Rough Type: “Why publishers should give away ebooks”

Buy the atoms, get the bits free. That just feels right - in tune with the universe, somehow.

There's a lesson here, I think, for book publishers. Readers today are forced to choose between buying a physical book or an ebook, but a lot of them would really like to have both on hand - so they'd be able, for instance, to curl up with the print edition while at home (and keep it on their shelves) but also be able to load the ebook onto their e-reader when they go on a trip. In fact, bundling a free electronic copy with a physical product would have a much bigger impact in the book business than in the music business. After all, in order to play vinyl you have to buy a turntable, and most people aren't going to do that. So vinyl may be a bright spot for record companies, but it's not likely to become an enormous bright spot. The only technology you need to read a print book is the eyes you were born with, and print continues, for the moment, to be the leading format for books. If you start giving away downloads with print copies, you shake things up in a pretty big way. Nicholas Carr

It’s a bold idea – not very likely to see the light of day anyway – except…

I don’t really need both formats and I would certainly prefer the electronic version over the printed, for practical reasons if not in support of the environment. Given the choice between a printed-ebook bundle and ebook-only I would probably always go for the ebook. I rather like a suggestion from the comments to implement new strategies where pricing is based on usage, not asset sales – something similar to streaming for music. Think about it: how often do you read a book twice or more? You could regard the price you pay for the book as buying the right to read it once. Since reading a book takes much, much longer than listening to a song, it makes more sense to pay for single use than for unlimited access. It’s like trying out the book before buying. Loved it so much you just need to go through it again? Want to lend it to someone? Sure, pay for it a second time! This way the really good books get rewarded and the publishers and authors get a clearer picture of what people enjoy. Monthly subscriptions also come to mind…

Update: it looks like some services are already doing that, even though it’s German content and iOS only for now.

Amazon is also getting into the game, along with other start-ups.

Robert Harris - Marioneta

Într‑o Anglie aproape identică cu cea contemporană, trăind sub spectrul terorismului, un „scriitor din umbră” este angajat să finalizeze memoriile fostului prim-ministru britanic Adam Lang după moartea bruscă a predecesorului său în această poziție, Mike McAra. Cariera lui Lang a fost controversată din cauza sprijinului necondiționat oferit de acesta politicii externe americane și războiului împotriva terorismului, ajungându‑se până la acuzații de crime de război din cauza răpirii și torturării unor suspecți de terorism în timpul mandatului său. Presați de timp și dornici să profite de atenția publică generată de posibilul proces, editorii memoriilor grăbesc orarul publicării și trimit noua umbră la reședința actuală a lui Lang pe insula Martha’s Vineyard. Aici umbra se trezește în mijlocul atmosferei tensionate înăuntru de un triunghi amoros între Lang, soția Ruth și Amelia Bly, detașată de la Oficiul Guvernului, și de presă și un cerc de protestatari în afara zidurilor. Iar discreția extremă care se păstrează în privința manuscrisului memoriilor nu pare deloc de bun augur.

În caz că nu ați urmărit evenimentele politice ale ultimului deceniu poate nu e evident cine a fost modelul pentru Adam Lang. Paralelele cu Tony Blair sunt numeroase, nu numai la nivelul general al intrigii, dar și în detalii, ca de exemplu existența memoriilor, a fundației Adam Lang sau chiar numărul de copii. Evident, e și multă ficțiune la mijloc, în special aducerea în fața Tribunalului de Crime de Război, precum și soarta finală a lui Lang din roman.

Eu nu numai că extrag de la oameni povestea vieții lor, eu înfățișez o formă a acelor vieți care era adeseori invizibilă; uneori le dau vieți pe care ei nici măcar nu au știut că le‑au avut. Dacă asta nu este artă, atunci ce e?

