy 4


Volume

“There was 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days, and the pace is increasing…People aren’t ready for the technology revolution that’s going to happen to them.”

Eric Schmidt, Googlehttp://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_ceo_schmidt_people_arent_ready_for_the_tech.php


http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_ceo_schmidt_people_arent_ready_for_the_tech.php

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_ceo_schmidt_people_arent_ready_for_the_tech.php

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Honest-logos/1222137




Customizing content, then and now❖ Hand-copied books

❖ Generally commissioned

❖ Often customized for the buyer

❖ Gutenberg Bible

❖ 42 lines of standard printing

❖ Customized illumination


Personalization in the Luttrell

Psalter


Personalization in the Luttrell

Psalter

Geoffrey Luttrell


Customization

Flickr: kellymccarthy


Customization in the digital world


google.de

Personalization 101


Personalization 102


More advanced…Saturday, October 22, 2011

Search and navigation

❖ How do you navigate an interactive e-book?

❖ The page number conundrum

❖ Faceted search

❖ Social search


Faceted searchSaturday, October 22, 2011

Social search


e-books?

❖ “It is hard to imagine today, but one of the greatest contributions of e-books may eventually be in improving literacy and education in less-developed countries. Today people in poor countries cannot afford to buy books and rarely have access to a library.”

(Bill Gates, 1999)


The economics of digital information❖ Distribution is now free.

❖ All text cycle components are separated for text, but not other content.

❖ Look for technical advances that improve separation for other content.

❖ In the near term, expect an explosion of cheap text.


Flickr: bikerjun


Contact information

❖ Sarah O'Keefe

❖ www.scriptorium.com

❖ [email protected]

❖ Twitter: @sarahokeefe

❖ +1 919 459 5362


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

The economics of information, tekom/tcworld 2011

Technology

Transcript of The economics of information, tekom/tcworld 2011