Its that time of week again, and this week blogs come under the spot light - also super injunctions....
Blogs. Awesome things they are; easily searchable, debate stimulating and current. But as this weeks lecture revealed, not without their flaws. Largely their flaws relate to trust issues, a blog is not fact checked or reviewed by anyone but its' author - this means that they could say anything with out having used actual sources or facts. Even this and the blogs before it could be a stream of lies, but they're not honest :). This trust issue is not helped by the anominity blog authors have, taking further credibilty away. The second flaw of blogs is the amount of control, techincally, legally and informationally organisations such as governments can have over this suposedly free form of communication. This can be seen in China, where sites and services are blocked by the government restricting users ability to comment freely, http://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/internet-control/ . This can also be seen in Iran during the recent elections, when the government there clamped down on its citizens abilty to communicate with eachother nad the rest of the world technologically. Blogs are also being targeted legally, recently Italy tried to pass a law that would make bloggers forced to register on a national database, and libelous for anything they write - further reducing the freedom the blog embues users with, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/23/italy_blog_law_outrage/. Due to the nature of the blogisphere news travels fast, both true and false - organisations have the potential to plant blogs and spread their own threads and ideas.
All that is very negative regarding the blog, lets not forget bloggings recent defeat of that strange, dark and essential wrong creature the super injunction. A super injunction on toxic waste dumping by oil company Trafigura was violated by bloggers, exposing the practice when conventional media couldn't. In Charlie Brooker's words this was a 'significant victory for freedom of speech' but what else has been hidden by a super injunction?! Its worrying that something like this can exist. Whats equally worrying is the development of 'injunction pr', this can be seen in the Media Guardian (19/10/09) with the recent case of the new Danone yoghurt flavour launch which put an injunction on the story ending up with it getting signicantly more attention. The practice is to be fair genius, but just like the boy who cried wolf abuse of this could result in actually important stories covered by injunctions being over-looked in the future. Anyway enough with the rant, RSS feeds were also mentioned in the lecture,and imporve the blog through the navigation and notification they provide users.
Desite the negative comments about blogs I do believe they are a highly effective amd beneficial tool in todays culture. After all that I think its time to go, come back next week for random e-publishing related blogging :).
Friday, 23 October 2009
Sunday, 18 October 2009
The Third Lecture: lulu and the wonders of self publication
Its late, I'm sleepy and both of these are my own fault - but Marcus Brigstocke on in the background so its all good
Good stuff check it out, anyway here's some thoughts on self publication via lulu (http://www.lulu.com) and how it can be turned into a successful project.
Lulu.com is a site that allows any user to create and publish a text ready for sale, similar to Author House (http://www.authorhouse.com/). Services such as this add a new element to publishing, although this can be seen as vanity publishing which has traditonally not been looked on favourably by the publishing industry. What Lulu offers adds a new aspect to publishing and combined with archive projects such as Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page)offer literature a second chance. It also offers another advantages for publishing, last weeks blog mentioned how 10% of companies publish 70% of the worlds books, and this is something self publishing can challenge providing a sense of potential. It could add a greater degree of creativity and orginality to the publishing industry, and also a greater degree of freedom. However in the words of Dylan Moran a little potential can be a bad thing, the publishing value chain adds important skills and processes to the production of the artefact. The value chain adds key aspects like proofing and type setting which are key in quality control.
And this is where skills will need to be learned to turn this service into a successful project for the module's assignment. In order to use Lulu to make a success students such as myself will need to learn the skills the publishing value chain adds. During the first attempt I neglected proper formatting and sizing of the orginal word document, which has a big effect on the end project. This is just one example of how self pubishing can result in a poorer quality end product and highlights how important learning the correct skills is. In order for this project to be successful students will need to type set and format the documents, design covers, price and then make preparations for marketing amongst other things. The combination of these skills would result in a proffesional looking artefact which could rival the produce of big publishers. The application of these skills will also highlight the importance or otherwise of publishers, giving a deeper understanding into the publishing process. The report based on the creation of this artefact will be an effective account of how well these skills have been aquired and applied, and so how successful the project has been. Through the reports accounts of self publishing conclusions on its practicality and effective will be able to be drawn, as well as insights into its positive and negative impacts on literature as a whole.
