tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-354286182024-03-12T23:25:59.427+00:00Brave New WorldTopical items and views on the impact of digitisation on publishing and its content and the issues that make the news. This blog follows the report 'Brave New World',
(http://www.ewidgetsonline.com/vcil/bravenewworld.html ), published by the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland and authored by Martyn Daniels. The views and comments expressed are those of the author.Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.comBlogger2187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-16376176908322423452015-05-21T13:50:00.000+00:002015-05-21T13:50:13.959+00:00'Plastic Will Do Nicely,Sir' <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyB7J6RzdVrGtTM5sN2bYvlJ8qOk2Ify9AbIjidZb8uOug0Ep-UL7HgNscAVLJ1q1EZlghZbeSQADQa8ddRrWxBwsTnG8HZkrZcylTEiRRVyA_MtminSO9n2OcNE_UWqwJlOR/s1600/visa-paywave-olympics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyB7J6RzdVrGtTM5sN2bYvlJ8qOk2Ify9AbIjidZb8uOug0Ep-UL7HgNscAVLJ1q1EZlghZbeSQADQa8ddRrWxBwsTnG8HZkrZcylTEiRRVyA_MtminSO9n2OcNE_UWqwJlOR/s320/visa-paywave-olympics.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The UK Payments Council today stated that the use of cash by consumers,
businesses and financial organisations fell to 48% of payments last year. This
means that cashless payments have overtaken cash payments for the first time in
the UK. The cash volumes are expected to fall further by 30% to some 34% over
the next 10 years. It is claimed that 4.4% of adults ‘rarely use cash and the
average ATM withdraw has fallen to £67. The previous cashless payment by cheque
has dropped to just 1% of consumer payments whereas Debit card payments have
now become universally accepted and account for 24% of payments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">We all have seen the emergence of credit and debit cards and now the
attraction of Paypal to many who simply don’t want to input their card details
every time they buy something. Even small value transaction such as a cup of
coffee are increasingly done by cards and often contactless cards. Interestingly
the migration to plastic has not resulted in a price increase or price differentiation
by the retailers. The acceptance of Paypal has been significant catching out
many traders who first </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">balked</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> at the higher service charges.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, Denmark is moving closer to becoming the world's first cashless
society, with the government proposes scrapping the obligation for retailers to
accept cash as payment. They are proposing that as of next year, business such
as clothing retailers, restaurants and petrol stations should no longer be
legally bound to accept cash payments. Some 30% of the population uses an
official Danske Bank app called <a href="http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=da&u=http://www.danskebank.dk/mobilepay&prev=search" target="_blank"><span style="color: #404040; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">MobilePay</span></a>, which is similar to Google Wallet and other
contactless cards and links a mobile to other users' phones or to a sensor at
the till, allowing you to confirm payments with a simple swipe on your
smartphone's screen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Nordic countries of Denmark,
Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland lead the world in cashless payments and in and
Sweden in 2013 a bank robber left empty-handed, after he found out that the
Stockholm bank he held up did not carry any cash..<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What is interesting in the UK is to
look at the proportion of cash payments by sector in 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It is easy to understand low basket value retailers such as discount and
convenience stores, pubs and newsagents handling cash (68%, 78.5%, 83.9% and 84.8%
respectively), and high ticket retailers such as electrical stores, petrol
stations and supermarkets handling significantly less cash (33.8%, 24.5%, 43.8%
respectively. However the odd segment identified was Bookshops with 45.5% cash
transactions which says that they are low value and maybe more convenience than
we think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Whatever, it is clear that the move to cashless is accelerating and with
it comes the increasing risk of fraud and transactional payments to third party
system and service providers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-11061213661904800062015-05-20T21:55:00.002+00:002015-05-20T21:55:49.901+00:00Spotify No Longer Just Music <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs94hAq54VqnpQmNU4kF8yEqcl5Rc7MqR-14aYb0HfKyTsSl0EexupgcmaC0wyc7imOR9gKkd5bKo4gTO3pd-o_9CFqN_KF13ZFFRb26tzZSQe5udcl1Ve4gOXX7jqOfDhl3Le/s1600/spotify+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs94hAq54VqnpQmNU4kF8yEqcl5Rc7MqR-14aYb0HfKyTsSl0EexupgcmaC0wyc7imOR9gKkd5bKo4gTO3pd-o_9CFqN_KF13ZFFRb26tzZSQe5udcl1Ve4gOXX7jqOfDhl3Le/s320/spotify+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">When we look at the future of on demand and streamed media services the
clue is in the word media. We are no longer shackled to thinking of vertical
movie, music, games but media hubs that satisfy all under one subscription.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">To bring the point firmly home Spotify has announced it is adding more
non-music content to its app. The expanded service will include radio podcasts,
news bulletins, video clips and moves their 60 million regular users which
span some into a media one stop shop and they also have introduced a new
running mode that matches music to the pace of the listener which is based on
feedback from their smartphone's built-in sensors.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0cm;">The
news comes on the same day that<a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/19/8621581/sony-music-spotify-contract" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"> The Verge disclosed the details
of Sony’s Spotify</span></a> contract and raised questions of whether the
model worked in the best interest of the production companies, or the artists.
The move is also intended to protect Spotify from competitive threats from
Apple’s planned streaming service and YouTube’s expansion moves.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0cm;">Spotify’s
content partners include the BBC, TED, the science-tech talks organiser,
Disney, Vice Media, comedy podcast The Nerdist and clips from Amy Poehler’s
Smart Girls video channel. They will mix musicians and cooks in a show called
Turntable. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0cm;">What
is clear is that Spotify has a vision past music and one which if successful
will help protect it from the new Spotify can provide music that matches a
runner's pace.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 10.5pt; padding: 0cm;">The
big question is whether Spotify’s 15 premium subscribers want and will use the
extra services today and allow Spotify to float their service on the stock
market.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-747127729995583752015-05-14T14:02:00.000+00:002015-05-14T14:02:37.837+00:00Are Enhanced eBooks a Digital Grail?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4v4GBZg6eRCjKDMUBQ4AV4NCOfl-FIVl7agYYo3AIQVw5-d5xPSl5Q2OFFpRGCtY3xbTSVK6A8SHMYaxnfFzQxGe_177RUnHrJQu150kgQEqtX09gQBDMSy2_KiKDuaYH2bTe/s1600/concept_of_sharing_digital_world.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4v4GBZg6eRCjKDMUBQ4AV4NCOfl-FIVl7agYYo3AIQVw5-d5xPSl5Q2OFFpRGCtY3xbTSVK6A8SHMYaxnfFzQxGe_177RUnHrJQu150kgQEqtX09gQBDMSy2_KiKDuaYH2bTe/s320/concept_of_sharing_digital_world.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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What is the state of the ebook market and are there
significant differences between the various different market segments and
geographical regions?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The question is not new and there are a significant number
of opinions on the answers. However, different markets move at different speeds
and sometimes in different direction and facts are often out of date and views often
reflect vested interests. The BookNet Canada annual survey of Canadian publishers, <a href="http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1456875/26187631/1430420508347/State_of_Digital_Publishing_2014.pdf?token=9gwPXZSH9AlpyV%2BChO7XpBgfBtM%3D" target="_blank">'The State of Digital Publishing in Canada' </a> findings may be subjective, but the range of questions asked and the ability
to track these against the same survey result from last year, make it a
worthwhile read for all and one which should be replicated in other markets.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is easy to relate to; the 93% of publishers producing
ebooks, the 50% of active titles that are digitised, 24% of respondents who
have digitised over 75% of their backlists, the 52% who have seen increased revenues
between 2013 and 2014, but the big question remains on the size of growth we
can expect from ebooks moving forward and whether they need to change to
realise further market penetration?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Interesting questions where again asked on enhanced
ebooks. Do we continue to pour the same physical
book into the digital container and believe that the job is done? Do we look to
enhance the digital version to make it more collectable, even though, increasingly
the public are aware that they are not buying, but merely licencing a digital copy?
