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Technology Rewrites the Book

"The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward the center of the marketplace"

Software from Blurb.com provides templates for various genres, like a travel book.

By PETER WAYNER -- Published: July 20, 2006

When Steve Mandel, a management trainer from Santa Cruz, Calif., wants to show his friends why he stays up late to peer through a telescope, he pulls out a copy of his latest book, “Light in the Sky,” filled with pictures he has taken of distant nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.

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Steve Mandel, above, created his book “Light in the Sky” using software from Blurb.com; the cover image is of the Hale-Bopp comet. “I consistently get a very big ‘Wow!’ The printing of my photos was spectacular — I did not really expect them to come out so well.” he said. “This is as good as any book in a bookstore.”

Mr. Mandel, 56, put his book together himself with free software from Blurb.com. The 119-page edition is printed on coated paper, bound with a linen fabric hard cover, and then wrapped with a dust jacket. Anyone who wants one can buy it for $37.95, and Blurb will make a copy just for that buyer.

The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward the center of the marketplace. What began as a way for publishers to reduce their inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound document. Short-run presses can turn out books economically in small quantities or singly, and new software simplifies the process of designing a book.

Our group's topic was "Bloggers. Are they newsmakers, newsfinders, opinion shapers or annotators"? We were a small group - but lively - including owners of businesses and people who although not owning the company would obviously have significant influence on decision-making. Experience included very senior corporate, finance, media, small business networks, creative, advertising, technology transfer. Two or three bloggers in the group.

These notes which I took as host of the group are mere snippets from a lively discussion - I'm hoping others who participated will add/comment/disagree etc.

One person was interested in the possibilities for using blogs to help with a small business network, another as part of developing corporate cohesion across several formerly discrete companies or business units. Interest expressed in the intra-corporate possibilities of blogs "behind the firewall", ie in VPN mode.

Discussion about Australia's government majority owned (for a while) telco Telstra and its Now We Are Talking group of blogs It was stated that the blog/s had been introduced on the initiative of one of the new American execs at Telstra and not without angst/resistance from others at a high level. Are the Telstra bloggers newsmakers, newsfinders, opinion shapers or annotators? Is there mainly a 'top down' view expressed - 'depends on who you talk to'. Feeling was that this was largely annotation. Noted there is some filtering by a person or persons with editorial overview, but as far as we know this is for inappropriate language etc, rather than to censor deviations from a corporate line. See also the acerbic post on Telstra's blogging venture, by Future of Media panelist Mark Jones on his Filtered blog - Now we are NOT talking.

One participant felt that the only reason for a blog or blogs would be to attract people to the company website. There was some inconclusive discussion about the community-building aspect and also the role of blogs in enabling a company to be more transparent.

One consultant regularly sees opportunities for clients to promote themselves more effectively by setting up a blog, especially in industries where there is tangible value in demonstrating openness, transparency, honesty, and getting people to trust the company - not every client wants to do that or follow through with a blog once initiated. A blog doesn't suit every client.

Noted in the small business context that only 44% of Australian businesses have a website.

Mention of the challenge of seeing that a blog could help the company you are working for and then having to get the CEO and/or senior management onside to enable it to happen. Wariness? Scepticism?

Brief discussion about wikis.

Mention of Trevor Cook as a leading and prolific blogger in the PR industry - see his Corporate Engagement group blog.