All Change At Tools of Change

Often knowing when to stop and move on is harder than continuing to plough the same old furrow.

Last week Tim O’Reilly decide to call it a day on his well respected ‘Tools of Change’ adventure. 

Many applauded him for the work he had done in moving the digital agenda forward, whilst others said he should continue and owed it to his follows to keep up the work. We are not able to say what tipped his thinking to flip his attention elsewhere, but will say that we should never expect any party to go on forever.

Tools of Change arrived at the right time. It fed the appetite of many to understand the emerging digital landscape and listen to those breaking new ground. It certainly pulled together the brightest and reshaped the Book Fair World. We attended one of the conferences and found ourselves wondering what all these folk attending would be doing, or adopting, if they didn’t have this focal point?

Does the shutting up of the Tools of Change mean we are fully conversant with digital and change? We would suggest not and change is all around us. But it does signal the end of the beginning and the question now is as what follows and how will that help shape our thinking. Perhaps it signals the end to the mega conference, which in our opinion is probably well overdue, but again we have thought that for a long time. Perhaps it signals an end to the ‘payola’ conference where money can buy the platinum sponsor a speaking slot, a booth, literature in the delegate pack and even if they have little to say. We refused to be drawn into this sham circuit with its often predictable group of speakers and luvvies.

Perhaps it draws an end to the constant barrage of conferences and pulls them together around major Book Fairs.

Others will step into the void and some are already doing so, but are they merely replicating the formula or adding new ingredients?

We remember Richard Charkin shutting up his blog, which was insightful but often more a mixture of social insights and executive travels than a commendatory on digital advancement. Then Evan Schnittman took off those Black Plastic Glasses and said we are now digital time to put this pen down. Now Tools of Change is moving on.

It’s ironic that this last month we have written nothing. Were we missed? Did the digital world stop spinning? Probably we were the ones most frustrated and itching to write about so many things, but we found ourselves not with writer’s block as much as a desire to get on with something different.

We have just announced our Read Petite venture with ex Chief Editor of the Bookseller, Neill Denny, Agent and broadcaster, Peter Cox and founder of Waterstone’s Tim Waterstone. We found ourselves wanting to write about Read Petite at the expense of all else. That would clearly be wrong but how do we balance the industry commentary with what we feel so passionately about?

After some 2,200 blogs, we have decided it’s not time to move on but it is time to start to rethink what we write and how we communicate it. It’s a bit like when Bibliophile started t do video reviews to supplement the text ones. We saw the power of the visual the passion of the reviewer and realised that text reviews are good but are only they because that was the only way we could effectively express them. Today music is about YouTube more than it’s about iTunes. Conferences are more about TED than packing a room full of delegates and collecting money of the speaker’s companies. Commenting on change is about effecting it and helping it happen than writing about it.

So where Do Read An eBook?

So we think we have to compete with the usual suspects for leisure and entertainment time? However it is clear that people’s habits young and old are changing. When there was nothing on TV they may have picked up a book but now not only is there an explosion of channels, music and radio on demand but tv is no longer restricted to a schedule.

The UK’s media regulator Ofcom claim some 29% of UK adults on the internet now watch or download TV programmes or films on demand and the majority of the usage is via the highly successful catch-up services of traditional broadcasters such as BBC iPlayer.
They also claim digital TV takeup among UK adults now stands at 89%, 73% have access to the internet and 91% own a mobile phone.

It was interesting to compare these significant numbers with those disclosed at TOC Frankfurt by Lexcycle COO and founder Neelan Choksi who claimed that 32% of ebooks where read in bed and a further 27% whilst commuting. This clearly shows that reading could be being squeezed hard by our apparent continued love of the TV and growing connection to the internet.

Tools of Change Lands At Frankfurt

So Frankfurt started with a full house at the inaugural Tools of Change conference at Frankfurt. All the right people were there and the expectation was high. The conference certainly was different to the usual pre fair ones and was focused squarely on the digital agenda and publishing. It was a long day crammed with much thought provoking presentations and dialogue. We thought that three conference/ meetings on the same day would be overkill but it worked.

One of the breakout sessions, with standing room only, was on the forthcoming Google Editions, which is an extension of their partner program. However the question on our lips, was what Google really wants to be when it grows up?

Not content with being the global library they want to be the global, search source, marketplace, bookseller, wholesaler and left only publisher and author undisturbed. Editions will fully embrace publishers, resellers and consumers with all content being supplied by Google on the online and cache model proposed under the book settlement. The potential conflict with the settlement service drew a ‘no comment’, but was on many lips.

There were many questions raised and we found pondering how territorial rights be effectively expressed and managed, on how Google checkout will deal with the various taxation issues and the list pricing supplied by publishers, how the single eISBN advocated will work. What is clear is that Google will own the digitised work.

The service will be advertising free, so the only revenue will be from book sales and all three business models presented will give Google a sizable chunk of the value share and in one case pit them squarely against aggregators and wholesalers and in others, against retailers. However when you are the source of all content then that isn’t a problem but an opportunity.

Sara Lloyd in her keynote speech said that there were three big players in the market. Google obviously think that is one is enough.

Interesting times and we must be careful what we wish for…

February 9th - eReader Day

We have written on Plastic Logic’s ereader which first surfaced at last year’s CES show and has taken a year to market. This is good news as it is clearly aimed at the ailing newsprint and business document market.

We have also reported on the Kindle 2 which is expected to be announced in New York on the 9th February, but what we didn’t expect was that both the K2 launch and the Plastic Logic reader would appear on the same day and in the same city. Yes PL plans to launch their device in New York on 9th February at the Tools of Change conference in New York.

We would ask if this is wise? It certainly will raise the column inches on both announcements but what will consumers make of two potential heavyweight offers squaring up to each other on the same day, in the same city? Bezos will have the consumer eyeballs and PL ,by their choice of venue, the technology attention.

Expect one to talk books and education and the other newsprint and business and the consumer to read about it all via their news alerts and on their iPhone.

What Every Woman Wants?

Harlequin have launched a survey at better understanding their women readers and their thoughts on ebooks. As one of the trade’s leading ebook publishers and with a very strong female following the results will be very interesting.

The Tools of Change Conference in New York, February will discuss the results in a panel session called “Smart Women Read eBooks”.

The question we loved was number 12, ‘It has been suggested that one reason women buy and read ebooks is the "brown bag" factor -- hiding the covers and titles of books that might be embarrassing to purchase and/or read in public. Is this a consideration for you? Any comments?’

To view the survey click here