Are we in fact looking at the question of differentiation the wrong way and in
striving for the new to be better, losing sight of where the greatest value is perceived
and potential enhancement required?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Canadian publishing respondents who believe that
enhanced ebooks offer no market impact, has increased from 40% to 73%, with
those believing a light impact has decreased from 33% to 20% and those who
believe that they hold a positive impact has dropped from 7% to ZERO%.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This clear drop in confidence by publishers in the
enhanced ebook will almost certainly be self-prophesying and result in fewer
enhanced ebooks, which in turn will reduce any market result further. When
coupled with the result that only 25% have developed mobile apps, it either
says that there is no market demand for digital enhancement, or that it will
take others to step up to the plate to make a change happen.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why is the debate relevant today?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Firstly, we have seen a flattening out in ebooks sales in
the trade market in the developed digital markets. Secondly, we have heard increasing
media noise about the love of paper and the immersive and tactile book
experience. Importantly we have seen little new ebook or digital content market
change. Even the conference and marketing noise has refocused itself more
towards eMarketing and less about eContent. Various reports have started to
question the market’s appetite for merely more of the same digitally. Finally,
the illogical subscription offers have started to unravel as consumers do the
maths. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As other media segments all look towards expanding their
own propositions and consumer reach, the question of who does what, who is in
the best position and who owns what, starts to take shape. We often hear about
the game and video opportunities for book publishers and assume that book
publishers are best placed to realise these, often forgetting the on the other
side of the fence the other media segments are eying up books with the same
thoughts. However, until an ebook has the longevity to be a true sustainable consumer
investment and not just an often non-transferable commodity licence, book
publishers may well not wish to waste their resources listening to advisors who
are often chasing their own Digital Grails. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-45705917635476427892015-04-09T07:09:00.001+00:002015-04-09T07:09:42.021+00:00A 60 Second Battery Fix?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbZSCXzwFZR5WSOG3tjKkBDsReUZN-2f8PfogDkXrAPLVUKYpJxXxoVV90VX_uf7bUpYP3w0mdt_heeNKO77kUx5JDmNT-dVwitSiutWeQbSGSgjZmzLAr1MXMShYQcRqWpj2/s1600/battery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbZSCXzwFZR5WSOG3tjKkBDsReUZN-2f8PfogDkXrAPLVUKYpJxXxoVV90VX_uf7bUpYP3w0mdt_heeNKO77kUx5JDmNT-dVwitSiutWeQbSGSgjZmzLAr1MXMShYQcRqWpj2/s1600/battery.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">One of today’s biggest mobile problems
is that of battery life. When the battery is fully charge the world is our at
out fingertips, but when it is running low or flat then we are effectively cut
off from the world. Having to recharge the smartphone can be a chore we would
rather live without and the time it often takes to recharge can seem an
eternity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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battery in a minute, it held its charge longer and the battery itself was
smaller and more flexible?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Researchers in <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Stanford University</span></a> have made a
breakthrough that could lead to the fast charging and longer lasting batteries
and have published their findings in Nature (April 6th). In an article, the
authors note, ‘This was the first time an ultra-fast aluminium-ion battery was
constructed with stability over thousands of cycles.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Using an aluminum-ion prototype, they
were able to charge a smartphone type battery in 60 seconds, or 60 times faster
than the conventional lithium-ion battery. The protoype consists of a soft
pouch, containing aluminium for one electrode and a graphite foam for the other
- all surrounded by a special liquid salt.</span> Also they claim that its
durability is also greater and that it can stand up to about 7,500
charge-discharge cycles before losing any of its capacity compared to Lithium-ion
batteries 1,000 cycles. But it doesn’t stop there and they also have found that
there are safety and pliability benefits.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Ming Gong, co-lead author of the Nature
study, ‘You can bend it and fold it, so it has the potential for use in
flexible electronic devices. Aluminium is also a cheaper metal than lithium.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Prof Hongjie Dai from Stanford
University in California claims, ‘Our new battery won't catch fire, even if you
drill through it.’ This could address concerns raised on lithium-ion batteries,
which have resulted in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31709198"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">recent bans on air transport</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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discovered in the labs into being a commercial reality. Some question the
energy density of these batteries and whether the results in the lab can be
scaled up, but irrespective the findings start to point the way to creating new
opportunities to connect for longer, more efficiently and could open the doors
to many new devices and applications.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-6320087983404348822015-04-08T07:59:00.000+00:002015-04-08T07:59:13.415+00:00Communications not Product and Services is the 21st Century Opportunity: Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYixh3KctgRblUUSbrKs11P0pBljKbrri8BFbv4n1XUMV2MdBJ4mIELgi8KKYF2VnK8HQtzeJ_oQs8qttqoIc6_qtuZioi_0oqj4s5FsUtfVtCkY2bVazMeOJzW6JQIg0LmUv/s1600/communications+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdYixh3KctgRblUUSbrKs11P0pBljKbrri8BFbv4n1XUMV2MdBJ4mIELgi8KKYF2VnK8HQtzeJ_oQs8qttqoIc6_qtuZioi_0oqj4s5FsUtfVtCkY2bVazMeOJzW6JQIg0LmUv/s1600/communications+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Part 2: </b></div>
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<b>The Organisational
Impact of Communications in Today’s World?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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A company may have the best product or service and the
smartest technology, but these alone no longer guarantee success. They may have
a significant marketing budget, but billboards, page adverts, glossy catalogues
and call centres now longer guarantee sustainable success. The supply chain may
be well oiled and automated, but reducing waste and delivering to just in time
models are by themselves now longer offer unique value and guarantee success.
The sales and marketing messages may be slick and focused, but the message in a
social networked world is no longer the prize and getting it across to the
market no longer a simple process.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mass market advertising still has its place, but direct
marketing now is challenging it even in the mass market. Being able to now
effectively engage with consumers and feed their habits, respond to them and
truly engage and retain them is the real goal. Creating brand loyalty and
through that product and service loyalty and a customer for life is the Holy
Grail. Once that was the sole domain of the retailer, or end service provider,
but in a world of virtual marketplaces the channel to market is changing and
with it the communications with the end consumer. Sharing consumers in
non-sharing partnerships is the same as not sharing basic trading information
before Supply Chain management. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We now crave the viral hit. That moment when the word of the
internet overtakes all the market budgets we could muster and value and
perception truly transfer to the mass. When it works it can create instant
recognition, market and demand but is just in time world not satisfying it on
demand can be as damaging as not creating it in the first place. However, like
winning the Lottery it can’t be achieved by all so bets have to be spread and
‘silver bullet’ strategies avoided.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Reputation can be built and destroyed in a click. Consumers,
like sheep tend now to follow and identifying the leaders and influences is a
challenge to all. It is truer than ever that one bad experience can influence
ten others. In fact the numbers are probably significantly higher today and the
impact far faster than yesterday’s word of mouth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So what does this mean to the organisation and its focus?<o:p></o:p></div>
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We would suggest the following thoughts;<o:p></o:p></div>
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Effective trading partnerships across the supply and value
chain is more important than ever. In an channel were much is outsourced the
performance of others can now often impact a business more than it can imagine.
How do you organise your partners and work together for mutual benefit? Who
monitors partner relationships and their effectiveness? What information is
shared and how does it help the consumer engagement?<o:p></o:p></div>
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What is communicated with who, when and how? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Service extends to more than throwing goods over the wall,
or tracking parcels. Knowing what the other party wants to know and responding
to them when they want something is as important as the product they bought.
How many of us tear our hair out trying to get in touch with a Google, Amazon,
eBay, Apple etc. It’s as if the tablets only ever go one way and those that
effectively crack this challenge are the winners of tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Information is as valuable as revenue. Collecting
information for the sake of collecting information may appeal but using that
information to engage with all is the goal. However, the challenge is learning
to share information in a manner which respects the privacy of the individual
but enables partners to help deliver and for businesses to engage with them.
Remember when suppliers and retailers started to share forecast and demand
information and the resultant benefits that gave to some supply chains?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Should we create a CCO (Chief Communication Officer) as it
clearly not a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) or a CIO (Chief Information
Officer). Perhaps the role fall within the emerging Digital Director remit.
Marketing is an obvious home but is often only consumer focused and lacking technology
depth. Is a COO (Chief Operating Officer) the appropriate function as is it
about process, touch points, messages and responses?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Different organisations will respond differently, according
to size, skills and complexity of the chain, but communications now needs to be
at the forefront of today’s boardroom thinking and developing the appropriate
strategy and measuring its performance and effectiveness is an opportunity for
all who sit around the board table to engage with.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-15401757390373923652015-04-06T07:00:00.001+00:002015-04-06T07:01:02.638+00:00Communications not Product and Services is the 21st Century Opportunity. Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06YkveQ4EKt6QxZ2M2F8HcYM5hAWb3lwjqDih8ERCYTgwFIUeBhLu6nFzVR-m6IC8oC2ilM0EQK0x6jY4ZixUaj2xfAUICclR8z9DUUBkb2p0jhIvSCsd8FgxNdbm-cOY8WNQ/s1600/communications+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06YkveQ4EKt6QxZ2M2F8HcYM5hAWb3lwjqDih8ERCYTgwFIUeBhLu6nFzVR-m6IC8oC2ilM0EQK0x6jY4ZixUaj2xfAUICclR8z9DUUBkb2p0jhIvSCsd8FgxNdbm-cOY8WNQ/s1600/communications+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Part 1: </b></div>
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<b>How did we
arrive to where we are today?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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It now seems a lifetime away when we started our technology
journey which we w all take for granted today. Back in ’68 there were only 32 computers
in the whole of Sheffield and we can even remember the companies, the computers
and what they were capable of. The explosion of computing that followed was first
aimed at companies and institutions and automating the numbers and providing
the information in near to real time as possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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PCs and networks then changed the landscape and importantly
companies became aware of the huge waste created across the Supply Chains and
started to migrate from, ‘slipping notes under closed doors’ with trading their
partners to communicating and sharing information with them. Supply Chain
Management opened up communications through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards and technology. Home
computing was also born albeit over extremely poor network services.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Business then started to look hard at their value chains and
their core functions and where they added value. Technology was still see as a
generic function but it started to deliver effective ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and later CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions, which were no longer bespoke but packed and configurable.
Outsourcing non-core activity became a given. IT finally started to break
through the board room glass ceiling and CIOs (Chief Information Officers) and CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) became common seats
around the table. The Internet was born and networks started to move from dirt
tracks to super highways and deliver and mobile communications, laptop PCs and
consumer technology took off.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Then came two major and significant seismic shifts in the
form of mobile communications technology and mobile applications. Social
networking became something that impacted all; first the individual both young
and old and then the corporate, institution and public entity. This explosion
of demand was further fuelled by rapid advances in network technology and the
emergence of truly mobile devices. We were all permanently switched on and
desired to communicate and carried our computer around in our pocket. Where we
and other ‘friends’ were, what we are doing and with whom and our thoughts was
now often now just a click away.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Harnessing all this mass of information and creating ‘Big
Data’ opportunities is now a business in itself. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Computing was no longer owned by the corporate, even warfare
was being waged over the airwaves as much as the battlefield. Fame could be
instantaneous at the individual level and commercial success was often no
longer reliant on huge marketing budgets and programmes alone.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today commercial businesses now no longer just have a web
presence and ecommerce, but an array icons splattered in their sites to link
them to every social network where they also have their own presence. We have
Blogs, videos, and tweets to promote their products, services and values. In this
multi-dimensional world text is no longer enough and communications is no
longer one way. We have a new breed of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and analytic services knocking on
every door and customer and market insight programmes are the buzz.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So where exactly are you today and more importantly where
are you going tomorrow and how do you we achieve that journey?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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How should businesses organise themselves for the
Communications World of tomorrow?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Tomorrow we will give our thoughts what we believe is one of
the greatest challenges today and into the near future.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-16087891794939276542015-03-21T12:54:00.000+00:002015-03-21T12:54:13.029+00:00EU Approach to eBooks Is Nonsense<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwTRv1NDNcKvA0YpXFugdObuCM2lEZkQ4jcsgf_fYAxH4EQqliV0rcWq-4p6RlWPyKUXSeNQX_HxA19bJXWHtkgcHI5oHpl6yOfifPkLXMd5Ic96ZUaC443vfZ8UwEh2FEqTM/s1600/vat-rates-1938x1940.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKwTRv1NDNcKvA0YpXFugdObuCM2lEZkQ4jcsgf_fYAxH4EQqliV0rcWq-4p6RlWPyKUXSeNQX_HxA19bJXWHtkgcHI5oHpl6yOfifPkLXMd5Ic96ZUaC443vfZ8UwEh2FEqTM/s1600/vat-rates-1938x1940.png" height="200" width="199" /></a></div>
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This week four cultural ministers from four powerhouses;
Italy, Poland, France and Germany jointly requested that the EU Commission
should think again about the rate of tax for ebooks. This comes only weeks
after the EU High Court ruled against France and Luxemburg and stated that
ebooks are different from physical books. They want the same rate applied as
physical books so countries such as the UK would have zero tax on both, as
opposed to zero on physical and 20% on digital. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We all recognise that Western Europe is a block of
democratic free trading nations with significant economic and political clout.
