"international" entries
Open government data to fuel Kenya's app economy
The launch of Open Kenya suggests government as a platform is growing.
The government of Kenya has launched Open Kenya, an open data platform, and it's looking to the country's dynamic development community to make useful applications for its citizens.
At the eG8, 20th century ideas clashed with the 21st century economy
The eG8 shows online innovation and freedom of expression still need strong defenders.
While the first eG8 Forum in Paris featured hundreds of business and digital luminaries, some of the policies discussed should be of serious concern to entrepreneurs, activists, media and citizens around the world.
Mobile phones and smartphones are not the same thing
Comparing a basic mobile phone to a spiffy new smartphone is like comparing a circa-1993 desktop computer to a Macbook Pro. They're related in a basic sense, but the discrepancies are immense. Arthur Attwell, co-founder and CEO of Electric Book Works, expands on the divide between mobile phones and smartphones in an interview.
Emerging topics from TOC 2010
It's interesting to chart technical developments in the publishing industry against TOC's brief history. As Andrew Savikas notes in the following video, things like ebooks and mobile have evolved from small topics to dominant themes. If the pattern holds — and I don't know why it wouldn't — we'll see international markets and digital analytics claim more attention at…
The App Store and the Long Tail Part 2: The Real "DRM" At Stake
A few weeks ago I wrote about how the small number of sales from many different countries were adding up to more than the large number of sales from the US in the App Store for our books. Our success got me wondering why there’s not stronger interest from other publishers, especially trade publishers, in iPhone apps (besides concerns about pricing and the approval process). Then as I was looking at rankings for some of the top paid book apps, I spotted a possible answer.
[TOC Community] How Does Digital Affect Territorial Rights?
Over on the TOC Community, David Henley poses interesting questions about rights and territories: With the looming ebook and international POD availability, won't the traditional territorial rights market start to become shaky? Especially for publishers in countries like Australia whose main income comes from distributing US and UK owned content? Related Stories: Join the TOC Community…
iPhone Not Hot in Japan
The Wall Street Journal says iPhone sales are stagnating in Japan: According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months [July and August]. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the…
Twitter Faces Ramifications of Not Being Global
Twitter, the microblogging service, has had an uneven rollout of an economic model, and was never able to come to good terms on payments for instant messaging (SMS) through its application with mobile carriers abroad. Consequently, it has limited its instant message functionality to North America. On his blog, White African, Erik Hersman talks about the ramifications when you…
Borders Sells Stores in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore
From Shelf Awareness: Borders Group has sold its stores in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore to A&R Whitcoulls, the major Australian and New Zealand bookseller that is owned by private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners. The deal is valued at US $104 million (about $90 million now and up to $14 million in deferred payments next year) and should…