Guardian reports Frankfurt, online and from San Francisco

First the facts. Nothing in my print version Guardian this morning that I could find about Google Editions. As reported in the Bookseller daily email a couple of days ago this was announced at the O'Reilley Tools of Change Frankfurt event ( #TOCFrankfurt ) as was the timescale of before the middle of 2010. I have found online a report from Bobbie Johnson in San Francisco. Now a comment. This is not unusual. The Guardian quite often seems to present one view of the world for an online audience and quite another for the print audience who pay for the limitation. Digital news is often not reported in print. The global Kindle is on the business page ahead of Monday availability. The advance news was in a photo caption linked to two pages of knocking copy reprinted from the New Yorker. Oh dear I may be going off topic. Continues on readG blog.

The thing is that my expectation of the Guardian books review section tomorrow having any technology reporting from Frankfurt is quite low. Even the news summary from the Bookseller has vanished. This literary world continues almost unchanged and something like TOC must come as a bit of a shock. Guessing from the available blogs found through Twitter there seems to be some sort of continuing tension.

Eoin Purcell gives more detail on the criticism of TOC from some publishers. As memory serves it was the software fans who first used email but now a lot of people do. So the O'Reilly experience could be interesting even for trade publishers.

I think the Google plans will change the way books are considered. The discussion around this will grow during 2010 and follow Kindle interest over the rest of 2009. There will be lots of interesting copy in the Bookseller. The email service is available free and there is a prize draw if you sign up.

Meanwhile still not much about the #weiss_raum . some links to podcasts but I cannot find free audio translation. The drupa innovation parc was not well reported at the time given the interest in machinery although Web-to-Print has since been widely discussed in UK media. Maybe something similar will happen as Frankfurt is clearly a technology show.

Bookseller and Web 2 , to be continued

This is not supposed to be a negative post about the Bookseller. I find the daily email is just about perfect as a guide to what is going on, including all things digital. But us bloggers make a contribution as well. such as suggesting to proper journalists that it may not matter if there is no reply to an email. It is surprising what you can find on a blog and usually ok to copy it out.

The O'Reilley TOC blog has a post about "The Good and (and some Bad) of TOC Frankfurt Coverage" that comments on a Bookseller report that included a claim that trade publishere were under-represented at the TOC Frankfurt event and that the agenda was too friendly for pirates and software fans.

Sara Lloyd, digital director of Pan Macmillan, was quoted by the Bookseller as saying "The O'Reilly perspective is quite slanted by the content and market that they serve, and that perspective shines through in their choice of speaker and subject matter. There needs to be a greater understanding of what the differences are between a computer software manual and a fiction bestseller. I'd like to see more of a consumer publishing perspective."

It may be worth mentioning that Cory Doctorow is not just a techie but also a writer of science fiction. His blog at craphound.com reveals that there is a Norwegian PDF of Little Brother for free download from Samlaget. Apparently they bought the rights after downloading a free copy in English.

O'Reilley also organise events about "Web 2" on the west coast. "Tools Of Change" seems like an East Coast version for people with more of a print background. So there could be more wierd stuff to follow.

There are signs of a bit of a gap at the moment. The Bookseller report claims that TOC fail to answer emails and the TOC blog claims that complaints about the TOC agenda are out of proportion. But some dialogue continues. Comments on the TOC blog include information from Sara Lloyd that Pan MacMillan have yet to experience larger sales on mobile than in print as she claims is the case for some O'Reilley titles. Philip Jones states that "The Bookseller has no issue with TOC or its agenda, we are simply responding to publisher concern about what was widely regarded as the set-piece digital conference at the Frankfurt Book Fair."

Publishers may have concerns about the issues involved and the speed of change rather than TOC as such. A survey ahead of Frankfurt in the printed version of the Bookseller suggested many people expect a "turning point" to digital in 2018. My impression is that #TOCFrankfurt has changed the agenda already.

