When Stephen Abrams came to the BookNet Canada Technology Forum 2008, he spoke about the popularity of Second Life Library. (Stephen’s slides and podcast here). It turns out Second Life isn’t just for people wanting to visit a virtual library—it’s also for researchers who want to be able to simulate library interactions between books, patrons and RFID technology in 3D space.
No More E-Books for eBay
As of April 29th, eBay will no longer sell downloadable items:
“We’ll be banning all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically from being listed in any format on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie”
Amazon Goes Proprietary on POD
BookTour: Watch Your Favourite Authors from Space!
Identifying Power Law Curves (Is a Long Tail Really Long and Tail-Like?)
It is official. “Power Law” and “Pareto Distribution” have become two of the most misused, abused, and pundit-mangled statistical terms around. Not ringing any bells? Power law distributions are often referred to as “Long Tails,” of Chris Anderson/Wired magazine article fame.
Quamut: Where Wiki Meets Bookstore Meets How-To
While the exact definition of a Barnes and Nobles Quamut remains unclear to my non-Millenial brain, I would venture that the term stands for what happens when you throw Home Depot, Wikipedia and a big chain bookstore into a blender and then hit ‘Combine’.
E-Books: What Do You Own?
Gizmodo pulled together a great synopsis of a learned and high-fibre article from the Columbia Law School’s Science and Technology Law Review. It deals with the difference between buying and licensing and what that means to consumers of dowloadable e-books.