The challenge is often getting that balance between local national interest and
collective European interest. If it veers too far to one side it becomes unable
to change and what change takes place is often slow and bureaucratic. If it
moves too far to the other side it loses its core strength of collective responsibility
and benefit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Taxation is a classic battleground where individual
countries raise their own taxes and spend them locally contributing a hefty sum
to the Union based on their often perceived ability to pay. So we have as many
different rates of tax as there are countries and as many ways of allocating
these as there are politicians and ideology. So what has this to do with
Digital Media and technology?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anyone looking at the different tax rates across Europe
would think that someone has made trade less attractive not more attractive.
Anyone looking at the tax difference between the digital and physical book would
think that someone must have made a mistake and just forgotten to correct it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the greatest challenges the European media industry
faces is getting the unelected commission and courts to realise that the world
has gone digital and that in doing so has created new opportunities not
threats. This taxation rule is a daft as the current lack of real action to
address the tax avoidance plays being made by multinationals. It is matched by
the lack of a rights and IP database. The inability to resell digital goods
because….<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The balance between common sense and nonsense, micro control
and macro control, controlled migration and mass migration are challenges the
EU must rise to but repetitively fail to address.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But it would be good if we could just have the simple
understanding that a book is a book is a book. The price may vary from one form
to another but the way the governments view it and the tax they levy against it
should be consistent across all formats. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Related Material:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.vatlive.com/vat-rates/european-vat-rates/eu-vat-rates" target="_blank">2015 VAT rates</a></div>
<br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=502578" target="_blank">Amazon’s guide to VAT rates </a></div>
<br /><h1 style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/eu-court-rules-e-books-are-services-not-goods-1425552050" target="_blank">WJS:EU Court Rules E-Books AreServices, Not Goods</a></span></h1>
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<br /></h1>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-13734100431550760802015-03-17T21:08:00.001+00:002015-03-17T21:08:25.584+00:00Is FingerReader Positive Wearable Technology?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="line-height: 19px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/86912300" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></span></div>
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We talk of
wearable technology and see a deluge of wantabees who all want to be seen in their
‘Emporer’s New Clothes.’ But it often is frustrating that we continue to leave
many behind in our search for the next best gadget to be seen with. We were
taken aback years ago when we saw the ‘sixth sense’ development of <a href="http://bookseller-association.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/rethinking-future-different-perspective.html" target="_blank">Pranev Mistry</a>and today some of the most exciting technology still remains with the likes of
MIT.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This week, we read
of a MIT’s finger device, which is not an iRing or iWatch mini, but a remarkable
device aimed at helping the visually Impaired read and engage with the written
word. It is still surprising that some ten years since we wrote the ‘Brave New
World’ report and we envisaged the era of the audio digital. However, its mass
adoption remains untapped and communities, such as the visually impaired, are
still being left behind. We obviously saw then that it was a simple transition
from physical audiobook to digital audiobook and although much has happened,
little mass adoption either upstream or downstream has occurred. At the time,
many saw print on demand and the digitalised text as offering the solution to
large print books and specialised monitors, but again much has happened, but
mass adoption hasn’t.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So what have MIT
delivered with their FingerReader?<o:p></o:p></div>
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FingerReader is a
device which today looks clunky and very much a prototype, but through its
camera is capable of character recognition and real time audio delivery. Assisting
the visually impaired with effectively and efficiently, reading paper printed and
ereader text must be a goal to strive for. FingerReader addresses the issues of
misalignment, focus, character accuracy, mobility and efficiency, introduces a new
method of scanning text of single lines, blocks of text or skimming the text
for important sections on the go, whilst giving the reader instant audio and a tactile
feedback. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So what you may
ask and how does this help others?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well today the initial
focus is no the visually impaired and can <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">enable
the blind to read without the need for Braille, or the visually impaired to
read without large print or blow up monitors. Bu</span>t the technology offers
much more to all and takes us one step further towards the true wearable and tactical
interfaces we lack today. Imagine just pointing you finger at text and hearing
an instantaneous playback and also capturing the text at the same time. We would
suggest that this is far more useful than creating a digital watch.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Imagine, joining
the dots between speech recognition and controls, OCR, Audio and all in the
pocket package of a smartphone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Currently, FingerReader needs to
be connected to a laptop, but the researchers are now developing an open-source
version that will be able to use Android phones. Now that really opens up wider
opportunities for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To read the MIT Paper; <a href="http://fluid.media.mit.edu/sites/default/files/paper317.pdf" target="_blank"><b>FingerReader: A Wearable Device to Support Text Reading on the Go</b> </a></span></div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-60877444804533748792015-03-10T20:34:00.001+00:002015-03-10T20:41:49.076+00:00Are You iWatching?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSm_FZ7klOQ1py0ZvlPAi01V5oX7eVKFW-rCti0PEJMCW1p2sfnv9dUf4p7KLnkxVzuNZteeg59e3MMjJHCrej77RaXJ7b79S35cH4vFGXW0Kb1l5nO-yXD-hM_He1Yo0Ax4f/s1600/typwriter+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSm_FZ7klOQ1py0ZvlPAi01V5oX7eVKFW-rCti0PEJMCW1p2sfnv9dUf4p7KLnkxVzuNZteeg59e3MMjJHCrej77RaXJ7b79S35cH4vFGXW0Kb1l5nO-yXD-hM_He1Yo0Ax4f/s1600/typwriter+1.jpg" /></a></div>
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I have just bought a 1936 Imperial Companion 1 portable
typewriter and it now sits proudly on my desk alongside today’s technology. Is
it practical? Well not with my poor spelling and tendency to rework things.
Does it work? Yes and has a black and red ribbon which will one day need
replacing. Did I buy it to work? Well not really, I thought it of it as more of
a fusion of art and technology and a statement. The typewriter played a major
role in influencing where we are today. With my wife being granted a Royal
Warrant for her bookselling, I also love the Royal Warrant stamp on the
Typewriter dedicated to the late King George V.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So what has this to do with last week’s latest technology
announcement of an iWatch from Apple?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well no one will expect the iWatch to survive nearly eighty
years and work. With our consumable technology today it’s hard to find one of
those early brick mobile phones let alone some of the early portable PCs and
the life expectancy of many is a mere few years. However, it is possible to see
the iWatch as an evolutionary step to shrink technology, change app development
and create a fashion icon to rival the Sinclair C5, Delorean car, Google’s
Glass and others. But as an investment it is very high risk and not even a
gamble. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Apple has with the iWatch put a placeholder on the market re
wearable technology. The iWatch itself is not the first technology watch, remember
those very first digital watches and more recently the eink ones and even more
recently the competitors to the iWatch. Apple has the clout and the followers
to sell enough to cover their stake, but is it a game changer? Do you want to
buy the mark1 version knowing mark2 is probably in the labs today and it will
only have a life expectancy of some 2 years?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I look at my analogue Longines watch, it is a designer statement,
practical and been around for many years. Would I replace it with a clunky
piece of technology that says ‘look at me iam a geek’? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Wearable technology will happen but exactly how and when is
debatable and the challenge it has is that it now has to compete with
smartphones that can do everything it can do and much, much more. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Eink technology was transient and could never be anything
else than a monochrome offer in a Technicolor world, but they established
ebooks. Tablets were always going to be caught between the home and the
smartphone and when the smartphone fits into a pocket and laptops became
lighter and thinner, there was only going to be one mobile winner. Print on
demand would show the potential to do short runs but fail to deliver the
ultimate ‘distribute and print’ model.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So as devices themselves become ‘smarter’ and connected does
the smartphone become the communications hub as predicted by our friend and futurist
<a href="http://www.rayhammond.com/" target="_blank">Ray Hammond</a>? As Bluetooth and WiFi expand does wearable technology move close
to the sensor nodes and speech, gestures, image and smell recognition become
the real wearable technology?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jilloneill" target="_blank">Jill O’Neill</a>, Director Professional Development, NFAIS, raised a interesting comment ‘Why can't Apple
design and build the Star Trek tricorder instead?’ Now we both would be very
interested in one of them! <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-40441198143961611872015-02-20T12:04:00.001+00:002015-02-20T12:04:53.259+00:00So Who Is Watching and Listening To You?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPFJ_6PH084ojkqwIrBNtmLKNlAZ32dcFGIE7aYHcO2qOyY5kMTkbdWMu3YYs8hHm6gEpylgfmxNr82s7UnJU5xHw5j78Czvx7Ou2_KmxBhDa-V-PxmOwiwmjArDW2DyR0elf/s1600/1984-LG-84-inch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirPFJ_6PH084ojkqwIrBNtmLKNlAZ32dcFGIE7aYHcO2qOyY5kMTkbdWMu3YYs8hHm6gEpylgfmxNr82s7UnJU5xHw5j78Czvx7Ou2_KmxBhDa-V-PxmOwiwmjArDW2DyR0elf/s1600/1984-LG-84-inch.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We live in
a world of surveillance, moving ever closer to Orwell’s 1984. We are surrounded
by CCTV cameras on buildings, streets and inside shops, some would suggest that
our internet messages and activity is also being monitored under the guise of
national interest and data gathering by software providers on our every click
is commonplace. This new business of ‘big data’ appears to be morphing without
control and is often hidden deep within the small print that we don’t read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Last year
we reported on Adobe’s collecting of eBook reading information through their
service, which ironically was set up to protect copyright and the interests of
their clients - the publisher, but apparently not their other clients - the
consumer. LG was also discovered to be collecting details via some of their TVs
on their owners' viewing habits and on what devices were connected to their TVs
and was sending this back to the manufacturer, even if the users have activated
a privacy setting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Have smart devices
now become too smart? Does the technology allow others to look in and to gather
data and who and how can we control what we often can’t see and have not
authorised?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The latest ‘data
gathering news’ is about users Samsung Smart TV users who use voice activation
to control their Samsung Smart TV. It is now claimed that the TV doesn’t just ‘listen’
to commands but to everything that is said and may share what they hears with
Samsung or third parties, which is believed to be Nuance, the voice recognition
specialist. It’s like having a ‘Gogglebox’, or worse still Orwell’s vision in
every home. The users are unaware they are being monitored and although this
story broke via a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/05/your-samsung-smarttv-is-spying-on-you-basically.html"><span style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">story in online
news magazine the Daily Beast</span></a> it questions how big this iceberg may
be?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Samsung
policy states that the TV set will be listening to people in the same room to
try to spot when commands or queries are issued via the remote. It states: ‘If
your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that
information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However,
