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Interesting articles about magazine design. There's definitely a change in terms of fewer innovative designs, but overall magazines are playing it safe and with no wonder when print sells keep declining.
Cool Quote: "Lois's basic beef is that magazines are trying too hard to make their inside pages look like the Internet, and that editors refuse to take chances on "ideas" covers, like the ones he was famous for at Esquire."
links for 2009-12-07 December 8, 2009
links for 2009-12-02 December 3, 2009
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This article talks about people displaying their true personalities on facebook. This study adds to the ideas of authenticity that comes with the internet.
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Interesting interview about email marketing by Sarah Wendall
links for 2009-12-01 December 2, 2009
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By Guest Contributor Aymar Jean Christian, originally published at Televisual
For my first post on black web series, including links to shows, click here.
From my Wall Street Journal post:
“Doing a Web series, working in this new medium,
Harlequin Horizons, Fail? November 23, 2009
Harlequin: The North American Romance Giant
Last week I posted a link on Harlequin Enterprise’s new business venture in the book industry: self-publishing. EBooks and the digital age of the Internet have made self-publishing easier and brought what was once a common practice for budding writings to the forefront.
It’s obvious that a company such as Harlequin would be interested in getting something like this since even romance novels need to stay afloat in these unsure times for print. What has turned all of this on its ear is that Harlequin has built a community around its authors and readers approaching them with familiarity and essentially setting themselves up as not just a company or a brand, but a community. (they must have read Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book Groundswell)
But the groundswell has definitely turned since most people in the community have turned against Harlequin for shameless promoting Harlequin Horizons in the rejection letters to potential authors. A lot of people are calling it a betrayal within the community and the brand Harlequin showing it’s more business-like colors.
SB Sarah sum it up best in her post on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. It’s Harlequin’s branding inconsistency.
“That said, corporations have one responsibility and one responsibility alone—namely: to make money for shareholders. So Harlequin’s effort to increase profits is not out of order at all. However, everything about the Horizons launch contrasted severely with the branding of Harlequin up to that point, and the volume of the outcry reflected that disconnect. In effect, that inconsistency created a major loss of goodwill.”
It’s something that a lot of business are struggling with. How do we participate in the familiarity of the Internet but maintain our business ventures for our shareholders? It’s clear that here Harlequin in its efforts to start something new and exciting in the community, pushed too hard and built suspicion.
I have to agree with SB Sarah. Harlequin can bounce back from this. It’s an internationally known publisher that has built a reputation for trying new things and building a relationship with the costumer especially in the digital age of eBooks. It’s a business that doing relatively well in the Web 2.0 world, so I don’t think this slip will bring down the giant.
Quote of the Day
“A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.” ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
Note: If this is the case, Harlequin is an exhibitionist and will be able to turn the other “cheek”.
Getting Self-Published and Other Book Related Links November 20, 2009
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Harlequin is starting a a package service for self publishing. This is pretty cool move to be making by a large publishing house, especially when a lot of budding authors are self-publishing because the internet and eBooks make it so easy to distribute. Harlequin is one of the few books publishers doing well in the digital age of the book industry.
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SB Sarah from Smart Bitches Trashy Books talks about the iPod Touch and iPhone as Reading devices when compared to most eReading devices. Some of the complaints include the fact the eReader is a unitask device just for reading while the iPhone and the Touch do more. I think besides color, this may be one of the reasons why the mythical iTablet is so anticipated in the eReading market.
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The unitask days of gaming consoles are coming to an end. You can also stream movies from Netflix on the xBox 360 (and the PS3) as well. While the Wii has cool function capabilities that continue to bring in new casual gamers I think the xBox 360 and PS3 and becoming less of a tool for gaming and more of an entertainment system.
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It’s funny you keep hearing about the iTablet and not even Apple has actually announced that it will come into fruition. What’s funny is that this was announced by component distributors who I would think wouldn’t actually be allowed by Apple to announce something like this.
Beloved Quote:”But until it is officially announced, the only place to get one will be in the Atlantis Apple Store, which is staffed by unicorns.”
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A Bit of the beaten path in terms of new technology, but do we really need underwear with GPS.
Quote: “‘This collection … is a wink to women and a challenge to men because, even if she gives him the password to her GPS, she can always turn it off,’ Iorio told AFP. “She can be found only if she wants to [be].” It’s Kinky but in a bad way.
links for 2009-11-12 November 13, 2009
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A sensor chip and an iPhone come together in marriage to Trekkie proportions. This device created by scientist from NASA can detect killer gases in the air. Cool.
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This outlet will have to work out until there is an international standard on power plugs…one day.
links for 2009-11-11 November 12, 2009
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Here is a video on ways to include Cisco Networking into a company. This one looks specfically at Security on Elon's campus.
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I like this article about how reality television has infected the documentary and thus a documentary heavy channel like the History Channel that's being forced to change.
Nice Quote: "Now, the network is beyond parody. The viewing public is, the programmers seem to feel, unwilling to watch anything that doesn't involve Da Vinci-Code-style speculation, cryptic pseudo-historians, and, whenever possible, the paranormal. Three times in the past week I tried to find a comforting educational program. I was presented with Ancients Behaving Badly, something about Lord of the Rings involving what looked like a reenactment of the movies, and Ancient Aliens, respectively. Take a smattering of shows from the current schedule: Nostradamus Effect: Satan's Army; MysteryQuest: The Lost City of Atlantis; Fort Knox: Secrets Revealed and UFO Hunters: The Silencers. I never thought I'd be so glad to run across Civil War Journal: Stonewall Jackson."
Learning on the Internet November 11, 2009
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about the internet, interactive learning, and education of the masses. You could say that for the past couple of weeks I’ve been going through some experimentation and testing with the craft of crocheting. That’s right, crochet.
Crochet Doily from Sweden
One day a few weeks back, I spent that afternoon with an old college roommate. We did the normal catching up and we even stopped at Hobby Lobby because I convienced her to knit me a scarf (which I’m really excited about). I had a sudden spurt of desire to learn something new. Something that didn’t necessarily require a computer and allowed me to be creative (which in poorly lacking in my life as of right now). So I bought a crochet needle, a small ball of yarn, but no how to book. My thought being almost automatically. I’ll look it up on Youtube.
When I started, this was the Youtube video I followed first.
I found it to be relatively easy and the instructer was a great help up until I started doing single and double stitch and then using the related videos column I moved onto a different instructor.
What’s great about the internet right now is that it believes in the power of free on principle. There isn’t an expectation to pay. I can learn, change instructors to suit my taste and find what really interest me without too much damage to my wallet. I mean I started a hobby with less then five dollars and that’s mostly because I didn’t need to buy the 24 dollar book in the store, I had Youtube.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist” ~ Louis Nizer
links for 2009-11-04 November 5, 2009
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by Guest Contributor Dumi Lewis, originally published at Uptown Notes.
I like that this article looks at many issues that cropping up in not just Morehouse, but HBCUs around the country that are dealing with changes in the community but not able to move at the rapid rate of change.Dear Old Morehouse,
I’ve been trying to avoid writing this for some time now. As an alumnus of the institution, it’s hard for me to see you in such condition. Many
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Some tips for writing a good cover letter that will help you get the job.
Some Thoughts on the Museum Experience November 4, 2009
The Dancers by George Segal (1971)
How do you bring the art museum experience to the web?
Have you ever been to the museum and noticed things beyond just the artwork being displayed? What’s the atmosphere being portrayed by the museum and what gives it that once in a lifetime experience that makes you satisfied with laying down cold hard cash to look at artifacts that often force you to think in ways you’re not to sure of in the first place?I mean really when you think about it you go to museum for the same reason you would go to the movie theatre or church, its providing an experience that you can’t get anywhere else.
As capstone time rolls around (already?!) for this program, I’ve been thinking about different projects that I would be able to work on and feasibly finish. One of them has been thinking about the museum website and bringing forth a unique experience for users through the screen. Handling issues of the unique and single object, issues of too much information being handed to the audience, and even issues of elitism in the museum space. People can barely answer the question of who the museum is suppose to be for (the knowledgeable elite or the everyman), so how can we even handle this question for something like the internet where the individual is king (queen) and it’s all about having it your way (sorry Burger King)?
I talked to my advisor…he said it was too much for a semester long capstone.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to pursue the idea and collect a portfolio of information on museum websites, aims of the museum, articles and other such pieces as a personal reference that I could boil down into a how to for the museum website one day.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Even though the museums guarding their precious property, fence everything off; in my own studio, I made them so you and I could walk in and around, and among these sculptures.” ~ George Segal
