Here is a definition of "sequester" that isn't the real definition but what we now talk about. A sequester is a situation where a party (or parties) agree to a horribly painful and costly course of action to themselves in the event that they do not take a certain action. For the US Congress, the …
The Sullied Media Model
Andrew Sullivan is one of the world's best known and well-read bloggers. Or is he a journalist. I have no idea. Nor do I really care. He writes things and people read them. Up until recently, Sullivan has worked on mainstream publishing platforms like Time and The Atlantic and then to the less mainstream Daily …
Does The Magazine Want to be Shared?
Macro Arment, the founder of one of my favourite apps, Instapaper, launched a magazine in Apple's Newstand app last year called The Magazine. Thusfar, The Magazine has received much discussion with regard to two things. First, it was accessible via an app-only subscription of $1.99 per month (there were two issues per month each containing …
Gesture control and the QWERTY effect
How we interact with devices is evolving. We started with the keyboard for a century before we added the mouse. On mobile devices, it was the keypad so much so that I remember a tech exec playing futurologist to me around the turn of the century and claiming that the kids want devices that use …
A Legend in Economics Passes
By Professor Thomas N. Hubbard, Senior Associate Dean, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Armen Alchian died yesterday. He was 98. Many economists of my generation did not know Armen personally. However, signs of his work are pervasive in the field. There are many good examples of this in the research and teaching of many …
BBC Talk
The video stream from the BBC Seminar on the Economics of Broadcasting that I discussed a few weeks ago is now up. You can access it here. My talk is the third on the list and it is entitled (this will surprise no one), Television Wants to be Shared. There are lots of interesting talks …
Looking again at "Big Deal" scholarly journal packages
One of the things pointed to in the debate over market power and scholarly journals is the rise of "Big Deal" packages. Basically, this has arisen as publishers bundle journals together for a single price. Indeed, as the publishers have merged and acquired more titles, these bundled packages have become more compelling with individual journal …
Continue reading "Looking again at "Big Deal" scholarly journal packages"
First Impressions of Mailbox
Mailbox is a new app for the iPhone. It is one in a growing series of attempts to re-think what email is about. I have written about this previously here. What these new email solutions are doing is recognising that your inbox is really one big to-do list and trying to restructure how you deal …
Game Structure
For several years, commentators have forecast that the rise in smartphones and tablets, as well as Facebook, would upend the structure of the gaming market. A variety of novel adroit aliens and irascible animals symbolically represent the new order, while new companies from new genres alter the identities of suppliers. Methinks that all the talk …
Tools of Change for Publishing
I have just spent the last couple of days in New York at O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing conference. This is a fairly large gathering of publishers, authors and technology providers for them. I was a little out of place there as an economist academic but did have a healthy audience for my talk …