like Adobe, Skype and Viper before them, Samsung then send data to third
parties without any encryption!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Samsung in
its defence state ‘If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition
feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice
command search. At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which
searches for the requested content then returns the</span><span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> desired content to the TV.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">They also go on to state that, ‘Smart-TV
owners would always know if voice activation was turned on because a microphone
icon would be visible on the screen.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Does this same logic apply to other
voice recognition services which are increasingly being deployed on devices?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But it is not just about gathering
data but also about pushing unwanted data onto the consumer. Recently Lenovo was
caught out installing adware onto new consumer computers on initial activation
of the PC. The Superfish adware which injects third-party ads on Google
searches and websites without the user’s permission has subsequently been
removed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Data gathering is done for a number
of purposes; to help hone and target product and services to an individual, to
sell behaviour and interest information to third parties and to eavesdrop on
individuals. The problem is that the technology can often be the same and the lines
between moral and not can often blur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-51751421826727716762015-02-05T11:04:00.001+00:002015-02-05T11:04:37.454+00:00Where Libraries Are Sited Is As Important As What They Do?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHE-KSxUJTT7MNmpHHqwSqJafcCGqTyVGoR4rjDWXiLbQ_jsRD1KZZ1WRpFullmBMNbwT9NZxT8FpRaNz2koLU35_ikcdrSsr7oAn-6Cv3-rdqSy0AF6Zc62TF2d5rfPs5xJke/s1600/walmart-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHE-KSxUJTT7MNmpHHqwSqJafcCGqTyVGoR4rjDWXiLbQ_jsRD1KZZ1WRpFullmBMNbwT9NZxT8FpRaNz2koLU35_ikcdrSsr7oAn-6Cv3-rdqSy0AF6Zc62TF2d5rfPs5xJke/s1600/walmart-1.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwES13QLTXW4PPGvTp9tLrrE2TQbgyY5LpwayWqPNNS1QFzx4jTc9iDy1tzUMGNgyv4bkB7C4OF3yfJPJUTOYoffBjlSHkIg1T36lkOAdhgwopYiucpPTEze7fbfF0sSe193z5/s1600/walmart-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwES13QLTXW4PPGvTp9tLrrE2TQbgyY5LpwayWqPNNS1QFzx4jTc9iDy1tzUMGNgyv4bkB7C4OF3yfJPJUTOYoffBjlSHkIg1T36lkOAdhgwopYiucpPTEze7fbfF0sSe193z5/s1600/walmart-4.jpg" height="320" width="261" /></a></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">Public Libraries where
often built as large standalone buildings in the central Victorian and </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Edwardian civic centres, many of which
remain today. They then spawned local branches with the expansion of the
suburbs and even had mobile units to cater for the rural areas. Currently the
role and overall library offer is being brought into constant commercial and
digital question. Where should they be sited? What should they provide? What is
their role in the community? What is difference between local, civic and
national Libraries?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As UK retail profiles continue to
change The Local Data Company, which monitors 3,000 town and shopping centres
and retail parks, said 20% of shops in the North of England were now empty, compared
10% in the South and that 20% of the shops it tracked had been empty for more
than three years, amounting to almost 10,000 outlets. So we have retail space
and changing retail consumer habits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">However, it is no longer merely going
out of town. UK Supermarkets are having to rethink their store strategy and property
portfolio in light of the threat from the bargain market and from the quality
end. Big is no longer best and out of town </span><span style="font-size: 14.6666669845581px; line-height: 18px;">doesn't</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"> fit with changing consumer
behaviour away from the bulk buy to more frequent convenience shopping. The
likes of Tesco has named some 43 stores it is closing across the country. In
November, Sainsbury's said it was scrapping plans for new stores, while Morrison’s
plans to close 10 loss-making stores this year and there is now a growing
number of empty undeveloped space sitting vacant. However Asda, Lidl and Aldi continue
to expand but how long Asda will do so is debatable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So what has the changing retail habits
and property mix got to do with public libraries? This week we made aware of a
large WalMart store which was abandoned by the retailer in McAllen in the Rio
Grande Valley. The city took the bold step to spent $24 million and transform
the abandoned store into a 123,000-square-foot public library and community
hub. The building now includes a computer lab, a cafe, meeting rooms with
videoconferencing capabilities and a 180-seat auditorium. It effectively
released their old, cramped 40,000-square-foot main library, and placed it back
in the center of the community. The <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=American%20Library%20Association" target="_blank">American LibraryAssociation </a>and the<a href="http://www.iida.org/" target="_blank"> InternationalInterior Design Association, </a>were so impressed that they named it
the overall winner of their<a href="http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/ala-image-gallery" target="_blank"> </a><span style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://www.iida.org/content.cfm/ala-image-gallery" target="_blank">2012 LibraryInterior Design Awards</a> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" itemprop="articleBody" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://growfood-notlawns.com/city-abandoned-walmart-absolutely-brilliant-youll-love/" target="_blank">Click to read more about this </a><span style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://growfood-notlawns.com/city-abandoned-walmart-absolutely-brilliant-youll-love/" target="_blank">wonderful new McAllen community hub</a> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Across the US there are some 130
former Walmarts available and the question on how to reuse these and other ‘boxes’
is now being seriously looked at by all and the success of this and other
library community hubs is evident with visitors and activity. Not every ‘big
box’ is becoming a library and <span style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">there are many examples of transformations across the US. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There are many examples where
libraries have been located within shopping malls and this concept is not new
but the idea of shops within a library may be more novel. Another potential
opportunity is to tie libraries and social services into new housing
developments in a similar way to how social housing is tied into new developments.
This could mean that once a development area reaches a certain size or density
then those developments within that area are obliged to contribute a little bit
more to the community. Greenwich has done something similar in the new East
Greenwich development where it has relocated a public swimming pool, a public library
and small housing and social offices within a new private housing development. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Whether it locating libraries within
malls, creating malls around libraries, location libraries with new housing
developments or some other variant, the case is that libraries belong in
communities and should not be standalone propositions. Libraries need to do
more than simply offer access to books and other information and material. They
need to be designed and sited for the 21<sup>st</sup> century not the 19<sup>th</sup>
century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">InfoDocket Articles:</span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.infodocket.com/2013/05/23/library-in-a-shopping-mall-learn-about-the-mall-library-connection-in-vancouver-washington/" target="_blank">Library in a Shopping Mall: LearnAbout The Mall Library Connection in Vancouver, Washington (May 2013)</a></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="sweden: A Digital Public Library Located Inside a Stockholm Shopping Mall Will Open Next Year" target="_blank">Sweden: A Digital Public LibraryLocated Inside a Stockholm Shopping Mall Will Open Next Year (Sept 2013)</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="partnerships: Second Branch of BiblioTech %E2%80%9CAll Digital%E2%80%9D Public Library Will Open in a San Antonio Public Housing Project" target="_blank">Partnerships: Second Branch ofBiblioTech “All Digital” Public Library Will Open in a San Antonio PublicHousing Project (Dec 2014)</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Other Documents:</span></div>
<h1 class="entry-title" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php?title=Public_Library_in_Shopping_Mall" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13.5pt;" target="_blank">A List of some of the libraries located in US Malls</a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">.</span></h1>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://www.bigboxreuse.com/" target="_blank">Examples of Big Box reuse in the US.</a></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-77449807300884501722015-02-05T08:04:00.000+00:002015-02-05T08:04:37.798+00:00Alibaba Starts Drone Delivery Trails in China<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4RzNcnYPF2PedY_J0_DQjE0I3nuP8xgwLxIWohUdm7jmyupUj2ZslfMU7nW6LYTUPdczMxlQeTG4CDyj-aLJYFvzTFm9_666m2NbX9cfhxKRw3Cams2yVWbp2rPoyqI-4pCW/s1600/prime+air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4RzNcnYPF2PedY_J0_DQjE0I3nuP8xgwLxIWohUdm7jmyupUj2ZslfMU7nW6LYTUPdczMxlQeTG4CDyj-aLJYFvzTFm9_666m2NbX9cfhxKRw3Cams2yVWbp2rPoyqI-4pCW/s1600/prime+air.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Maybe the optimum size of a printed
book in the near future will not be determined by the print economics, but
instead will be governed by its weight and dimensions. Delivery of small
parcels such as books by drones may be science fiction to many, but it is
clearly on the agenda of some today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Last November, Amazon's Prime Air was
seeking UK Drone experts in Cambridge to help them test drones to deliver
packages on up to 2.3kg (5lb) in weight to customers within 30 minutes of an
order being placed. Prime Air adverts for engineers, software developers and
scientists were posted on Amazon's jobs site.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">When Prime Air was announced in
December 2013, Amazon said it might take five years for the service to actually
start and they already have started work in their R&D labs in Seattle. Amazon
is not alone in pursuing this technology, with others such as Google, UPS and
DHL all trailing services. As one would expect, safety is a major issue and tight
restrictions on the use of drones in the US have led Google to carry out its tests</span> <span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">in Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Now Alibaba, China's biggest internet
retailer has gone one step further and says it has begun actual testing of drone-based
deliveries to hundreds of customers. The three day trial will be limited to one-hour
flight destinations from its distribution centres in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou and also to orders of a specific type of ginger tea which conforms to
helping limit the weight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Looking out of the window today at
the wind, snow and low cloud, we wonder how many Prime Air flight cancellations
will not be due to heavy traffic over London, but down to British bad weather. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<a href="http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODg0MDgwNTgw.html?firsttime=0" target="_blank">To watch a Alibaba promotional video. </a></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-42698695457839283422015-01-28T22:14:00.000+00:002015-01-28T22:14:33.941+00:00Txtr RIP?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay4ToruwRUr4xDI1GpDZWCqGLlPVxroZO10lcj2SO3Gb8D4Be2Nv3ailpSUYvGIDgVvmwvoXiDrjagFuI5sYSZMzM804QTmWXg4wLVOJJPQKt5jagY_sIwr9wjPaJuglgWWvD/s1600/foyles_apps_5_7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgay4ToruwRUr4xDI1GpDZWCqGLlPVxroZO10lcj2SO3Gb8D4Be2Nv3ailpSUYvGIDgVvmwvoXiDrjagFuI5sYSZMzM804QTmWXg4wLVOJJPQKt5jagY_sIwr9wjPaJuglgWWvD/s1600/foyles_apps_5_7.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #141412; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Provisional administrator Christian Köhler-Ma has been
appointed to German ebook service provider Txtr.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Txtr provided ebook solutions to retailers such as
Foyles, device makers and mobile operators such as Deutsche Telecom. They developed
a large international repository of ebooks which they serviced through a cloud
based white label ebookstore and a comprehensive set of apps. Their service was
based on Adobe ACS4 DRM and they sold ereaders based on eink technology.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #141412;">At the time Foyles pinned its flag on Txtr in 2012, Sam
Husain, CEO said, “Our new eBook store and apps, </span>‘Foyles powered by txtr’<b>,</b> make
buying and reading eBooks as easy as possible, without the added expense of
having to buy new hardware. It is the next step in our on-going journey to
serve our customers with a choice of books, across the widest possible range,
in every format.” The question now is whether their customers will still
be serviced from a bankkrupt cloud?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Txtr developed ‘The Beagle’ which they launched in 2012.