Thats all now, come back next week for more e-publishing related talk :).
Good stuff check it out, anyway here's some thoughts on self publication via lulu (http://www.lulu.com) and how it can be turned into a successful project.
Lulu.com is a site that allows any user to create and publish a text ready for sale, similar to Author House (http://www.authorhouse.com/). Services such as this add a new element to publishing, although this can be seen as vanity publishing which has traditonally not been looked on favourably by the publishing industry. What Lulu offers adds a new aspect to publishing and combined with archive projects such as Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page)offer literature a second chance. It also offers another advantages for publishing, last weeks blog mentioned how 10% of companies publish 70% of the worlds books, and this is something self publishing can challenge providing a sense of potential. It could add a greater degree of creativity and orginality to the publishing industry, and also a greater degree of freedom. However in the words of Dylan Moran a little potential can be a bad thing, the publishing value chain adds important skills and processes to the production of the artefact. The value chain adds key aspects like proofing and type setting which are key in quality control.
And this is where skills will need to be learned to turn this service into a successful project for the module's assignment. In order to use Lulu to make a success students such as myself will need to learn the skills the publishing value chain adds. During the first attempt I neglected proper formatting and sizing of the orginal word document, which has a big effect on the end project. This is just one example of how self pubishing can result in a poorer quality end product and highlights how important learning the correct skills is. In order for this project to be successful students will need to type set and format the documents, design covers, price and then make preparations for marketing amongst other things. The combination of these skills would result in a proffesional looking artefact which could rival the produce of big publishers. The application of these skills will also highlight the importance or otherwise of publishers, giving a deeper understanding into the publishing process. The report based on the creation of this artefact will be an effective account of how well these skills have been aquired and applied, and so how successful the project has been. Through the reports accounts of self publishing conclusions on its practicality and effective will be able to be drawn, as well as insights into its positive and negative impacts on literature as a whole.
Thats all now, come back next week for more e-publishing related talk :).
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Lecture Number Two: Publishing and the issue of rights
In light of the lecture, this weeks entry is gonig to maybe a little more formal with all kinds of interesting links an facts - good times i think you'll agree :)
In the lecture the idea of rights, who owns what and how uncertain these two things are in todays digital age really caught my attention. It seems wrong that someone can pay for and download a book to a Kindle and then have their rights to read that book removed. This abilty and the general state of flux the issue of rights seems to be in is arguably a negative impact of technology. This also represents a new power available to publishers allowing them even after selling/distributing the content to have control on it. Although this would seem like a pointless power as if the other processes such as aquiring rights and processing he finished article shouldn't need recalling.
Having said this the internet and digital technologies are also improving publishing. the fact that 10 companies control 70% of publishing is entirely wrong so cases such as that of Robin Sloane (http://robinsloan.com/)are very refreshing! This is a man who funds himself and publishs himslef, destroying the idea of the publishing value chain. To this end I disagree with comments made in the lecture that publishers are still key, Robin Sloane proves that they are not a key requirement. Digital developments will make it easier for people such as Robin Sloane to self publish - whilst this will cause quality concerns due to the lack of input achived by a publisher it will foster a system which encourages stronger and more creative/progressive literary output. This also reduces influence from the big ten publishing companies allowing for a greater amount of opinions and voices to be heard.
The progess in digital technology i believe (based on my 2 whole lectures experience....) will lead to a reverse where publishing will return to something more similar to the 'cottage industry' described by J. Epstein in 'The Rattle of Pebbles'(http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=1321). The issue of rights will become more important as time goes on, and this is an area I definantly want to look in to in more detail. One way forward has been spelled out by blogger Cory Doctorow is creative commons - already used on music and picture files. This is a system which already works and has the potential to please both corporations and creative indivuals. He also speaks of small monthly charges in return for file sharing in fields such as music. You can read the article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4112004.stm.
