The Digital Revolution

ARIN 6912 - Week 1 PresentationJoy Enriquez

Digitization and knowledge transfer

• PCs, digital networks, and mobile network connections have revolutionised communication and knowledge transfer.

• Information is now available continuously and has the advantage of updatability, scalability, searchability, intertextuality and the use of multimedia.

Digitization’s impact on communication practice

• The publication of electronic versions of print and broadcast news products, making possible national and international readership on a 24/7 basis.

News comes to us…

• Searchability of digital information is changing the way information is being sourced

Read up on this at:Nightingale, V. (2007) ‘Emergence, Search and Social Networking,’ New Media Worlds – Challenges for Convergence, Oxford University Press, Victoria, pp291-307

• Blogs and websites are overturning the traditional broadcast and business models

Read up on this at:Walker, N (2007) ‘New Technology and the publishing firm: business development, culture and models’ in Carter D., and Galligan, A. (eds)(2007) Making Books - Contemporary Australian Publishing, The University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Queensland. Pp151-166.

Digitization and business practice

• A strong internet presence is required for all businesses.

• Communication through email and IM is standard both internally and externally.

** For magazine publishers this signalled a new market/genre – businesses who require information about the latest technology. Examples are:Dynamic Business magazineNett Magazine – Take Your Business Further Online iStart – Technology in Business

• So too are the use of intranets, CMS, wikis, blogs, and business/customer relationship management software. In today’s economic climate, financial data, customer history etc. needs to be found in an efficient and timely manner.

• Thompson also remarks that the “digital revolution” has led to the establishment of “institutions of innovation” – where research, creative output and innovations are now recognised legally and encouraged through funding.

USYD is a great example of how this can impact business on different levels - the Postgrad Research department embarked on a project through ICT, utilising Agile Development Methodology to create a website that allowed new students to search for research projects and supervisors in a web-friendly and more automated way. Read the ICT news story or visitResearch Supervisor Connect [http://www.usyd.edu.au/research/opportunities]

Digitization and the publishing industry

•Generally speaking, the content publishers work with (i.e. text and images) can easily be digitized. •Consuming information via screen has become second nature. •E-books have advantages:

– paper-like screens, – size and weight of one paper-back while holding

hundreds of titles (from books, periodicals and newspapers and even Internet browsing)

– Bookstores open online 24/7

Thompson argues:

“Books are not merely objects which will be swiftly and automatically replaced by technologically more efficient

modes of content delivery, for they are bound up with forms life and social practices which change only slowly

and gradually.”

• Currently, e-books account for around 1% or less of the total trade market. Why is that?

Why e-books haven’t taken flight…

• PriceAmazon Kindle US $359

Sony e-book reader US $299

In contrast, Apple’s free e-book application (Stanza) has been downloaded over 400,000 times since its release last July.

• Format and content-type– Wikipedia lists over 25 exclusive e-book

formats and readers deliberately exclude the ability to convert PDF files into their book formats in order to boost sales.

– Thompson also argues that extensive text is not optimal for reading on a screen– people prefer to print narratives and long documents.

• Rights– The digital nature of e-books makes

ownership and rights a politically charged issue.

– This forces us to question the advantage of the “accessibility” and “useability” of digital information.

** Read up on digital copyright and how it affects different industries:

Flew, T. (2007) ‘Internet Law, policy and governance’, in New media: an introduction (3rd Ed.), Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Litman, J. (2001) Digital Copyright, Prometheus Books, New York

Pedley, P. (2005) Managing Digital Rights, Facet Publishing, London

• There is no issue of compatibility and share-ability when it comes to a physical book. Once you purchase one it becomes your physical property and you are at liberty to read/re-use/lend and sell it as you please.

“Books are so good you can’t out-book the book.”

(Jeff Bezos - creator of the Amazon Kindle)

Digitization and the publishing industry

• Some information lends itself easily to the digital format and many industries (including publishing) have benefited from this.

• Despite the apocalyptic fear that books may soon see their demise, it’s doubtful. E-books and even online reading would not supplant the visual quality, size and permanence that books of certain topics and formats require (design, photography and art books are good examples)

Recommended readingDavy, D. (2007) The Impact of Digitization on the Book Industry (A Report Prepared for the Association of Canadian Publishers), ACP, Toronto.

'E-books: Dead and Alive', in Book Publishing Report, May 2008, Simba Information, Stamford.

Flew, T. (2007) ‘Internet Law, policy and governance’, in New media: an introduction (3rd Ed.), Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Gass, W. H. (1999) ‘In Defense of the Book’ in Australian Financial Review, Friday 19 November 1999, Review supplement pp1-2, 9

Goldstein, G.B. (2004) ‘A Strategic Response to Media Metamorphoses’ in Public Relations Quarterly, Summer2004, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p19-22. [Available on http://ezproxy.library.usyd.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=14153669&site=ehost-live]

Litman, J. (2001) Digital Copyright, Prometheus Books, New York

McAllister, D., McAllister, N. and Vivian, S. (2002) ‘The Impact of Digital Books Upon Print Publishing’,

Nightingale, V. (2007) ‘Emergence, Search and Social Networking,’ New Media Worlds – Challenges for Convergence, Oxford University Press, Victoria, pp291-307

Pedley, P. (2005) Managing Digital Rights, Facet Publishing, London

Tian, X, (2007) ‘Developments in Publishing: The Potential of Digital Publishing,’ School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University, Victoria, Australia.

Levy, S (2007) 'The Future of Reading', in Newsweek (online). Available http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983 [Accessed 26 November 2007]

Open eBook Forum (2005) IDPF Annual Report 2004 and Strategic Plan 2005, 2 June 2005 (online). Available: http://www.openebook.org/doc_library/annual%20reports/annualreport2004.pdf

Vaidhyanathan, S. (2001) Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How It Threatens Creativity, New York University Press, New York

Walker, N (2007) ‘New Technology and the publishing firm: business development, culture and models’ in Carter D., and Galligan, A. (eds)(2007) Making Books - Contemporary Australian Publishing, The University of Queensland Press, St Lucia Queensland. Pp151-166.