Ars Technica: “First look: Mozilla’s Boot2Gecko mobile platform and Gaia UI”

The current implementation of the Gaia environment is still simplistic and incomplete, but it offers a compelling demonstration of how conventional Web content can be used to create a smartphone user experience. It’s possible to do anything in the B2G user interface that can be done with HTML and CSS, so the possibilities for styling and theming are prodigiously extensive. Such intrinsic flexibility could help make B2G appealing to hardware vendors because it would make it easier for them to create custom user interfaces that differentiate their products.

Ryan Paul

Somehow I can’t see this initiative taking off. Ever. There are just too many obstacles to overcome:

Bing Search Blog: “Make a Good Search Impression with Bing’s Linked Pages”

With people search being such a high volume pastime, we're taking it a step further letting you have more control in how you show up on Bing. Beginning today, with Linked Pages, we’re letting you link websites related to you in search results. Now your friends looking for you online can find what you want them to find. You can also link pages to your friends to help them shine on Bing as well. Ian Lin

A.k.a. Microsoft’s response to Google’s Search plus Your World, and possibly to other initiatives, such as authorship markup. The parallel is very clear: instead of the Google Profile – later Google+ profile – you link to your Facebook profile; results are personalized for you and your friends while logged in; and there’s a touch more social, since you can also add links to friends. It’s US-only for now, so I can’t try it out myself, but Danny Sullivan does a pretty comprehensive review of the new features – and caveats – on Search Engine Land. Not a surprising move in the end; while building a search engine, Microsoft has long given up doing it’s own social network, relying instead on Facebook. And if Apple had a search engine, it would surely start linking to Twitter profiles as well. In this new war over the Internet it’s all about picking sides; and it looks like nobody wants to be on Google’s side.

Invite people to Google+ from Gmail Contacts

Continuing the trend of adding Google+ to every possible Google app, we saw an integration between Circles and Gmail contacts back in December – not very well done in my opinion. Probably at the same time, but I haven’t noticed it until earlier today, another option was added to contacts, specifically to add them to circles and invite them to Google+ at the same time. The control is located in the individual contact view on the right side, where you would find the ‘Connected profiles’ section for Google+ members. This new invite feature is probably most useful when adding new contacts, to quickly get them filed in Google Circles as well. For managing your existing contacts this route, visiting them one-by-one, would be too time-consuming; I would much prefer if I could select multiple contacts and add them to Circles in a single move, that way migrating from groups to circles would be more manageable.

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Foreign Policy: “The Myth of Europe”

In her 2002 essay, "What is a European," British novelist A.S. Byatt asked German writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger whether he felt European or German. He replied there were no such people as Europeans but, after a short pause, added, "On the other hand … if you took me up blindfolded in a balloon and put me down in any European city, I would know it was Europe, and I would know how to find a bar, and the railway station, and a food shop." There is something to this. Standing on the Charles Bridge in Prague, lazing on La Concha beach in San Sebastián, or tucking into fresh goat's cheese at a farmers' market in rural France, you just know you are on the same continent.

Gareth Harding

My sentiment exactly. Other than this, the article makes a lot of questionable statements that often contradict themselves:

PeteSearch: “Why Facebook's data will change our world”

This is the first time in history that most people are creating a detailed record of their lives in a shared space. We've always relied on one-time, narrow surveys of a small number of people to understand ourselves. With Facebook's data we have an incredible source that's so different from existing data we can gather, it makes it possible to answer questions we've never been able to before. Pete Warden

That sounds good on the surface, except… Like the author admits, not everyone is on Facebook. In fact, according to the statistics published by Socialbakers, penetration in the United States is hovering around 50% for the last couple of months. Penetration in Asia and Africa is still extremely low, around 5% of the total population. But user numbers aside, relying solely on Facebook data for any kind of study or scientific analysis introduces a dangerous bias: by ignoring non-users you are actually discarding the people who don’t have access to the Internet, who probably make up the majority of people not on Facebook. That may be well and nice for advertisers, but not if we really want to better understand ourselves on any level, from city to country to the whole world.