'Thanks, Gutenberg - but we're too pressed for time to read' John Naughton, The Observer, January 27 2008: [A a study by the British Library and researchers at University College London concluded that] 'It is clear', says the study, 'that users are not reading online in the traditional sense, indeed there are signs that new forms of "reading" are emerging as users "power browse" horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts, going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.' These findings apply to online information seekers of all ages... The study confirms what many are beginning to suspect: that the web is having a profound impact on how we conceptualise, seek, evaluate and use information. What Marshall McLuhan called 'the Gutenberg galaxy' - that universe of linear exposition, quiet contemplation, disciplined reading and study - is imploding, and we don't know if what will replace it.; Shared by Future Media
What a modern newspaper will look like. Inventing the DIS, Frédéric Filloux, Monday Note, August 17, 2008: [Note on strategy for French newspaper Libération. 'DIS' is Daily Information System.] Dump the idea of a daily paper... Equally allocate journalistic resources to two products, a website and a weekly paper... [In the newsroom] [Note] the number of news junkies (look around you, not at me) who give up physical newspapers without any visible withdrawal symptom. [Considers what would a modern newspaper designed from scratch look like.] a DIS must allocate resources flexibly between electronic and paper versions... the advertising market no longer supports daily printing... who cares if an analysis of Vladimir Putin’s strategy in Georgia has to wait a couple of days?... a sophisticated free newspaper can have a distribution system as targeted and precise as a paid one [though should charge] a very low price... [Move to dynamic pricing for advertising.] [Increase quality of product.] Time to switch to iPods, folks. Contemporary recipes are: small format, no more than forty pages, paper that doesn’t bleed ink, pages glued or stapled, good quality printing to justify premium pricing to advertisers... Outsource non-core competencies. Including journalistic ones... Outsourcing includes the recourse to outside experts. [Key] journalist should be allowed to moonlight for other media outlets... [Adopt] the concept of “release” (v.1.0, 1.1, etc.).; Shared by Future Media
Audio: The BBC's invention lab and Adam and Joe, Guardian Tech Weekly podcast, 13/08/08: Includes interview with Andy Bower from the BBC about changes at the Kingswood Warren facility, part of the Research and Innovation department, which is moving location. Bobbie Johnson: 11h15m: on research models and the BBC's approach to immediate vs long term and the license fee: "the BBC have got to be better at arguing for the long term".; Shared by Future Media
'BBC: Stately decline' Jemima Kiss, Guardian, August 11 2008: The loudest voices at the BBC belong to people who work in TV, but there are many more we don't hear - the pioneering engineers, scientists and mathematicians. The rest of the media industry, and the web 2.0 world in particular, are preoccupied with keeping up and spinning the new - but Kingswood is a thing apart, imagining our future 20 years from now. [Includes video interview with Andy Bower.]; Shared by Future Media
'Why Sony lost the battle of the e-book' John Gapper, Financial Times, August 6 2008,: Ever since Sony lost the battle between its Walkman music player and Apple’s iPod, it has been trying to strike back... In one small corner of Sony’s empire, however, it has just made the same mistake all over again... The Sony product is the Reader... This time Sony’s competitor is Amazon, which has swept past Sony with the Kindle. [Describes benefits of Kindle linkst to Amazon store and built in 3G networking.] The fact that the Kindle is smoothly connected in this way is deliberate... Sony talks about making devices networked and easy to use, but Amazon did so.; Shared by Future Media