My latest Publishers Weekly column is “New York, Meet Silicon Valley,” about the things that Silicon Valley can teach NYC publishing (cheap experimentation and celebrating failure as the fastest way to learn) and what it can’t deliver (working DRM):
This marks a key difference between New York publishing and Silicon Valley. Unlike New York publishing, Silicon Valley’s products remain experimental long after they reach the marketplace. Google can change its search layout in seconds flat, try it out on a million searchers, crunch the data, revise the experiment and do it again, a hundred times a day if they wish. And bad ideas can be just as interesting as good ideas, because when it doesn’t cost anything to find out how bad an idea is, you can afford to be pleasantly and enormously surprised when it turns out that, say, people really do want to play Pac-Man on their search-results page.
Hey DC! Tor Books is bringing me to your area for the American Library Association conference this coming weekend, and while I’m in town, I’ve signed on to do a couple of public events I hope to see you at!
On Sunday, June 27 at 3PM, I’m speaking at Red Emma’s books in Baltimore, in an event co-sponsored by the Baltimore Node hackerspace.
On Monday, June 28 at 6:30PM, I’m speaking at a special edition of DC Copynight, co-sponsored by Public Knowledge and hosted by the New America Foundation. Many thanks to Thomas “cmdln” Gideon of DC Copynight for setting this up!
Both events are free!
Neale sez, “I liked Little Brother so much that I bought a copy for my niece and then based an entire Summer Hacking School around it. The kids were really excited about the premise of the book when I explained it to them tonight, and the fact that it’s available for free in so many
formats was just gravy. I put ePub and j2me versions on 5 mobile phones before they left for the night.”
Neale sez, “I liked ‘Little Brother’ so much that I bought a copy for my niece and then based an entire Summer Hacking School around it. The kids were really excited about the premise of the book when I explained it to them tonight, and the fact that it’s available for free in so many
formats was just gravy. I put ePub and j2me versions on 5 mobile phones before they left for the night.”
Here’s a recent Bookbanter interview about Makers:
My latest Guardian column, “The mobile revolution has arrived,” describes the way that touring with a rooted NexusOne phone fundamentally changed the experience of being on a book-tour, delivering a touring author’s two most precious commodities: better food and more sleep.
Travelling with your own internet source is brilliant. At Atlanta airport, I was stuck for four hours while a monster storm hammered the building with barrages of lightning. Immediately, every one of the expensive Wi-Fi networks in the building went dead as thousands of stranded travellers tried to use them all at once. I found a corner with a mains outlet, plugged in the laptop, tethered my phone, and enjoyed my own private network connection. It wasn’t fast, but it was free and it worked.
I still have a US T-Mobile account from when I lived in the US, and I pay for the unlimited data plan there (which, like the Orange UK Sim I use here, has a bizarre and fraudulent definition of “unlimited” that includes a data cap). It’s easily worth keeping the account alive for those times that I’m back in the US – one day’s 3G savings (not having to pay for expensive hotel and airport broadband) pays for a month’s mobile service.
Review:
Realms of Fantasy
Once again, Doctorow is on the cutting edge with this exciting blend of economic theory, technological advances, game theory, and social activism. This isn’t just another YA adventure, it’s a manifesto for a new generation of Internet-savvy thinkers and doers.
Realms of Fantasy
Part two (of two) of “The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening“, originally published on Shareable.net.
(Image: Tilt and shift – Leicester Square at night, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works (2.0) image from rthakrar’s photostream)
Mastering by John Taylor Williams: wryneckstudio@gmail.com
John Taylor Williams is a full-time self-employed audio engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer. In his free time, he makes beer, jewelry, odd musical instruments and furniture. He likes to meditate, to read and to cook.
