Wednesday, April 29, 2009

So You Think You Know All About Digital?

People often ask us how we know so much about digital devices, formats, DRM and what is happening in the digital space. The answer has to be that its our job and just like an engineer, technician, doctor, consultant, researcher or any skilled professional we need to keep abreast of changes, trends and potential opportunities.

However, understanding dynamic change is not easy and often we often find ourselves scratching our heads wondering if what we have found is, news or noise, relevant or a side show, important today , or one to watch for the future. Today someone pointed out a new iPhone ebook application, was it important or just nice to look at? How does it work and does it have limitations? The lists of sixth sense questions are many and not all obvious. Yesterday Amazon bought Lexcycle and there was much twittering and bloging and email dialogue , about the impact, potential scenarios and much more.

What these and many more events raise is the general level of myths and legends that surround our digital world. We have no point of reference, no dictionary of terms, no industry table of devices, formats, DRM, applications, features and point of democratised information.

We hope that we can stimulate a collaborative effort to create a publishing dictionary of reference and we are encouraged by response we have received to creating maybe a publishing digital wiki. We will keep you informed but if anyone agrees and can help raise your hands.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yes, let's have the lexicon. I am listening to the Surgeon of Crowthorne and have renewed understanding of the importance of a democratic body of information about our world.