Friday, May 19, 2006

The Future Of Books, Business & The Web

PSFK: The Future Of Books, Business & The Web: "There was an important in-depth article in the New York Times magazine this weekend which looked at the future of books. By reacting to the current controversy around Google's scanning of books, the article's author and Wired magazine founder, Kevin Kelly, explores the evolution of not only the printed word but media itself. He argues that technology will overcome any barriers that are placed to protect the concept of making money from a 'copy' - and therefore new business models need to develop. Here are some of the interesting snippets: On who will benefit from the scanning: Bill McCoy, the general manager of Adobe's e-publishing business, says: Some of us have thousands of books at home, can walk to wonderful big-box bookstores and well-stocked libraries and can get Amazon.com to deliver next day. The most dramatic effect of digital libraries will be not on us, the well-booked, but on the billions of people worldwide who are underserved by ordinary paper books. It is these underbooked — students in Mali, scientists in Kazakhstan, elderly people in Peru — whose lives will be transformed when even the simplest unadorned version of the universal library is placed in their hands. On the two..."

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