September 24th, 2009 Brian Herzog
BoingBoing pointed to an article on the difference between paying for content and paying for format. Publishers want us to pay for content, so they can charge the same price for online information. But historically, we pay for format: hardbacks cost more than paperbacks.
The same is true in town halls and libraries with public records. People have a right to free access to the records - but, if they want their own copy, there is likely a reproduction cost. In which case, they aren’t paying for the records (content), they’re paying for the paper the records are printed on (format).
Interesting. (And it also brings up the slippery slope of double-taxation: if the paper is purchased with taxpayer money from the library budget, then why does a taxpayer have to pay for it a second time?)
Related to this is what author Max Barry is up to with his latest book, Machine Man. He’s publishing it in real-time, one page per day, and readers can subscribe to rss or email to get the first 43 pages for free. Beyond that, it’ll cost $6.95.
I like that an author is experimenting - that’s where good ideas come from, rather than just forcing forward the status quo. I also like that, when it is published in traditional book form, it will (likely) be different from the day-to-day feed. Which makes sense, since he’ll have had time to think about it and rework* the real-time “draft.”
And what Barry is doing is evidence again that what we pay for is format. If I pay the $6.95 for the content of the rss feed, then it stands to reason that when the printed book comes out, I should get it for free, since I’ve already paid for the content (unless, of course, it is significantly different from the feed).
I can see why the supply side of the publishing industry wants to charge the highest price they can for content, regardless of format. But technology, context, and past practice just doesn’t support that model. But then, business = ++profit != logic.
*I’m fascinated by the evolution of the story, and how an author changes and rearranges the plot and characters in between drafts. In fact, here’s what I think would be a good idea (although, it would take the right kind of author to make it work): publish a book with every draft of a short story, with annotations on the changes. Having a author not only put out there early versions of a story, and also explain what changes were made and why, would be fascinating insight into the creative writing process.
From what I know of Max Barry, he could pull it off, and it’d be worth reading. Neil Gaiman is another author that comes to mind. But maybe this is a market limited to only me.
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November 6th, 2008 Brian Herzog
In the last few weeks, I’ve seen a lot of announcements concerning video content being added to online resources. Both InfoTrac and NewsBank have recently made email announcements about content they’ve each added to their databases.
InfoTrac added many full-text resources to the General and Academic OneFiles, some of which include video segments. NewsBank’s announcement was more thorough - here’s an excerpt from the email:
In response to the rising demand in libraries, NewsBank is adding video news content to our online news resources-at no additional charge to our customers. The complete package from respected media distributor Voxant includes the following sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, as well as coverage from Canadian Broadcasting, Agence France Press and more. Your institution will have access to video clips from all or a select group of these sources, depending on your subscription.
Beginning on Monday, October 20, the videos clips will be added to NewsBank resources. Users will be able to:
- Play news videos within the NewsBank interface, in the same space used to display text articles
- Select specific videos from a comprehensive results lists that also includes NewsBank articles, or restrict their search to “video only”
- Access recent and archived news videos at your institution or remotely
- Email links of specific videos to friends, or embed them in a presentation
I find it curious that they say this is in response to demand from libraries. From the few tests I did, most of this newly added video content is already available free online, so I’m not sure where this demand was coming from (or why the vendors choose to listen to this particular demand instead of other things libraries have been demanding).
If a patron wants to watch a news show online, I can’t see myself showing them how to navigate the library website to find the right database, log in with their library card, navigate the database for the right title, and then find the episode. It is just easier for me and the patron to use the station’s own website or YouTube as a resource.
And speaking of YouTube, Library Stuff linked to a YouTube announcement on c|net today: “YouTube will begin offering feature films produced by at least one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios possibly as early as next month.” Combine that with Hulu.com and other websites, and that’s a lot of available video content.
For the database vendors though, I would prefer they concentrating on making their resources more user-friendly and useful by “uniquing” them, instead of providing content that is already available from other sources.
Tags: content, database, databases, infotrac, libraries, Library, news, newsbank, online, public, Resources, too much joy, video, youtube See Also
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