The 5" device was designed to be paired with a smartphone and to be a
"companion reader" with smartphones and subsidized by new mobile
contracts. However despite the fanfare, the low price, it was too late to
market and came at a time when the smartphone and tablets were replacing the old
eink technology.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The txtr team launched Blloon, a new ebook
subscription service, which was set up as a separate entity and therefore should
not be impacted by the current situation. At its launch last summer txtr
founder Thomas Leliveld, said that, ‘Blloon aspires to offering a lower
cost ebook service in a market already crowded by Scribd and Kindle Unlimited.’
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blloon's subscription model is different and is based
on pages and a lower subscription price. Leliveld said at the time, ‘We aren't
offering an expensive ‘unlimited’ service simply because that isn’t the
demographic we are targeting. And people can only read so much. We’re welcoming
young people, the majority of whom currently read up to 12 books a year.
Providing a package that allows them to expand to two or three a month makes it
an attractive and affordable offering - without any compromise on the quality
of the titles. In time we hope it will encourage them to read even more.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 18.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #141412;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So as Blinkbox follows Sony and bites the dust it is
now to be followed by Txtr. The question is not how many more will follow but
what the impact these collapses have on consumer confidence not in ebooks but
in ebook services who may leave them and their purchases in the cold. These
events also strengthen the case for subscription services. However subscription
services may be able to be switch off like a tap and impact the consumer less
as he merely moves his subscription to another service</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-1738032061280000102015-01-28T14:25:00.000+00:002015-01-28T14:25:03.350+00:00Sly Stone To Finally Get Paid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdldevj1AlDM7zBNE1eWZTXp8zusTR4GKqh7hLh-tyTjej8Cj71KAm-fjjpa3l0zMsB83loB00JCgcRhcxArAF7xK0WfZNoziCfdcDt3y83hS_2OKV9wvErov1C6rZoSOcp8x6/s1600/slystone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdldevj1AlDM7zBNE1eWZTXp8zusTR4GKqh7hLh-tyTjej8Cj71KAm-fjjpa3l0zMsB83loB00JCgcRhcxArAF7xK0WfZNoziCfdcDt3y83hS_2OKV9wvErov1C6rZoSOcp8x6/s1600/slystone.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">The music industry history is littered with artists who claim they
were duped into bad contracts and not paid a fair amount. There are many that
claim that the internet is making things worse. There are those whose work
fails to earn out and find themselves locked into a perpetual agreement. There
are those who establish themselves only to find that the contract doesn’t
reflect the change and is </span><span style="font-size: 15.3333330154419px;">inequitable</span><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;">. Van Morrison claims he never earned a cent for writing and recording 'Brown Eyed Girl' and even penned a song, 'The Big Royalty Check'</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt;"> to vent his anger in later years. However, sometimes justice works and
those who need it and were duped out of it, get their reward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Sly and the Family Stone created a bridge between 60s and 70s
white and black audiences and between soul, R&B. pop and were the fathers
of funk and their driver Sly Stone was the most colourful of the band. Their
hits included ‘Family Affair’, I Want To Take You Higher’ and ‘Dance to the
Music’. They even appeared at Woodstock.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">However, Stone found himself owed millions of dollars in royalties
and has been fighting for some 5 years to get paid. Unfortunately, his fight
led to years of struggle with him even being homeless and living in a van in
LA. In 2013 an appeal was rejected that deemed BMI, Sony, and Warner were not
liable to pay and the argument moved towards events that took place back in
1989 when Stone signed his financial control over to his lawyer Gerald
Goldstein and the company Even St. Production.</span> He claimed that they had diverted
millions in royalties, leaving him unable to get the money he said was due him.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Stone, testified that he had not received any royalty payments
between 1989 and 2000 but attorneys for Goldstein and Glenn Stone contended
that the singer was paid millions, but broke an agreement to make new records. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">A LA jury has now found in Stone’s favour and awarded him $2.5
million in damages against Even St. Productions, $2.45 million against
Goldstein and $50,000 against attorney Glenn Stone. A total of $5 million. However,
the defendants claim that they will fight the ruling so the case unfortunately is
likely to drag on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-87703035136800404932015-01-28T09:37:00.000+00:002015-01-28T09:37:33.783+00:00Maybe Harris Should Drink Some Costa Coffee?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzhab5A0BIg1ZDEwc3TusmWYJ6MBFwte9w_YOIR-9h2wloMK5M8P3A9PiBjqiNO00URaAsDCoyCrW8AAeoOEjF7RkH3apY9udSumZVbt5nJQkfsMur8nwu41QmNm4FYTVBkXP/s1600/costa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvzhab5A0BIg1ZDEwc3TusmWYJ6MBFwte9w_YOIR-9h2wloMK5M8P3A9PiBjqiNO00URaAsDCoyCrW8AAeoOEjF7RkH3apY9udSumZVbt5nJQkfsMur8nwu41QmNm4FYTVBkXP/s1600/costa.jpg" height="145" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">What is
more important and best for books, a group of intellectuals sitting round a
table, or on a couch, talking about a book, or a good adaptation on film which
clearly references the works, or a short story competition that stimulates
thousands? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Best-selling
author and chairman of the Costa Book Awards judging panel, Robert Harris, obviously
thinks the couch and in announcing the £30,000 Costa Book of the Year, used his
speech to criticise the BBC and its approach to books. He yearned back to the
good old days when audiences grappled with Robert Robertson and Melvyn Bragg,
often pontificated about the plot and characters in books. Days when authors
sat on couches in the limelight and long and obscure words were more frequent
than on Countdown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There
have been significant successes and at its peak Richard and Judy made respectable
numbers. Oprah made a huge impact in the US. BBC at both national and local radio
levels often promotes books through its programming and even with dedicated
slots such as on the Simon Mayo show. When publishers promotion and marketing works,
slots on prime time are available through the likes of the One Show, but there
has to be something more than just another story. One only has to look at the
huge appeal of crime, mystery and thrillers on TV and correlate this to the cult
type following some authors of this genre now have. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #282828; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">However
the corporation does not have an obligation to provide shows just to promote
authors and books perched on a couch. Some would suggest that on the night, Harris,
was merely playing to his publishing industry audience, others that he is sadly
out of touch. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-79805978662571029502015-01-27T13:44:00.001+00:002015-01-27T13:44:09.713+00:00Wise Investment: Kieron Smith or Blinkbox ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7LUNTP1t8MPcRaU6nbxgWGe0zPfc7nomji-ozS7v9OvyIYzXP6WgiVBbu9D9kxMtJlocxoAXjgiHMrBayr5EcfB486C0BV-yQPA6_Shauor9lgFw04XGTEIAvMv05iDDWzgI/s1600/kieron+smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7LUNTP1t8MPcRaU6nbxgWGe0zPfc7nomji-ozS7v9OvyIYzXP6WgiVBbu9D9kxMtJlocxoAXjgiHMrBayr5EcfB486C0BV-yQPA6_Shauor9lgFw04XGTEIAvMv05iDDWzgI/s1600/kieron+smith.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">So would you invest in a service that still
has to prove itself or someone who has done it more than once and brings
ability to the table?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The troubled UK supermarket Tesco was forced
recently to refocused on its core business and as a result dropped its
potential universal media service offer Blinkbox. The film/video service was
acquired by TalkTalk for a reported £5million and Australian company Guvera entered
talks to buy the music service. This left the ebook business Mobcast, which it
bought for £4.5m from author Andy McNab and business partner Tony Lynch in September 2012. The Blinkbox ebook service only went live last March.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">So would you buy Blinkbox ebooks or look at
alternative ways to invest less for more?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Waterstones went for the acquisition to buy
the ebook business from Tesco, but they failed to agree and parted. We now have
reports that Kobo are after their customer list which is a good option provided
they are active, the sales generated are worth the investment, the data itself
is in good order and of course the price is right. However, customer lists are not
exactly million dollar purchases and list brokers could probably offer a
cheaper and equally attractive demographic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">So the clock continues to tick and the
question must be whether Tesco will let it go in a fire sale and write off the
debt or will continue to strive to find a home for either the debt or the
service?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">It hard to see how BlinkBox ebooks making the
return Tesco sought and decoupling the three media streams dilutes further any
value it had. Some would question how they had grown to 60 core staff, what on
earth they were all doing, the price they paid in 2012 and the level of effort
and cost they threw at it to rebranded it, repackaged it and re-staffed it. Some
would suggest a classic case of buying a pup and certainly something that they
could have achieved quicker and for less money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The markets often don’t follow logic and when
someone wants to participate they often lunge for a quick fix and buy what they
perceive is a good buy. Due diligence is often hard when its about perception, interpretation
and gut feel and none of the major UK supermarkets have been able to bring to
market an effective digital media service and with their current refocusing its
hard to see them trying too hard moving forward. Waterstones is likewise
refocusing and continue to show little appetite, or ability, to take on
digital. Some would suggest that buying Blinkbox was never going to fit
Waterstones whatever the deal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">So today we hear Kieron Smith is joining
Blackwells. Now that’s a smart move by Blackwells and considerably cheaper and
wiser than buying a service that you would only spend a fortune on, to take
apart, to fight a battle you aren’t going to win.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Blackwells has always had a good history of
digital investment and although they have had their own challenges and very
difficult markets they continue to press forward. By acquiring the man and not
the service, they bring in someone with very strong digital credentials who has
done it before in the trade and someone who has proven his ability to adapt and
could well add another dimension to their existing market segments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">As pointed out on Dragon’s Den it is often
the person that investors should focus on and the service or product may be a
bonus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-55389921158944625222015-01-27T11:49:00.000+00:002015-01-27T11:49:38.762+00:00'The Times They Are A Changin'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMLmGnyc2AdkTyP72rNBPxL_RIp10wGpN0ibATlY0oeEAQPuHbtWw7bycgiStlFz7y5cYfwdwOQ-Slb8i4H_cl6n8m5ocSHfjvC6gFHeDzN4vaePOzASfRhH38kEAsZ_nUzCg/s1600/neilson.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMLmGnyc2AdkTyP72rNBPxL_RIp10wGpN0ibATlY0oeEAQPuHbtWw7bycgiStlFz7y5cYfwdwOQ-Slb8i4H_cl6n8m5ocSHfjvC6gFHeDzN4vaePOzASfRhH38kEAsZ_nUzCg/s1600/neilson.png" height="289" width="320" /></a></div>
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Nielsen's
2014 annual review of the music industry has negative signs in front of chain
store sales (-20%), total new album sales (-14%), and sales of new songs online
(-10.3%), with only positive signs in front of streaming music and vinyl album
sales. This is despite CD sales in the US generating some $141 million last
year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Many
believe that the book trade should learn from the digital revolution that is
taking place within the music business. The reality is that the music business
is very different and right across the music business there is both evolution
and revolution. Some changes happening quickly and completely killing off the
past, whilst others are slowly evolving. From creator to consumer digital
change is taking place. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We
see many changes at the consumer end. Technology has replaced the preceding technology.