Meanwhile I cannot find much online about #weiss_raum or "White Space". Anybody near Frankfurt please have a look and write it up. The nature of book production is changing, enough to keep this post on topic for this blog.

ePub found in white space #weiss_raum

After some browsing and quick translating through Google the tweets so far from #weiss_raum seem to mostly cover InDesign server, web-to-print, and short run digital printing. From epubli an ISBN is only 19.95 Euros so publishing has no mystery at all. I am interested in Abavo as they are specific about ePub. They can start with Framemaker then "XML data automatically processed and transformed via XSLT into XHTML format ePub." (warning this is Google translation but the idea of this is clear enough.

So "pre-media" includes ePub. This is a technology show. I am repeating from previous but this is the end of the day here in Exeter UK.

weiss_raum twitter translation

It turns out the Twitter term should be weiss_raum. The tag is not finding much so far but suggest starting with http://twitter.com/weiss_raum

I have done a quick Google translate. More later.

# "Creative Book" and the cover Production Tool: On the last day of the exhibition is Adobe's Theme "Kre .. http://bit.ly/82uRG3:31 PM Oct 9th from twitterfeed

# Epubli: The specialty at the Book Fair!: Epubli now offering a special discount for authors: For the Book Fair would cost .. http://bit.ly/13WzwJ1:30 PM Oct 7th from twitterfeed

# Printing - Binding - Storage - delivering: Am 17.10. If the weiss'raum "edition one" means that Pres .. http://bit.ly/2ifXX94:30 PM Oct 5th from twitterfeed

# Not only in terms of pressure, a real expert: the infowerk ag: ag infowerk is a genuine all-rounder and pr .. http://bit.ly/2LrHVA4:31 PM Oct 2nd from twitterfeed

# Schmidkonz - highest quality - hardcover production, short runs from 1 to 100: The Schmidkonz Gm .. http://bit.ly/dUQJw2:31 PM Oct 1st from twitterfeed

# Crossmedial thanks ContentServ: Am 14.10. it says "Online first" in weiss'raum and ContentServ G.. http://bit.ly/VWXEv9:25 AM Oct 28th from web

# Thursday, could 15.10.2009: look in abavo weiss'raum The definition of "Production of the Future" and .. http://bit.ly/Yy94R8:24 AM Oct 21st from web

# The weiss'raum soon opening its doors open in about one months, the 61st Frankfurt Book Fair (14 to 18 .. http://bit.ly/lD7jB6:24 AM Oct 18th from web

# KiNTETiK presents "iBright Web2Print" in weiss'raum on opening day of the Frankfurt Book .. http://bit.ly/BvETf9:24 AM Oct 17th from web

# Your print is in good hands!: The online "print master short" of the Swabian family firm .. http://bit.ly/3wvYrd10:24 AM Oct 16th from web

# Adobe's Theme: "Creative Paper" in weiss'raum at the Frankfurt Book Fair: Trends in Kreate .. http://bit.ly/OyKnN8:25 AM Oct 15th from web

# Effective Web-to-print for big companies!: Cutting Edge, yet agile, the Austrian company celum .. http://bit.ly/4aZg2o8:23 AM Oct 14th from web

# Industry survey: What are the business models of the future: http://bit.ly/15j8na4:15 AM Oct 14th from web

# Now auchFrankfurter Book Fair @ Book_Fair with private Tweet! Where precisely flyer for future online forum http://bit.ly/o4B44:14 AM Oct 14th from web

# Total flexibility with digital media partner at the weiss'raum: Editorial system for cross-media content .. http://bit.ly/bHn1C9:24 AM Oct 10th from web

# FIT FOR FUTURE: Scheel media are an all-rounder and the experts for the production of books of the future!: .. The mitt http://bit.ly/DS15o7:24 AM Oct 9th from twitterfeed

At # 14.10. Prasentiert are trivet.net in weiss'raum: is trivet.net with over 350 installations in deutsc .. http://bit.ly/1Cxtt27:25 PM Sep 7th from web

