b.cognosco
Most Popular
- Historical Yearly Average Gasoline Prices
- Outlook 2003 Message-ID Insanity
- Real-time Sand Animations
- Adobe Acrobat 7
- Adobe Announces Name Change and New Product
- Largest Technology Boondoggle in Public Education History
- Yahoo! Buys del.icio.us
- Skype - Disruptive, Not Compelling
- Aluminum Christmas Tree Museum
- Network Printing Hell and windoze XP
Book Reviews
Recently
Monday, April 4, 2005
The Spy That PDF'd Me
It was only a matter of time before all the structured, linked, DRM’d functions of the proprietary PDF format were tied back into a low-cost, low-burden, viral tracking mechanism. It seems likely PDFzone author is right to suggest this is just the beginning of a movement to make PDFs increasingly invasive. PDF is a great tool when used properly, but look for this to become a real issue and a battle cry for the anti-PDF crowd. Be interesting to see what, if anything, Adobe does with this.
Me? I dunno. I’m not sure I’d buy a PDF that required me to be connected to open it. Rather defeats the purpose, IMO. But it’s likely most sellers won’t disclose that little tidbit before the sale. Found via Privacy Digest. Read the whole thing at PDFzone.
PDF Tracking On the Way
PDF Tracking On the Way. (el)Capitan.Nick writes "PDFzone reports that the company Remote Approach has launched a service to track the movement of PDF documents with its tool Map-Bot. The purpose of this service is to allow PDF publishers the ability to measure their audience, as web publishers can already. Though personal information is not gathered from machines, IP addresses are. PDFs can require users to be connected to the Internet in order to read them, and every person you email the PDF to is subject to the service. As PDFzone's opinion article states, while 'the chances of running into a Remote Approach PDF right now -- and in the near future -- are pretty remote ... the potential for the technology to tarnish PDF's image [of security] is staggering.'" [Slashdot: Your Rights Online]
Terry Frazier at 2:30 PM
| Permanent Link
| Trackback URL | Categories: Future of Print, Security, Technology
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Google Print Program
Yesterday Google announced it has struck a deal with several major university libraries. According to this DMNews article the deal covers scanning and digitizing more than 15 million books and documents from Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford and the New York Public Library. Yesterday's Talk of the Nation on NPR featured Michael Keller of Stanford and Brewster Kahle in a great discussion of this development. The library program is part of Google's larger Google Print program, which offers services to major publishers as well as libraries.In today's WSJ there is an article on Random House looking to begin selling its books online, direct to consumers. This is a big step for publishers and, as the article notes, a step being considered to fight the growing power of the mega-retailers. But if we consider the digitization of books via Google in context with this, it potentially begins to change the way people locate and buy books.
For years I've felt the book retailers were becoming the new libraries -- they have books on display, reading areas, and snack bars to keep readers comfortable. But they rarely carry anything more than 12-18 months old. What if libraries became the new booksellers? Not literally, but libraries will keep books available for years, and if the excerpts are all available online and can be ordered easily via the publisher there is less and less need for the retail store.
I need to think about this more but it seems to me that these two developments are related, and together they are more important than either taken individually.
Terry Frazier at 11:41 PM
| Permanent Link
| Trackback URL | Categories: Books, Business & Finance, Future of Print, Strategy
Friday, October 29, 2004
RSS and the Money Trail (or is that Tail?)
The long tail, the money trail, and the continuing rise of RSS as part of the "blog for money" game get a legitimacy boost from Wall St. firm Morgan Stanley.Morgan Stanley on the Potential of RSS
A group of Morgan Stanley analysts, led by the esteemed Mary Meeker, have released a report on the impact of 'next generation content' (PDF) . The report is focused on RSS, and more specifically how Morgan feels that Yahoo, since their implementation of RSS on 'My Yahoo', is headed towards becoming a sort of Associated Press for digital media. It contemplates potential business models for revenue sharing between Yahoo (or whoever the content aggregator is) and publishers (bloggers in many cases). The report is very well done and I highly recommend reading it, especially if you're a blogger.
One of the main points that the report discusses is monetizing the 'tail of content'. There was a great article about 'the long tail' in last month's Wired magazine that is also a must read. That article gives some great insights on the business models of Amazon, eBay, NetFlix, etc. There's a lot of money to be made in the 'tails'.
(Morgan Stanley link via MaoXian) [via Trader Mike.]
RSS is at the tipping point, and will likely make a rapid transition from early adopter/geek tool to mainstream distribution channel. With that will come all the headaches associated the other mainstream distribution tools -- advertising, business models, complexity, etc. But there is also a lot of opportunity awaiting those who do it right.
But I'm not at all sure that the opportunity is for the traditional mass media channels -- after all, to them RSS is just one more way to push the same stuff out. Most are looking at it as a new way to drive website traffic, sending out teaser copy laced with ads -- not a very appetizing offering to someone like me. But some are taking innovative approaches to delivering special value to their customers. If the big boys can really figure out how to deliver personal value they have a chance. Now I'm off to read the Meeker Report.
Terry Frazier at 2:50 PM
| Permanent Link
| Trackback URL | Categories: Future of Print, Strategy, Technology
Syndication
Contact
Presence
This Page was last updated: Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:06:57 GMT