Eight track was replaced by cassette, cassette was replaced iTunes, iTunes downloads
was usurped by MP3 downloads, which is being replaced with streaming on demand.
This is without the parallel evolution from MTV to YouTube and the growth from
digital internet radio stations and music discovery services such as Shazam. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Music
owners have in the past been forced to replace their collections, but the new
streaming technology now questions why they would want to reinvest yet again
when it’s all available on demand. On demand is itself is fuelling
subscription. The changes are logical but the speed of change is significant
and the redefinition of ownership has enabled many to rediscover vinyl whose
sound was of a higher quality, but its market share is still only 3.5%. When we
first started this blog we thought Spiral Frog would capture the new market,
but they failed to cross the line and their place was taken by Spotify.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Spotify
now claim 35 million songs on their service and there are many more renditions
now on services such as YouTube and SoundCloud. But even with this enormous
repository of songs many still go unheard whilst others, like butterflies have
one season in which they flourish. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When
you look at the production, distribution and business, change is often less
revolutionary and more evolutionary. Social networks and self-promotional marketing
are starting to eat away at the mid list. Unless you are in the top 1% which
generate 80% of the money, then you may have to rely on the hit makers which now
are TV driven by talent shows such as The X Factor, The Voice, Pop Idol. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To
be a hit, you now need serious financial backing, or social pull. With these
changes come changes in the reward structure for all. Some will say that there
are now too many sticky fingers in the diminishing pot. So artists are having
to rethink the old models and balance greater control and percentage of revenue,
against lower revenues and often chump change return. A good friend and musician
commented to us only this week that selling direct gave them 100% whilst
scattering to the digital unknown gave them little. Merchandise, concert
revenues and secondary rights are growing in importance. This impacts how
artists are managed, make money, record and distribute. It changes where the
producers and labels make their money and the increases the importance of the
back catalogue and Intellectual property.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So
can books learn from music? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The
consumer end is very different and what is clear is the physical book isn’t
going away in all sectors and will retain a major share of the market whilst
the distribution economics can support it. However, like music the pot is not
growing but changing and this is putting similar strains in the production and
development area of the value chain. There are many similarities here with respect
to back list, mid list and front list and self-publishing. Even signed authors
are having to work harder on their social skills as publishers rein in the
marketing and promotion to focus on the best shots. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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The
one thing that all media segments share is the polarisation of value at either
end of the value chain and reducing influence of the middle to many.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-74992074560326454622015-01-23T00:20:00.001+00:002015-01-23T00:20:59.728+00:00Kindle Self-Publishing eTextbooks Offer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRlmn5ZMPrJ2l693goPC-rSYtaGfAzBUSUg2D0Ar3U-EWxLEzE_ctT8aV7OFfylLa_m4qcgPD4honnBqMzymv3-82YIYn6JjBj_QR6lCSFNIBuXAft868Qp-VuLop9_7iHzU7M/s1600/kdp+edu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRlmn5ZMPrJ2l693goPC-rSYtaGfAzBUSUg2D0Ar3U-EWxLEzE_ctT8aV7OFfylLa_m4qcgPD4honnBqMzymv3-82YIYn6JjBj_QR6lCSFNIBuXAft868Qp-VuLop9_7iHzU7M/s1600/kdp+edu.jpg" /></a></div>
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The internet age has started to enable classrooms without
walls, or even borders and promote the leading educators to engage with all
students. But is this reality today or merely technology waiting to be adopted
and adapted and fighting much educational technology inertia? We have the same curriculum
and exams, but an often significant variance between how students are engaged,
motivated, learn and achieve the standards sought.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Learning resources, such as textbooks help teachers to
deliver the lessons, but can now technology allows them to do it smarter and
more consistently?<o:p></o:p></div>
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One approach comes from, The Stephen Perse Foundation in
Cambridge. They are a leading UK private school and the current ‘Independent
School of the Year’, boast some of the best results in England and have announced
that they are publishing 12 digital multimedia textbooks for IGCSE biology. The
textbooks will be available to download free online from Apple's iBooks online
store to use on iPad tablet and cover an entire exam syllabus. The course is
currently taken by some 500,000 students in 160 countries. They also plan to extent the list to cover
other topics such as molecules and enzymes and animal nutrition and already
claim to have had a significant market response to their 100 course they have
made available through iTunes U courses.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Today Amazon announced another new approach via KDP EDU, or what
they refer to as Kindle Textbook Creator. This is aimed at empowering all to
create eTextbooks and other educational content that is enhanced with digital
features such as notes, flashcards, bookmarks and highlights. Content can be prepared,
published, and promoted as eTextbooks alongside and other learning material and
all can be access on tablets, iPads, Android tablets and smartphones, Macs and
PCs. This venture could therefore allow the best educational authors to do it themselves,
to self publish and lead to an explosion of material and provide choice. But
who will determine the good, bad and indifferent?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Kindle Textbook Creator claims to make it easy for ‘anyone
to take any PDF and create a richly featured and widely available eTextbook.’ Kindle
Textbook Creator will offer authors royalties potentially up to 70%, while
keeping their rights and maintaining control of their content. They can also enrol
their books in KDP Select for additional royalty opportunities like Kindle
Unlimited and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and access to marketing
tools like Kindle Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions.<u5:p></u5:p> But are
these potential extras real opportunities for this material, or false
incentives to lure authors?<o:p></o:p></div>
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It is often said that each of us has a book inside us and
self publishing is unlocking many of these today in the trade market. But does
every teacher have a textbook inside them and will this start to unlock these
or will the lure of the reward still deter the best to stick with the
traditional route.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So which publishing model will prevail, the self published,
the traditional, or the best school? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Many big questions remain. How will Amazon police copyright,
through the implementation of plagiarism-detection services and links to
registration databases, to ensure copyrighted material, be it text, pictures,
artwork, graphs etc doesn’t merely just get ‘cut and pasted’ into a new work. How
will quality rise to the surface and will there be a mass adoption of ‘my
textbook, teacher notes and associated material, or will the majority opt for
the tried and tested and publisher underwritten option? Will a flood of
resources effect the current pricing and
drive down or raise the cost of traditional material?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Today there should be no reason why the standard of
education is governed by location, your purse or access to materials and
resource. Yet education is still localised, standards vary and engagement is
down to individuals. Facilities such as TED Ed and the Khan Academy are viewed
with skepticism by many, some would suggest that the curriculum is more geared
to robotics than to learning and the take up of technology varies significantly
in spend, application and quality. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To learn more about publishing textbooks through KDP, or to
download Kindle Textbook Creator, visit <a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fkdp.amazon.com%2Fedu&esheet=51024270&newsitemid=20150122005170&lan=en-US&anchor=kdp.amazon.com%2Fedu&index=2&md5=eb9372d334f47331a2bc0af5271abd46" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">kdp.amazon.com/edu</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<u5:p></u5:p>
<u5:p></u5:p>
<br />
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To learn more about <a href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/8216-Living-8217-textbooks-released-Apple-iBooks/story-25889110-detail/story.html" target="_blank">The Stephen Perse Foundation’spublishing programme.</a><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-59575878166566046672015-01-20T20:54:00.000+00:002015-01-20T21:00:43.517+00:00DRM Is Not A Binary Decision<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fV3YLYMml7JRiYcKsOq4amIR9jwALqLjFvryjQbCmafbKLfU52tQuoBQPGcFq1V-gt0JmYYlDSk3eQRxMrPnIAGKfYTUMrxyvTmvx98WaTpj4MkCXVwcmviN78fSVUYo5Lrz/s1600/binary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6fV3YLYMml7JRiYcKsOq4amIR9jwALqLjFvryjQbCmafbKLfU52tQuoBQPGcFq1V-gt0JmYYlDSk3eQRxMrPnIAGKfYTUMrxyvTmvx98WaTpj4MkCXVwcmviN78fSVUYo5Lrz/s1600/binary.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consumer rights with respect of ebooks
continue to be up in the air.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Only last week, Sony, the prime driver for
Adobe’s ACS4 adoption back in 2006 said that they were coming back into the Digital
Rights Management (DRM) market.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This week the Electronic Frontier Foundation
announced they have commissioned the vocal DRM opponent, Cory Doctorow, to take
on DRM technologies that they believe threaten security, privacy, and undermine
public rights and innovation. The objective of their <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Apollo 1201 Project, is claimed to be "a mission to eradicate DRM
in our lifetime."</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Named after the US Apollo space prograame which
took some 10 years to achieve what on its creation was viewed by many as an
impossible mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is certain is that the DRM that today
inhibits consumers ability to transfer files between the various ‘walled
gardens’, is going to either change radically, or be unilaterally be removed. It
is hard to envisage what we have today as being sustainable over the next decade.
