Sorry (again) for the late (and lack of) posting recently. This week, the BookNet Tech Forum in Toronto kept me out of the office and away from the blog. If you’re interested in the conference, the ACP‘s Sarah Labrie has a great round up of the main day here.
But on to the links…
Alexander S. Budnitz’s INCREDIBLE ASB Cover Archive. This site should definitely be added to this list (via Karen Horton’s ace Daily Design Discoveries).
Thick and Thin — Umair Haque on social media at The Harvard Business Review:
The social isn’t about beauty contests and popularity contests. They’re a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It’s about trust, connection, and community. That’s what there’s too little of in today’s mediascape, despite all the hoopla surrounding social tools. The promise of the Internet wasn’t merely to inflate relationships, without adding depth, resonance, and meaning. It was to fundamentally rewire people, communities, civil society, business, and the state — through thicker, stronger, more meaningful relationships.
I don’t entirely agree with everything in this post (and I wonder how much of it has to do with Haque’s recent Twitter mauling as SXSW?) but it’s a timely reminder that quality is more important than quantity.
Fine Hypertext Products — A podcast interview at The Pipeline with Jason Kottke founder of one of the most consistently interesting blogs out there (and a big influence on this one) kottke.org. There is also an interesting earlier interview with Jim Coudal president of design studio Coudal Partners.
Straight-Talking — The Book Oven’s Hugh MacGuire interviews Don Linn, former CEO of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution and publisher at The Taunton Press:
Too many titles now are bought (often at way too high a price), produced sloppily and just tossed into the market without adequate support. This benefits no one. Second, I’d like to see all publishers implement workflows (using XML or other flexible tools) and production processes that make their content more agile… Finally, I’d just encourage more intelligent experimentation and attempts at innovation. I sense paralysis on the part of a large number of publishers based on a (not irrational) fear of making the wrong bet during this chaotic time.
(NB: It’s also interesting to read why Don felt digital publishing venture Quartet failed, although I kind of think some of that stuff should have been obvious to them before they started).
And finally…
The Rise of the “Paper-Bounds” — Leif Peng excerpts a 1953 Fortune magazine article on mass-market paper-bounds at the always brilliant Today’s Inspiration. There’s more here, here, and here…