Free or Fee?

Ben Hammersley opens the evening at Free or Fee? 2010

freeorfee — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:31:26 +0000

photo by Chris Warburton

Ready those Kindles.

freeorfee — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:52:24 +0000

From the folks at PC Advisor: the British Library is working with Microsoft to digitise a massive portion of its out-of-copyright holdings. It is planning to offer up 65,000 free e-books through the Amazon Kindle store, beginning this spring. One more reason for you to own an e-reader. Read all about it.

kindle

At what price?

freeorfee — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:36:12 +0000

Now that all speakers have been confirmed, and the conference almost a month away, there is plenty of time to ponder the issues at hand. The internet is abuzz with opinionated articles and posts, this one from The Bookseller online: Macmillan US and Amazon.com settle e-books dispute

Amazon has agreed to let Macmillan set their own prices in return for 30 % of those sales. The immediate arguement may have been settled, but the question of how to price e-books lingers.

Can people really be expected to pay the same for a digital product as they would for the print version? And what exactly are they buying? Author Cory Doctorow offers another viewpoint: DRM advocates are “the real pirates”

Bookmark it.

freeorfee — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:11:59 +0000

The official bookmark of Publishing Innovation Conference 2010 is now out. Available in blue and orange at an undisclosed location near you (or the LCC Library). Food for thought:

“On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time.” – Stewart Brand, @ Hacker’s Conference 1984

Chris Meade of if:book has confirmed!

freeorfee — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:19:27 +0000

Chris Meade of the Institute for the Future of the Book has officially been confirmed today as a panel speaker.

After having seen him speak at last year’s SYP conference, we are really excited to have him on board.

Land of the Not-so Free

freeorfee — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:03:36 +0000

from the Bookseller: “Libraries can charge for e-books, DCMS confirms”

Seriously? In what universe does this seem at all rational? Apparently this applies only to books downloaded remotely, but still seems to deviate from the concept of ‘public lending’.

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/111664-vaizey-on-libraries-we-cant-go-on-like-this.html

Speakers, speakers and more speakers

freeorfee — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:34:48 +0000

The Publishing Innovation Conference always attracts an engaging panel of speakers, and this year’s debate is certainly shaping up to be a dynamic one. I guess everyone has something to say on the topic of free or fee.

Confirmed for Panel 1: Winners and Losers in Magazines

Nicholas Brett – Nicholas Brett – Deputy Managing Director and Group Editorial Director, BBC Magazines
Fiona Dent – Fiona Dent – Managing Director, IPC Connect
Kurt Edwards – Kurt Edwards – Digital Commercial Director, Future plc
Mark Beilby – Media Analyst; Co-founder and Chairman ofApollo Mobile

Confirmed for Panel 2: Exploring the Cost of Free Books

Frances Pinter – Frances Pinter – Publisher, Bloomsbury
Duncan Campbell – Associate Director of Journal Digital Licensing, Wiley-Blackwell
Chris Meade – Co-Director, The Institute for the Future of the Book
Henry Volans, Digital Director of Faber & Faber

The opening perspective, to be delivered by Ben Hammersley – Editor at Large, Wired UK and Founder ofDangerous Precedent Ltd: Do writers need to be digitally equipped to remain valuable?

A Little History

freeorfee — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:04:22 +0000

The Publishing Innovation Conference is an annual event organized by a group of MA Publishing students at the London College of Communication. 2010 will be its sixth year, former conferences covering such topics as the economic crisis, diversity in publishing and environmental issues.

This year will once again be sponsored by MacMillan, and will welcome eminent industry speakers such as Frances Pinter of Bloomsbury Academic, IPC Media’s Fiona Dent, and Ben Hammersley of UK Wired.