Peter Bennett
Peter Bennett develops iPhone apps and advises companies on mobile strategy through his company Hablantia.com. He was a founder of a publishing business that grew rapidly and profitably, but didn't quite live to see its 10th birthday. In previous incarnations he has worked for the BBC in corporate strategy, and has written management reports on technology issues for the FT.
Apple is Now a Phone Company
Apple reported stunning results for the last quarter, and it has clearly become a dominant phone company in a very short space of time. John Gruber from Daring Fireball has the real punchline, but his analysis of the results is excellent reading as a whole: The entire iPhone platform is only 15 months old. The cheapest model still costs…
Newspaper Chain Refuses to Renew AP Contract
The Tribune Company, owner of 10 newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, has given the required two years' notice to suspend receipt of Associated Press news. Tribune's move follows cancellations from a number of other papers. From Editor & Publisher: The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which…
BBC Shifts Conversation Style: Go Where They're Already Talking
I think this deserves to be pondered. BBC News is moving away from merely hosting comments to inciting discussion in a variety of formats and locations. From Reportr.net: For the US presidential debates, it [the BBC] has opened channels on video services Qik, 12Seconds and Phreadz. Some of the videos were subsequently edited and posted on the BBC News…
Do Publisher Brands Still Have Relevance?
Kate Eltham espies HarperStudio, asking whether they should have a separate Web portal/site, or just operate with a blog. She wonders: can a publisher drive a brand these days? Or just authors? What would make the return on investment worthwhile? Personally, growing up, discovering reading, I remember some imprints with fondness, and I might see their name as an…
Orphaned Works Find No Home in House
Wired's Threat Level blog notes that the orphan works bill is likely dead on arrival in the House of Representatives after a positive vote in the Senate, as a result of the wee little fiscal problem confronting the country: The act changes the rules and reduces and sometimes nullifies damages for infringing uses of so-called "orphaned" works as long…
A Plea for Passion in Museums
This is a great post about passion for when we talk about our profession, about what we are all trying to do, whether we are librarians, technologists, publishers, or work in museums. It speaks to why libraries and museums often feel "dead." From Museum 2.0: Museums shy away from presenting passionate views. It's ironic that we expect visitors to…
10 Things Ebook Merchants Should Offer
Jane at Dear Author has a wonderful list of 10 things ebook merchants should be providing as a matter of course. Here's just one example, but read the whole list: Buy a for a friend. The only site that offers this feature is Fictionwise. Amazon does not even offer this for Kindle which makes no sense. When a reader…
CEOs Must Have API Literacy
With the release of the expanded Google Book Search application programming interface (API) presenting new opportunities and decisions for publishers, Adam Hodgin argues for API-literate CEOs: Why does it matter whether your CEO knows what an API is? It matters because publishers (and newspaper owners, TV networks, film studios, content makers of all shapes) are not going to allow…
Stanza E-Reader Catching On with iPhone Users
VentureBeat writes about the success of Lexcycle's Stanza e-reader for the iPhone, and speculates that this type of platform will be far more successful than dedicated reader devices: Stanza is currently the number one ebook app for the iPhone, and chief operating officer Neelan Choksi shared some other impressive stats with me. In its first six weeks, Stanza was…
Library Uses Tags to Link Online-Offline Recommendations
LibraryTechNZ mentions an interesting engagement of a European library with its community, something that bookstores could also do: The library at the Hague in the Netherlands has introduced a simple form of tagging in real life. They now have two returns drop-boxes. One is for all items, and the other is for amazing books. Staff take the 'amazing' books…