Two to start:
Mary Meeker’s 2011 Internet Trends slideshow is out: http://www.kpcb.com/insights/internet-trends-2011
Denis G. Pelli & Charles Bigelow. 2009. “A Writing Revolution” Seed Magazine. http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/a_writing_revolution/
In his two-part Transforming American Newspapers, Vin Crosbie holds that newspapers went from being the primary provider of information in an information-scarce world (a position they held for hundreds of years) to being one voice among many, without the newspaper industry ever being apparently conscious of this shift. Our fundamental relationship to information — and particularly the kind of information we read has shifted radically.
…the majority of Web users visit newspaper sites only a few times per month but visit a search engine multiple times per day. (Crosbie)
The kind of information paradigm made possible by mass production presupposes a mass audience. And mass communications was the paradigm of the 20th century. But, Crosbie argues, this is over. We are no longer members of a mass audience.
Will books suffer the same crisis of abundance over scarcity? This past summer, R.R.Bowker reported three times as many new self-published titles as traditionally published titles beginning in 2009. See Hugh McGuire’s article, Sifting Through All These Books.
Enhanced Ebooks – A fad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUqe9u56Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlhosnfP-Jw
Much is made of the so-called “enhanced” ebook these days. the capabilities of tablet devices driving much of the hype and imaginative possibilities.
But do we want enhancements? A recent BookTwo post by James Bridle suggests we don’t want extra stuff in our reading experience.
It occurs to me that there are at least a couple of creative sensibilities at work: one is what we call “literary,” exemplified in things like novels and essays. Another mode is what we might call “cinematic”–think documentary film.
Most “enhanced” ebooks and apps are a blend of the two. It appears to be simpler to elegantly add literary elements to basically cinematic productions than the other way around–but who knows?
What is a graphic novel?
