Nielsen Company's Latest iPad Stats

Here's a link to the Nielsen Company's stats on the iPad and what users access with their iPads:

Connected Devices: Does the iPad Change Everything?

It's interesting to see the differences between iPad and iPhone uses. And how much books are used on the iPad versus the iPhone. Clearly there is something to the fact that the screen is bigger and more accessible to readers. The iPad survey Nielsen conducted already reflects these differences.

And with numbers showing that 54% of iPad users use their iPad to read books, there is even more evidence that there is a place in the publishing world for e-books. Hopefully publishers will continue to recognize the changes taking place before us.

Commonplace Book: The Book of John: Holistic, Pluralistic, & for all Salvation

The Book of John is the essential gospel pertaining to Jesus Christ's deity. The plea of the gospel is never to be confused with mysticism, which the the term holistic wellness is sometimes associated with.
http://www.reference.com/ explains holistic as a doctrine of prevention and treatment that emphasizes looking at the whole person—body, mind, emotions, and environment—rather than a single function or organ.

The God of Christianity seeks to quench the unruly thoughts, appetites, and proclivities of man along with infirmities of the body. The holistic healing or cleansing of a man wholly is part of the purpose of Christ coming to the sin sick world. Jesus shows these miracles as testaments to his sovereignty and God ship.

In one of the narratives of the Lord Jesus Christ he is watching a man sick for 38 years amongst a multitude of ailing persons at the pool of Bethesda. The rest of the story goes like this from John 5:4-8:

4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.

6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

7 The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

8 Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” (NKJV)

This testament to Christ's work totally hangs on the man wanting to be made whole. The King James Version poses the question of verse 6:"Do yo want to be made whole?" The person most definitely wants to, but looks at his cicumstance. Christ being able to change situations tells the man to walk. This is key because no matter the problem ascertain by man with belief in Christ problem disappear. The man believes because instead of sitting wallowing in self-pity. He takes Christ at his Word and does as Christ commands. Healing comes to the those who can do what Christ commands.

I was in need of healing at one of the most down points in my life. It was the year 2000 my mom just died and I was in a long bout with depression. At this point in my life I had ceased to think about my Lord and savior. I cried daily and did nothing but minial recreational task, also the occassional hanging with friends. I toiled with thoughts of my purpose daily. I loathed my very existence until I began to pray. There was the suggestion of my family to go to a shrink and get anti-depressants. The renewal of my relationship with Christ disspelled the suffering I dealt with for so long. There was no need for zoloft or prozac once I got back to the key tennents of my faith. I was healed emotionally and mentally from my mother's death. Christ is a healer to all of them that believe and willing to recieve.

Christ healing power is available to all today. The question Christ asks not just to the man at the pool of Bethesda, but to you also, "Do want to be made whole?"

New Social "Disorder?"

While reading Everything is Miscellaneous, about students sharing information and knowledge as they read, and a collective of readers, I had a strange vision:

Gone is the lonely child, reading in a corner. Gone are the school nerds who prefer books to sports. Gone too is the solitary reader, trying to escape into solitude.

Reading is now one of the most social activities out there. Even if you are alone on the couch with your book, you are in fact surrounded by other readers. They make comments, ask questions, raise issues. They are never silent; they never stop.

As the act of reading expands, so does its social status. Readers are no longer snubbed or taunted, but embraced as fellows.

You can read by yourself, but you will never be truly alone in reading again.

The New Yorker Paywall

Yet another issue with digital publishing and DRM:
Flood Magazine article

Also, it's worth looking back at Part 1 and then forward to see how the New Yorker has responded to this.
I particularly liked this quote: "It was as if an absentminded surgeon had left his scalpel, forceps, and gauze inside a patient."

Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child

On Monday night’s episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen interviewed Nicholas Negroponte, who has said that his One Laptop per Child program for kids in impoverished countries will ultimately kill the printed book.

While I think that’s of course going much too far, the interview does illustrate that the laptops allow children to access more books than will ever be physically shipped to these remote locations. Also, while the laptops do come at a cost of $180 each, the cost of regularly shipping physical books to many of these areas could be far more expensive. Negroponte's program has distributed two million laptops so far.

Check out the interview, seen in the second half of the episode, and the One Laptop per Child website.

