Re: Olivia Judson

["Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@gmail.com>]

I doubt that it is ture that "If it were up to commercial 
publishers, the web would never have been built."  Some 
commercial publishers, at any rate, have profited handsomely from 
the Web.  If they sometimes appear to be draggng their feet, it 
is because they are weighed down by sacks of gold.

Joe Esposito

----- Original Message -----
From: <lesliechan@rogers.com>
To: <liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 4:15 PM
Subject: Re: Olivia Judson

> Another perspective is that most, if not all, the innovations
> identified by Ian Russell took place outside of the publishing
> industry first.  Some of the innovations were then adopted by the
> publishers and their adoption were mostly driven by users demand.
> The key driver behind most publishing innovations is of course
> the Web and the true "hidden revolution" is Open Access. If it
> were up to commercial publishers, the web would never have been
> built, and we would not be talking about Google, Wikipedia and
> 2.0...
>
> Leslie Chan
> University of Toronto Scarborough
>
> ________________________________
> From: Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2009 5:02:54 PM
> Subject: RE: Olivia Judson
>
> I agree: any objective analysis of changes in the publishing
> industry would have to conclude that the pace of change and
> innovation over the past two decades has been the greatest since
> the time of Gutenberg.  For university presses, I would mention
> that the use of digital printing technology to solve the #1
> problem in the industry--slow-moving inventory that results in
> problems for cash flow--has been nothing less than what John
> Thompson, in his "Books in the Digital Age," called a "hidden
> revolution." Those outside the industry can perhaps be excused
> for not understanding just how much has been going on. I've been
> in publishing for 40 years, and the last 20 have seen a great
> deal more innovation and change than the previous 20 did by far.
>
> