http://www.blackplasticglasses.com Musings on Publishing and life in the Digital Age by Evan Schnittman Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:07:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/05/05/ipad-digital-learning/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/05/05/ipad-digital-learning/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 10:46:40 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=464 In my last post, What's Next in Digital Reading I explored my notion that there are three kinds of reading; extractive: immersive, and pedagogic. Extractive reading works in digital form as finding and extracting data and information is optimized by the power of digital. Immersive reading struggled to flourish in digital form until the e-ink screen went mainstream with the release of the Kindle. Pedagogic reading, the kind done when learning from a textbook, has yet to take hold as there hasn’t been a device and/or business model for delivering lesson-based reading that has gained any traction. However, this is all about to change dramatically because of the iPad. The iPad has been the...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/05/05/ipad-digital-learning/feed/ 10 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:15:02 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=445 This was brilliantly summarized in 2003 by Niko Pfund, OUP’s VP of Academic and Trade Publishing, when he referred to this kind of reading as “extractive, as opposed to immersive.” Extractive reading is an extension of search – its primarily purpose is to “extract” information from searched databases. Extractive reading is easily done...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/feed/ 5 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:36:48 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/ ]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/feed/ 3 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/05/19/kindle-iphone-textbooks/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/05/19/kindle-iphone-textbooks/#comments Tue, 19 May 2009 09:13:03 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=209 To be perfectly clear, this blog is not sanctioned by, endorsed by, or even remotely associated with Oxford University Press, my fantastic employer. What I say here is my opinion and my opinion alone. The preview of the Kindle DX on May 6th was a smart tactical maneuver in the preparation for the next front of the ebook reader wars.  Even though Amazon invited the NY Times to the stage to help pump up the volume, newspapers are not the primary raison d’être of the new Kindle. The university or higher education market is the Holy Grail for the ebook reader market for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it’s a huge, global, highly important market that has...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/05/19/kindle-iphone-textbooks/feed/ 1 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:33:14 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=5 NB - I have noticed from the amazing amount of commentary this post generated over the last two weeks that there seems to be a misunderstanding of my intentions here. Granted, I chose a very inflammatory title, but this article, especially when taken in context with the follow up piece Discounts Must Align to Risks, is about supporting growth in the ebook market, not predicting its demise. Ebooks are the future and getting there as an industry will require some hard evaluation of how things work and a better understanding of publishing economics. Evan This piece is about consumer or “trade” publishing as we call it in the industry.  To begin, let's review how a book becomes a book. A...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/feed/ 62