-- Heather Walrath

How NOT to Gain Revenue From E-Publishing

Boing Boing brought attention to a regional newspaper, The North County Gazette, whose online offerings were being policed in an unusual way. Their site is nonfunctional for me as of this morning, but you only need to read Boing Boing's rundown—complete with screenshots and amusing commentary—to get the picture.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/10/25/local-newspaper-boas.html

Why Real Books Are Better Than E-Books

Watch the video to see its really cute

Piracy as Promo

This popped up on one of the blogs on the class RSS feed, so you may have seen it, but it's too good to miss so I thought I'd make sure.

Headline says it all: "Comic Book Pirated on 4chan, Author Joins Discussion, Watches Sales Soar."

Some food for thought!

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10481211524/comic-book-pirated-on-4chan-author-joins-discussion-watches-sales-soar.shtml

Commonplace Book: The Book of John: Holistic, Pluralistic, & for all Salvation

The cross is bowed down to by all who venerate Christ as Lord and God. Jesus divested himself from His majesty, and took on human flesh and was sent by the Father. He lived, died, and is resurrected. The testimony of Jesus Christ expressed is that His life was given for all of mankind's sin. When man deserves to be cut off from God for life. His life compells me to the thought of my heart. The gospel of John is misconstrued in many areas, so its verses have taken on a pluralistic meanings. Revisionist precepts of God's Word creates tenets in certain sects of Christendom that are fallacious.

The dogma in various churches corrodes the inerrancy of scripture as believed in the orthodox Christian faith. This misconception of a few scriptures in the book of John has spawned a heretical doctrine that puts out a misunderstanding of God's nature. People who want to be worthy of the calling of Christ interpret scripture not to the twisting of their own will. The scriptures that pose a conundrum are John 14:10&11 which says:


10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The word that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority: but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11 "Believe in Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. (NKJV)

Some babes in Christ and students of scripture alike look at this text as stating Jesus and the Father are one person, instead of one being. This is clear error and interpolation of the text. This is done because people do not take the time to put text in context of surrounding scriptures or framework in which to interpret the writ. God is not limited to the person ship of Christ alone. They are two distinct persons that share same nature. In the clear deciphering of the verse Jesus speaks to his followers to allow them to know he shares in divinity with the Father and having Him in their midst is the same as having the Father amongst them. The disciples understood right away, because they inquire no more of seeing the Father once Christ explains Himself thoroughly to them. Also in the book of John in same chapter putting John 14:10&11 in a contextual framework, by going to John 14:6, to show the coherent interpretation of text is no way explaining Jesus and the Father are one in the same. John 14:6 states:

6 Jesus said to him,"I am the way the truth, and life, No one come to Father except through me." (NKJV)

Jesus can not be the Father himself if He speaks authoritative of being separate from Father God in this verse afore John 14:10&11. Jesus expressively tells His disciples that He is the way to the Father making a clear dichotomy between the two of them. When interpreting scripture en light of contextual reasoning, you go to a few verses above a text, then a few verses afterward to see if the context is in keeping with your perception of the text. This is what should be done at all times when in doubt of understanding what a text states.

In closing in the following weeks this commonplace book will set forth the candor of the Gospel John as mentioned in the title.

One of my biggest fears...

A rather daunting NY Times piece about toddlers and iPhones. Particularly relevant to our recent conversations about the small (if any) difference these days between books, apps and games.

Ad Age Talks about Early iPad Magazine Editions

Interesting numbers here, and it's interesting to see how it's kind of hard to analyze this, seeing as it's all new, and that the success of iPad editions is contingent on the number of iPad owners. Duh.

Again, an older piece of info, but I still thought it was worth sharing:
Newsweek Graphic

eScrolls?

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google just announced that they are digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls. Google really is everywhere.

Let's Not Show This to RR Donnelley...

Last Thursday, on our Book & Journal Publishing field trip to the RR Donnelley printing plant, the Donnelley sales executive said that the biggest threat he thought e-publishing could ever have to p-books and the plant was if it took over academic (textbook) printing, which is their most lucrative division of publishing clients.

I thought of him when I stumbled across this article from the Howard University newspaper, The Hilltop - 'E-Books Bring Digital Age to Popular Hobby'. I think it may be best to keep this to ourselves.

Per Our Angry Hitler Video Discussion

Hitler's Angry Reaction to the iPad.

XML: The Halfway Point Between Design and Programming

As someone with more of a design background who is trying to learn HTML, I found this interview that Tim O'Reilly posted on his blog today interesting. He and Bob Boiko discuss the blurring of the lines between designers, content creators/coders, and programmers.

The Future of Publishing Video

I just stumbled upon this. Pretty cool.

CNN Story: Will physical books be gone in five years?

The story hit CNN today, and my first reaction was disgust:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/17/negroponte.ebooks/index.html?hpt=T2

Then, I said, "I sure as hell hope not."

Google’s Newest Endeavors

This week, newspapers including the L.A. Times and The Washington Post ran interesting articles about Google’s new stake in an offshore wind farm project. Some of them noted that Google will also invest in driverless cars. Both of these items serve as further evidence of Google’s long-term strategizing and of the company's unique business model.

Google rolls dice on offshore wind farms

-- Heather Walrath  

JavaLab

Like my classmates, I've decided to make a blog to experiment with and learn my skill, which is javascript. Stop by Jenn's JavaLab if you want!

Page 159

I'll confess, I am a horrible blogger. Since the time I was 16, I've probably gone through five different blogs. I couldn't even be an angsty teenage blogger. But here I am, trying again.

For the small project for class and because I've always wanted to try, I created an online commonplace book and thought I would share what I find with y'all. (Though it's probably just a way to keep myself from abandoning this blog, too, if people are watching.) It's a baby, just two posts, for now but it will grow.

http://onefiftynine.wordpress.com/

E-Reading for Kids

I saw this commercial on TV the other day. More and more companies are incorporating e-reading into educational video game systems for children.

Is this is a good thing or does it take another step across the "reading versus game" line?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCt6d1FdVHk

Individual Project Blog About XML

I have chosen to do my individual project for this class on XML, specifically in transitioning my company's print material for better dissemination on the web and beyond. To document this, I've created a blog that I'll be updating from time to time as I make progress and find helpful resources. If you're interested in picking up the information I find, or if you happen to have a similar situation with your company, please feel free to follow along.

Journey to XML

I have a meager two posts so far, but as I ramp up research, I hope to share more!

Children's Books Apps

Here is the full article I mentioned yesterday in class. I'm still Internetless, but luckily there is a Starbucks on every corner. Anyway, I think its interesting considering how we discuss kid's books a lot in the changing face of the industry.

Sidenote: speaking of Starbucks and free WiFi...I saw this today about how at many places, including the Starbucks at 16 and K where I am currently sitting, say "Free Public WiFi" but it is actually a virus so don't click on it! Like I just did an hour ago! Here is the story.

Borders E-book Ad

Snapped a picture of this Borders ad I saw on Metro today. Anyone care to share their thoughts on the marketing angle? Is this guy supposed to be a pimp? Strikes me as bizarre, not clever.

Is it the end of children's books?

I came across this interesting New York Times article today.

"Picture Book No Longer Staple for Children"

From the article, it didn't seem like the children had a choice in the matter. I couldn't help but think about how this possible shift could again be affected by the e-book revolution.

What's happening to eBook prices...

An interesting article on Salon.com about what's happening to e-book prices now that publishers are setting the prices and not Amazon. The author also comments on some of the current cons of ebooks versus paper books.

If I can't access the file, do I still own the book?

Archiving eBooks

I came across this blog today and it brought up something I hadn't considered: as technology progresses, what happens to the e-books we purchased in (what will become) the older technologies? Will we still be able to access those books? One of the things I love about paper books is their very presence on the bookshelf. I may not have read them in years, but they are still as accessible today as the day I bought them. Not so for the box of audio tapes in my closet. It isn't the tapes themselves I have any fondness for, but the music they contain. So I'm willing to re-purchase music in a new format to regain access to it. In that case, it is clearly about the content. But I resist the same concept--even resent it--when it applies to books. Why?

“Books as Weapons” During World War II Subject of Author Discussion

I saw this as well.

How U.S. Publishers Won Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Allied Nations’ Readers

The book’s author, John B. Hench, will discuss and sign his work on Tuesday, Oct. 5, at noon in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the Center for the Book, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Darnton is speaking at the Library of Congress on October 15

I saw this and thought some of you might have interest.

Harvard University Library Director to Make “The Case for Books”

Robert Darnton to Discuss and Sign His New Book

An intellectual pioneer in the field of the history of the book and director of Harvard University’s Library,Robert Darnton will discuss and sign his new work: "The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future" (Public Affairs, 2010) on Friday, Oct. 15, at noon in the West Dining Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.