I think this will end the most factual and lengthy blog I've ever written. Random big word: synthesesing - confused me greatly lol. Nos da.
In the lecture the idea of rights, who owns what and how uncertain these two things are in todays digital age really caught my attention. It seems wrong that someone can pay for and download a book to a Kindle and then have their rights to read that book removed. This abilty and the general state of flux the issue of rights seems to be in is arguably a negative impact of technology. This also represents a new power available to publishers allowing them even after selling/distributing the content to have control on it. Although this would seem like a pointless power as if the other processes such as aquiring rights and processing he finished article shouldn't need recalling.
Having said this the internet and digital technologies are also improving publishing. the fact that 10 companies control 70% of publishing is entirely wrong so cases such as that of Robin Sloane (http://robinsloan.com/)are very refreshing! This is a man who funds himself and publishs himslef, destroying the idea of the publishing value chain. To this end I disagree with comments made in the lecture that publishers are still key, Robin Sloane proves that they are not a key requirement. Digital developments will make it easier for people such as Robin Sloane to self publish - whilst this will cause quality concerns due to the lack of input achived by a publisher it will foster a system which encourages stronger and more creative/progressive literary output. This also reduces influence from the big ten publishing companies allowing for a greater amount of opinions and voices to be heard.
The progess in digital technology i believe (based on my 2 whole lectures experience....) will lead to a reverse where publishing will return to something more similar to the 'cottage industry' described by J. Epstein in 'The Rattle of Pebbles'(http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?inpopup=true&id=1321). The issue of rights will become more important as time goes on, and this is an area I definantly want to look in to in more detail. One way forward has been spelled out by blogger Cory Doctorow is creative commons - already used on music and picture files. This is a system which already works and has the potential to please both corporations and creative indivuals. He also speaks of small monthly charges in return for file sharing in fields such as music. You can read the article here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4112004.stm.
I think this will end the most factual and lengthy blog I've ever written. Random big word: synthesesing - confused me greatly lol. Nos da.
Thursday, 1 October 2009
1st Lecture
This is the first blog of the semester for E-Publishing. Starting at 11 the lecture jarred slightly with the freshers schedule but least it leaves time for a small lie in :).
The lecture was interesting to be fair, and full of random new terms like 'disruptive technology' and 'POD', which always help to drag your attention back from the window. If anything the lecture has proved how complicated publishing is how uncertain its future is. The lecture also highlighed how vague and numerous definitions of E-Publishing are, something which will hopefully change as the course develops. Although this said this vagueness probably helps the mediums involved in E-Publishing to be more free harder for corporate control which is no bad thing in a world of Rupert Murdoch.
All I need now is the book and it looks like E-Publishing is going to be good interesting times ahead. This ends the most purposeful blog I think I've ever written, and i hadn't even got to the fact that I'm the only boy yet (giggidy?). Although clearly my attendance of the lecture is driven by a love of E-Publishing...
Laters
The lecture was interesting to be fair, and full of random new terms like 'disruptive technology' and 'POD', which always help to drag your attention back from the window. If anything the lecture has proved how complicated publishing is how uncertain its future is. The lecture also highlighed how vague and numerous definitions of E-Publishing are, something which will hopefully change as the course develops. Although this said this vagueness probably helps the mediums involved in E-Publishing to be more free harder for corporate control which is no bad thing in a world of Rupert Murdoch.
All I need now is the book and it looks like E-Publishing is going to be good interesting times ahead. This ends the most purposeful blog I think I've ever written, and i hadn't even got to the fact that I'm the only boy yet (giggidy?). Although clearly my attendance of the lecture is driven by a love of E-Publishing...
Laters
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