The EFF mission goes past ebooks and is aimed at games, apps, video and all cases
when DRM inhibits interoperability. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">EFF raise the issue of <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201"><span style="color: #699fb3; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Section 1201</span></a> of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which outlaws the circumvention of copy
controls. They agrue, ‘That ban was meant to deter illegal copying of software,
but many companies have misused the law to chill competition, free speech, and
fair use. Software is in all kinds of devices, from cars to coffee-makers to
alarm clocks. If that software is locked down by DRM, tinkering, repairing, and
re-using those devices can lead to legal risk.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However as we have argued many times DRM is
not and should not be a binary decision, where DRM is either on or off. We
should look hard at the whole issue not just one element and we look at opportunities
as well as threats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One issue that must be addressed is provenance
of ownership. In ebook terms look at this as an’ex libris’ stamp that can be
traced back to the sale. It doesn’t have to be invisible and it may be open to abuse
but if validated could revolutionise the ownership versus licence position and
enable the first sale doctrine and resale of ebooks. This may be apporant to
many in the trade but if watermarking soft DRM is not adopted then this door
shuts whilst the stable door of DRM is potentially flung wide open. Some would
say a very stupid situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The resale of ebooks is currently being fought
out in the Dutch courts where Tom Kabinet is being challenged by the Dutch
trade. Tom Kabinet which to resell ebooks and offer a service similar to ReDigi
is try to establish in the music market. The court has instructed Tom Kabinet
to close temporarily as not all titles can be proven to have full provenance of
ownership. So the courts may take a different position if such a position could
be established. The door is half open to the trade to create an opportunity, or
to blindly slam shut and rejoice in potentially a false victory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt;">
<span style="color: #263034; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Judith Mariën, a Tom Kabinet’s founder, said
that she believes that despite the court verdict, it is ‘good news’ in that the
court ruled that the site’s basic business model is essentially legal. <br />
<br />
What is important that the trade start to think consumer, think service, think
and avoid closed doctrine and protectionism for the sake of protectionism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-4472407621669413342015-01-18T06:36:00.001+00:002015-01-18T06:36:23.254+00:00Should the Underground Offer Commuters an eBook Library?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1CFZ1Zv60Yk0BWHH4UeU3CEvo-nQ1WMo4LhO40j7DY9DoN5b1vJbpa3DWIPNCJIrCYuEm0vKX16pabZEpAWU4CdBdwgV8mvEFYhQ4q4ng_jOgqtJSShnPrpXf8A2nKdsrKWF/s1600/beijing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1CFZ1Zv60Yk0BWHH4UeU3CEvo-nQ1WMo4LhO40j7DY9DoN5b1vJbpa3DWIPNCJIrCYuEm0vKX16pabZEpAWU4CdBdwgV8mvEFYhQ4q4ng_jOgqtJSShnPrpXf8A2nKdsrKWF/s1600/beijing.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">Imagine getting
free access to an electronic library when travelling on the tube. Well that is
what </span><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">travelers</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"> can now enjoy on Line 4 of the Beijing metro.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The metro lines carriages
feature barcodes which people can scan with their tablets or smartphones and
this then enables them to select from a selection of books. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Howeve,r there are some obvious challenges today. Firstly there is only a choice of ten books and these historical Chinese texts. This may be a novelty today and prove too restrictive
for many tomorrow. Next, the books are planned to change every couple of months, which
obviously gives anyone who starts close to the end of the cycle a reading challenge.
Finally, the length of the texts is not clear, but if they were say the length of
UK and US titles, it may prove uninviting to those who don’t commute every day, or whose journey is relatively short. Again it is unclear whether the books are
downloaded or read online, so the question of offline, or off rail, reading is
also unclear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, if we
ignore the questions raised and focus on the opportunity we can see the potential
for others to adapt the proposition for other commuter communities in other cities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Imagine the highly successful London
underground poems all being available to introduce many to poetry and give that
daily food for thought. Imagine sample chapters being promoted by publishers to
stimulate interest in their latest titles and not just the bestsellers. Imagine
a new novel being introduced Dickens style by serialisation. Imagine a library linked to the city's public library, or the national library and allowing lending on the move to those that are entitled to the service. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The question of whether it is a public or private or joint service is an intresting one but should not be a barrier to encouraging reading.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 13.5pt;">The opportunities are
not restricted by technology, as it exists today, but are only restricted by the vision
and commitment to enabling </span><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 18px;">travelers</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 13.5pt;"> to enjoy reading. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://news.cntv.cn/2015/01/14/VIDE1421179798818944.shtml" target="_blank">To see the ChineseBTV News Channel report (it’s in Chinese)</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-16171939675465183762015-01-17T16:13:00.001+00:002015-01-17T16:13:57.333+00:00Apps versus the Mobile Web<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DEHy890577xIGoYw7_5InWfgbO_nSa-d5flziCLS-uXi0eBjj1DKuHPQUS0rZTSJ3q9eU4V9eChoC9-kKqY8wb6HNdgMdiHUBedCwUg5nOOh9Jc206PmDzIC3x4CeJBXGlo0/s1600/apps+versus+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DEHy890577xIGoYw7_5InWfgbO_nSa-d5flziCLS-uXi0eBjj1DKuHPQUS0rZTSJ3q9eU4V9eChoC9-kKqY8wb6HNdgMdiHUBedCwUg5nOOh9Jc206PmDzIC3x4CeJBXGlo0/s1600/apps+versus+web.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Unlike that old question, ‘which came
first, the chicken or the egg?’, we know the answer to which came first, the
web site, or the app. But will this be the case in years to come and are we now
starting to redefine the development process and presentation, not based on
chronological order but on fast evolving mobile needs?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The IBA have just published a survey
they commissioned from Harris Poll, who collated the views of some 2,000 US
adults in December 2014. The survey questions some of the conclusions made by
an earlier comScore, which claimed that 88% of consumer mobile time is spent in
apps, while some 12% is spent browsing the mobile web. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The IBA findings identified that
there were many variances between; search, shopping, news and local directory
information activity and whilst users may have a preference in one activity
they may have the opposite in another. There is then the web use that is in
fact ‘web access hidden in app clothing’, where the app is merely a link to
open web material. Is this an app preference, or a web preference? Finally,
there were some interesting findings on how users find websites, with online
search understandably scoring highly 54%, word of mouth 29% and social media
26%.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, the interesting question all
is raises is on how we develop the user interface for tomorrow? We have an
abundance of technology, applications, mobile technology and stakeholders. The
question is how do we deploy this and maintain control, auditability and yet
serve those both within and outside the organisation? Yesterday we built ERP
empires that tried to encompass all users, all needs and all to one database, using
one technology and one presentation. They worked for the internal user but
lacked the external user interface and presentation. Importantly they tried to
handle everything transactional, media and stuff and although business to
business activity worked well they often failed to deliver to an ever growing
consumer interface need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In many ways we now have a very diverse
repository of information, transactions, content and context and stuff which we
can liken to a house. We all look through different windows into the house we
see different things according to the window we look through. The kitchen
window will be different to the bedroom and that will be different to the
bathroom and so on. Same house different perspectives. The trick is that we
have just capture and process stuff once and store it once but use it many
different ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Yesterday we viewed a prototype app
for a new service yet to be launched and were taken aback, not because it did
something we didn’t expect, but because it presented it in a way we had never
expected and one that broke the shackles of the old transactional application screens
and the web ones too! We remember when we developed a new elibrary in 2006 and
were impressed with how Adobe had presented their Digital Editions offer and
adopted a similar look. How dated that now appears and this is not because of
the web, but because of the demanding new mobile world, devices and the emergence
of the app. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The greatest challenge is not
segmenting the different presentation needs, or ensuring that the centre serves
all, but in segmenting the activities and views and deciding which takes precedent
over the other. Does the dog wag the tail, or the tail the dog? Do developers
share, or need to share common ground across all presentations? Do we deal with
the transactional activity separate to the other activity? Do we build lots of
apps, or one app with potentially many children? Do we build the app then worry
about the other stuff. Or build the internal view then worry about the external
one? Does the app presentation now impact and influence the other
presentations? Have we gone past rows and columns and want animation and
graphics?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What is clear is that what we see
today will be presented differently tomorrow and therefore the investment may
have to be repeated as the environment in which it lives evolves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The smartphone is now starting to impact what we see, access
and how we do things and this will surely now drive development and refine the
balance between web and app access but app design will drive web design moving
forward.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.iab.net/media/file/IAB_Apps_and_Mobile_Web_Final.pdf" target="_blank">Click to read IBA report</a></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-49088231974457195262015-01-16T13:34:00.002+00:002015-01-16T13:34:38.085+00:00Google Without Glasses and Going to Bits <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1C1QNn8MNQOpbCQ8XVQxbE9V7bpI1-9ZjyS_QfgWezOmQwZ4r0ThsEDvXNnCFlkMLsUxBmth_fTgdcod5EEh7ajumcXwSStG6WwP_ADtjWLbInQ2s8fG1sw956GMi5DnwUyXU/s1600/google+modular.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1C1QNn8MNQOpbCQ8XVQxbE9V7bpI1-9ZjyS_QfgWezOmQwZ4r0ThsEDvXNnCFlkMLsUxBmth_fTgdcod5EEh7ajumcXwSStG6WwP_ADtjWLbInQ2s8fG1sw956GMi5DnwUyXU/s1600/google+modular.jpg" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;">All technology has a </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">life cycle</span><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;"> which
starts with creation, through; prototyping, adoption, adaption, development and
finally obsolescence. Some make the full cycle others stumble at first base. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;">Today we read that the much publicised
Google Glass eyewear technology is to be effectively pulled by Google in its present
form. Future versions will be pursued, but by a different division and those who
shelled out $1,500 (£990) will now be owners of the latest ‘Delorean’
technology, which obviously will now become a </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">collectible</span><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;"> novelty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Glass initiative was
launched in the US in 2013 and UK last year, but was plagued with a number of
issues. The cost was viewed by many as too high, the battery life was poor and
getting consumers to adopt it and drop those features they already had on their
smartphones was proving hard. Maybe the look was just wrong and screamed ‘Nerd
and Geek’ at everyone brave enough to don a pair.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The other challenge was privacy
and although they gave the user visual access to information in a ‘hands free
environment’ they also recorded stuff ‘hands free’ which gave those running
public places and those concerned with privacy, many concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">So will the mass take up of
wearable technology happen based on peripheral devices, or will a Pranev Mistry
‘sixth sense’ approach be based on smartphone hubs prevail? Why wear a smartwatch
when you can project the time onto anything or see it on the smartphone? How
will wearable glasses take a selfie? Voice and audio are already here today on every smartphone so that only leaves smell and touch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Google has dismantled the smartphone and are to introduced a modular phone which allows consumers to buy functionality in a firmware ‘pick and mix’ fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;">You want a camera you can select
potentially one of a </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">number</span><span style="line-height: 13.5pt;"> of specifications and literally plug it onto the smartphone. You want different speakers, batteries, displays, application
processor, wireless connectivity, blood-sugar monitors, laser pointers, pico
projectors, they all just plug onto the phone and will be held into the shell
by magnets. Its like selecting your firmware options and is aimed both at
giving the consumer choice but also at making upgrading potentially very
