Onto week two in our Tech Forum podcast series! In this episode, we have Mary Alice Elcock from BitLit, who spoke about the hybrid reader and ebook bundling.
Bookish behaviour and the benefits of bundling
Are Canadians still reading?
At this year’s Tech Forum, Kevin Ashton presented on new technology and “How to Survive the Ebookalypse.” He began by saying, “We live in an age of paranoia about reading and publishing, but that’s actually not a new thing.” Undeniably, the industry is in state of transition and print sales are down. But much like the invention of the paperback format, technology will not destroy reading. Instead, Ashton argues, “Technology is feeding literacy and literacy is causing a need for new technology.”
Tech Forum and ebookcraft wrap-up
Creating is ordinary
It’s the end of reading as we know it (and Kevin Ashton feels fine). The author and coiner of the term “the internet of things” will be coming to Tech Forum on March 12 to tell us how we can all survive the Ebookalypse.
In the meantime, you can read about the very ordinary, human act of creation in this excerpt from his new book, How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery.
Engaging teachers
Information Doesn't Want to Be Free
In his latest book, Information Doesn’t Want to Be Free, Cory Doctorow, science fiction author, activist, journalist, and blogger, identifies three “iron laws of information age creativity, freedom, and business, woven deep into the fabric of the Internet’s design, the functioning of markets, and the global system of regulation and trade agreements.”
He’ll be discussing these laws in detail at Tech Forum this March, but in the meantime, you can read about Doctorow’s Third Law in this excerpt from the book.
How conversion architectures can benefit book publishers
A tale of two cultures
As more and more publishing houses bring in talented digital employees, there’s a likely clash of cultures on the horizon. How can publishers with their rich history work alongside technologists and their history of “disrupting” everything? Designer and developer Derrick Schultz takes a look at the future of the people behind the books.
