Interesting
Not happy with the biggest and bravest attempt at storytelling experiments, A Million Penguins (Discussed on this blog here & here), Penguin are going to take another crack at it with a new site and a new project. I signed up for the project here:Pengrin
Not sure what it means, but Jeremy Ettinghausen, Penguin’s Digital Publisher has some words on it here:
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that in a few weeks Penguin will be embarking on an experiment in storytelling (yes, another one, I hear you sigh). We’ve teamed up with some interesting folk and challenged some of our top authors to write brand new stories that take full advantage of the functionalities that the internet has to offer – this will be great writing, but writing in a form that would not have been possible 200, 20 or even 2 years ago. If you want to be alerted when this project launches sign up here – all will be revealed in March.
I’m watching with much interest,
Eoin
Filed under: Books, Future of Books, Future of Publishing, Innovation, e-books, e-paper, e-publishing, e-submissions, e-text, multi-author, Networked Books, Penguin, Publishing Companies
February 19, 2008 • 8:03 pm 2
The Simple Mechanics: Comments on the caucus blog @ the NYT
Eoin Purcell
Sometimes its the simple things that cause the most trouble
The Caucus Blog is one of the best innovations I have come across in the US Election* (And by picking it I don’t mean to diss any of the dozens of other Main Stream/Net Native and Personal Election blogs out there). The New York Times has accomplished a lot with this blog, posting just enough to keep interest alive (look at the comment counts), posting material that would never reach the paper, live blogging events and tying together a really wonderful all round election coverage.
But they posted today about comments and I think it goes to the heart of the issue for publishers of all sorts, be they newspapers, books or magazines:
There is more and you should read it too because it hits all teh problem buttons when it comes to comments. My key concern is the anonymity one though:
I can’t agree more, the use of pseudonyms just ruins discussion boards and enables commentors to go astray so easily. It encourages rapid and wild statements without fear of repercussion. I wish the web was so transparent that everyone knew who everyone else was. It would make policing comments easier, make providing forums like The Caucus Blog easier and generally make teh web a better place, and I know many people disagree but I just cannot help but feel anonymity has led us down the wrong track on the web.
You won’t change my mind,
Eoin
* The ACTUAL election is going to be such a let down after the Democratic contest ends! Whenever that is.
Filed under: Blogging, Blogging, Comments, Identity, New York Times