different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Google claim that the objective
is to make a smartphone more attractive to the five billion people that currently
don’t own one. It would also prolong the life of many phones and potentially that has a big market challenge when the current life of a phone model is two years. However, by changing the emphasis from model to module it may differentiate Google from their rivals <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 13.5pt;">Google has chosen Puerto Rico to
launch its modular offer. Puerto Rico was "mobile-first" with some 75% of its internet access
being via mobile devices. There are also more than three million mobile phones in use in the country. Google also benefits as the country is under US Federal Communications Commission
jurisdiction and this obviates any later issues getting a solution into the US market.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So the role of the smartphone is strengthened and ways to
offer choice are now being developed. We can’t help wonder how much some would
pay to have their own module for Prime users?<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-55652159539842160402015-01-08T14:05:00.001+00:002015-01-08T14:05:52.850+00:00Jellybooks Introduce ePub Reader Analytics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pWKM9LkVDV2NuTuFjXbc9UmjYf9dT5rYsl-7cZ8aDgf0-4uuf7OJXTbbpv3UCBtMFCmO9n5OsON0sQUcKEjWYaBnUEBk66K5oj97XV3nX0bicdH2TU8nutCS8vh8vl0MX2qw/s1600/jellybooks_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-pWKM9LkVDV2NuTuFjXbc9UmjYf9dT5rYsl-7cZ8aDgf0-4uuf7OJXTbbpv3UCBtMFCmO9n5OsON0sQUcKEjWYaBnUEBk66K5oj97XV3nX0bicdH2TU8nutCS8vh8vl0MX2qw/s1600/jellybooks_1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The buzz is currently is about big data, or collecting very granular
consumer and transactional information and then being able to analyse it. The
results may help spot trends, aid development, identify detail which was
impossible to compute, or even recognise using traditional methods. As we
gather more and more data, the trick is to exploit it in a ways that improve
the product, enhance the consumer experience and increases revenues or
profitability.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It sounds simple, but it isn’t.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The first challenge is to collect the data, the second is to be able to
analyse what you probably don’t know, but assume you do, the third is to
develop the results such that they make a return. Many companies have laboured
over toolkits such as Google Analytics. Many have seen the money going out the
door but not necessarily seen the return coming back in. Today it often seems
that everyone and anyone who can spell IT and marketing are offering ways to
analyse this, raise that and increase everything.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Now Jellybooks claim to have cracked the analytics for ebooks on 3<sup>rd</sup>
party apps with their new Reader Analytics, which allows book publishers to
analyse how their customers read books across third party reading apps and
devices. Jellybooks will be giving a sneak preview at Digital Book World next
week, aimed at the publisher and utilises either their own invited focus groups
and or Jellybooks’ own subscribers to analyse know users’ reading habits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Andrew Rhomberg, founder of Jellybooks describes the Reader Analytics
as, ‘An ePub analytics tool for the smartphone, tablet, eReader generation that
works offline and with 3rd party apps and aims to understand how consumers
interact with ebooks that they buy through Kindle, iBooks, Kobo and the like.’ It
effectively records the reader’s progress against a title, identifying when
each new chapter is opened, the reader’s reading speed, the length of the
reading sessions, the time of day when the title was read and when the book was
abandoned or finished.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, this sort of analysis and level of information has long been
available to some publishers. Whilst services providing online digital
libraries, inspection copies attached to ecatalogues or synchronised walled
garden environments have tracked every click. With the inspection copy they
know not only what was inspected and shared with others, but importantly
whether the copy was even opened.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">So what is different with the Jellybook offer?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In accepting a free book and enrolling in a focus group, participating
readers agree for their personal reading data to be analysed. There is both a
potential strength and also a potential weakness. Firstly, like the consumers
that agree to be on TV monitoring panels, it captures real users but in doing
so we analyse the known, not the unknown. People who read books today are
likely to read the book and will continue to read other books tomorrow. Those
who are part time, or no time readers, will remain unhooked. Maybe the offer of
a free ebook could entice new readers but will their habits be the same when
they have to pay for the book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Rhomberg also notes that, ‘A truly unbiased tool is only possible with
an approach that forces cookies and tracking software on users without their
consent. That is neither legal, not morally justifiable in our view.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Some Marketeers will claim that focus groups often exist to reaffirm
their presumptions and often don’t serve an independent perspective. Others
believe that they are vital market testers. The problem is that it’s all too
often, six of one and half a dozen of the other.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Jellybook book community which claims some 60,000 avid and
passionate readers clearly offers more scope and can generate its own reading
groups.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">But again does it pass the ‘is it wise dotcom test’?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Trade books, which are going to be the majority of those within the
scheme, tend to be one off works so offer marginal editorial improvement unless
they are pre-press galley copies. However, simply adding more ‘editors’ to the
mix surely could potentially dilute not enhance the work. On the other hand,
the potential marketing input on the positioning the work could be of benefit,
but only if there is suitable elasticity in the marketing budget to respond.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">There is the question of the exposure of the pool of pre-press books
available and whether there is risk associated with opening this up to the
Jellybook community to potentially see all new books on offer and how this
would be policed such that these are all genuine independent readers and not
potential competitors? It may matter little today but tomorrow will they
potential have input to affect the final cut and if not why are they there?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">After publication the benefits in fictional work start to diminish as
sales and money will speak louder and further titles within a series will be
either contracted or down to performance to date.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">So forgetting the technology and functionality, is the Reader Analytics
to become a pre-press testing market tool, or a post publication one? Is it
technology looking for a home or a business need applying technology to resolve
it? Rhomberg says, ‘We put so much emphasis on it being a pre-publication
tool, precisely, because we think it has the most value and can lead to
actionable results at this stage. In today’s industry the demand after
publication is much, much more limited.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We remember when we provided a major academic publisher with a
potentially huge data bank on every click made by every student and academic.
This was across a significant digital library at both work and chapter level,
as well as the same information against digital inspection copies. Needless to
say they were interested in who didn’t open an inspection copy, but where less
interested in discovering the digital needle in the haystack. Perhaps times
have changed and one would expect and hope so within that market and some
others too, but we feel trade fiction is different. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We wish Jellybooks well with their new service and
it will be interesting to see how it develops and is adopted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Here are more detail on the Jellybooks tool for </span><a href="http://authors.jellybooks.com/epub-analytics"><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">authors</span></a><u><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">,</span></u><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span><a href="http://authors.jellybooks.com/epub-analytics"><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">publishers</span></a><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> and how to </span><a href="http://analytics.jellybooks.com/"><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">sign up</span></a><span style="color: #72716a; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-11019094452042764302015-01-06T10:17:00.000+00:002015-01-06T10:17:09.676+00:00Signed Copy of The Bible<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Somehow we think this may be a mistake!</div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35428618.post-58599526380378882872015-01-05T09:45:00.000+00:002015-01-05T09:45:18.126+00:00Bookshop Beacons Across The UK?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQZ5DkOlO1NzN_eNqns8AGHEhBh5ojsjAhgEWo4N9_ng1WuRGOG-l_LqYhyphenhyphenN6-x6uvedNhQ91Ylx6jZ9q5P7WEaENePiD6sBDanVTgTE70tI6v4NqHQwxrjGQU4i-NPdwhB-Ra/s1600/book+beacon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQZ5DkOlO1NzN_eNqns8AGHEhBh5ojsjAhgEWo4N9_ng1WuRGOG-l_LqYhyphenhyphenN6-x6uvedNhQ91Ylx6jZ9q5P7WEaENePiD6sBDanVTgTE70tI6v4NqHQwxrjGQU4i-NPdwhB-Ra/s1600/book+beacon.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Forrester Research claim consumers
are using tablets in their living rooms (67%), bedrooms (60%) and even their
kitchens (42%), but smartphones are used more on the go, including in the car
(68%) and of course, in retail stores (68%). This presents smartphones with a
real opportunities to use new beacon technology to give consumers access to a mass
of information, such as prices and locations whilst they are in the street,
store and on the move. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Imagine walking down your High Street
and you receive a message telling you the butcher you are about to pass has a
special 3 for 2 joint offer today. Next you pass a clothes shop that
immediately informs you that you could get a personal offer today on a similar shirt
to that you bought last month. Then you pass a bookstore that informs you that
your favourite author’s latest title is just in and is on special offer to you!
Then you’re in a department store and approach
a display which recognises you and tells you about what is on offer and send
you a special voucher. Maybe you are at a bus stops, or looking at street
adverts, or in a tube station and are directed towards a specific shop before you
even go anywhere near it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Already some supermarkets and
department stores are trailing this new beacon technology. UK Department store House of Fraser is
trailing beacon-equipped mannequins in its Aberdeen store. Aloft Hotels are
testing beacon technology, which will allow customers to unlock hotel doors
after they check in and potentially remove the whole check-in process. The
Crown Estate, which owns Regent Street, which includes retailers such as Hamleys,
Longchamp, Burberry, Banana Republic, Hugo Boss and Anthropologie, will
introduce the new smartphone application that takes advantage of the technology
to deliver discounts, new-product promotions and other alerts to the
smartphones of shoppers as they walk past stores and restaurants. Over 100
stores in Regent Street have already been fitted with the technology. UK
retailer Waitrose is trailing the technology in their Swindon store. Finally,
under pressure supermarket Tesco is
aiming to use the technology improve customer service and personalization offering
alerts on click-and-collect orders and enabling consumers to pinpoint the
location of products on their shopping lists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Beacons are a low-cost,
micro location based technology, which utilises Bluetooth technology to
communicate between smartphone apps and beacons. The technology can also provide
retailers with invaluable data about their customers’ shopping habits as well
as the activity of their staff. This information can improve store layouts,
flow as well as promote products and offers. The Beacon technology appears now
poised to surpass and deliver what many thought would be achieved via <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/aug/29/five-tips-retail-mobile-payments"><span style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">near field
communication</span></a> (NFC) technology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">However, before we all run out to
install beacons, retailers need customers who want to use them and trust that
their personal information is secure. The customers have to first download and
install a smartphone app and there is the issue of how many apps a consumer needs.
While customers may be happy to download an app for a couple of retailers, they
might not want to download an app for every shop they visit. This may be
overcome by retailers integrating their technology with common popular
third-party shopping apps such as PayPal or PriceChecker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 16.8pt;">So will we see a UK Bookseller Association app and beacons switched on for business in independent and BA member shops across the UK? This would be a
novel way to promote the local book store and its titles and offers. Not as </span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">independents</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 16.8pt;"> but as part of
a national book group and even offer opportunities to further integrate other customer
services. They could even sell ad space to publishers and authors to contribute towards it. However it is more likely that we shall see large stores such as WHS,
Waterstones, The Works adopt the technology whilst the independents sit on their hands or look around for a technology partner to do it for them. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Martyn Danielshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134633193540004531noreply@blogger.com0