# Vebesserte transparency flattening with callas pdfAutoOptimizer 2: Just in time for the Frankfurt Book Fair is cal. http://bit.ly/1ayiQx9:24 PM Sep 4th from web

# Shortlisted for the most innovative online book project 2009 by the online magazine announced newBook: Munich .. http://bit.ly/sj0Sa6:24 AM Oct 3rd from twitterfeed

On Demand Books and binding options

I am finding something through search but nothing recent yet from the #wausraum. A Google translation from DailyNet.de announces that the waus'raum daily booklet will be printed on a Ricoh Pro C900. This has binding options including the Plockmatic BK5010e. Perhaps this is more convincing than the Expresso from Books On Demand (Hall 8 stand L903). In the UK there has been interest in the machine at Blackwells on Charing Cross Road since the London Book Fair. Victor Keegan has tweeted @vickeegan that a four day wait is not instant printing. But this wait is just because there is only one machine in the UK. On Printweek there has been some negative comment about the binding. Blogger Jo Francis has a plan to visit Charing Cross Road later and examine how this settles down. #printweek . In my opinion the print industry should welcome the idea of instant books. The capacity of devices in a bookshop must be limited such that short runs within a reasonable distance are viable.

Links welcome on other printing devices at Frankfurt.

Digital in the present

Pan Macmillan’s digital director Sara Lloyd has stated that the digital world is the present not the future. This was at the Tools of Change event at Frankfurt as reported on Bookseller.com. It must be true. For one thing I found this Bookseller page without being a subscriber. The Bookseller daily email continues to be a reasonable starting place for this sort of topic.

For another thing Bookseller reporter Catherine Neilan complains about the fallure of the Radisson's wi-fi network. "However, a lively feed is still developing at #TOCFrankfurt."

So the thing that worries me now is how to find more recent info from Bernd Zipper on Twitter. I have not had any luck so far. The weiss'raum (white space) is in Hall 4 Stand A1340. White space is what type fills or leaves as a frame. "weissraum" finds a few tweets but from a couple of days ago. The O'Reilley scope may have got so digital that hard copy is forgotten. Bernd Zipper also designs an innovation parc at drupa, the largest print show. So the workflow issues around e-books could integrate with pre-press. IPEX currently uses the word "pre-media" but I am not sure how much the e-book is a choice in their approach.

From an interview with Zipper ahead of the event

What is your view of the media future?

The now and the future of the media are non-linear. In the past, we had the concept of one-dimensional development along a time shaft determined by technological progress. That is now passé – we are seeing the integration of very different ideas, technologies and contents.

So there is no linear time? This is Tuesday I think.

UK now part of the outside USA Kindle space

The news about the global Kindle that I can find, except the UK Bookseller, is mostly in the USA and is not seeing this as a UK story. Meanwhile Adobe have a MAX in LA and are not bothering with anything real time in Europe this year. Whatever happens in the USA the web is now enough for others to catch up eventually. Something like that.

Teleread blog continues to have the best guidance I think. Very sound point about epub. Amazon allow PDF, even use it for their guides to the Kindle. So they are not stopping publication in standard formats. Why not epub?

Still not sure if this should be EPUB or ePUB. Would someone check this out during the Frankfurt bookfair? IDPF events link.

I think London publishers will have a hard time taking this in. There used to be a marketing concept known as "the former British empire", several English speaking countries. Some UK publishers want global rights but some agents are spending more time in New York.

This drupa blog seems the best place for this post. The IPEX one is mostly about the UK as it happens, not the global take online. drupa is still the event to conjure with. I am not sure if the next one will be as solid. Comment in Printweek from Andrew Tribute has suggested that attendance at Print09 in Chicago was less than expected. Is this explained by differences in place or is something happening over time? My guess is that IPEX in May 2010 will be more like Print09 than drupa in 2008.

Certainly I think "pre-media" should cover more than getting a text ready for a litho plate. Can a workflow include e-books such as ePUB and whatever strange format required by Amazon?