From Buzzmachine to Worldchanging

Here’s a bit of a surfing safari that I think is woth following. I picked up on another of Jeff Jarvis’ provocations today (print Sucks!) which is interesting primarily because it lead to an article from Chris Anderson (that I’d missed) arguing that the print version of Wired was in fact better for the climate that the electronic version. Personally, I’m a little skeptical of the claim (and reading the comments, so are many others). But it does open up the debate about e vs p in environmental terms. Which lead me to a post in worldchanging, challenging Wired (and all print publications) to come up with some real numbers about their environmental impact. As Alex Steffen says:

While assessing the footprint of many complex commercial activities is still not easy, publishing is, at least in comparison, an ecologically pretty straight-forward business. There just aren’t all that many moving parts.

Now, instinctively printing and shipping has *got* to be worse for the planet that the electronic alternative - even taking into account the cost of electricity, devices, networks etc. But I think there’s a real conversation that needs to be had - with the goal of reducing the environmental impact irrespective of how publishing happens…

The Elusive E-Book

Stephen Leary points to a cover piece in this month’s American Libraries magazine (which doesn’t seem to have many actual articles online) that dismisses the idea that ebooks are going to happen any time soon. According to Leary, the piece examines the Kindle and Sony Reader, and argues that they won’t work because “people won’t read entire books on these readers”. 

As Leary points out, there are many arguments why the current generation of e-reading devices will probably not be the ones that change the lay of the land. But E Annie Proulx’s old argument that “Nobody is going to sit down and read a novel on a twitchy little screen. Ever.” is not the most convincing of approaches. (Although there are arguments about perception and reality that probably need to be addressed.) Anyhow, I’m in the middle of doing a paper on why (I think) e-books are still elusive, so I’ll post more on this later. 

(via teleread)

Roy Greenslade on Newspapers

Journalist, academic and blogger, Roy Greenslade is in Australia touting his message that newsprint is on its deathbed. In arguments that parallel those about the death of the book, Greenslade is adamant there is life for journalism beyond print on paper. As he says in an op-ed piece in the SMH:

As an unashamed digital revolutionary I can see that we are in the process of moving from one news platform to another. The stagecoach is giving way to the train. The great change does not spell the end of journalism itself.

Words that should come from a geek like me, not a 44 year veteran of the journalism trade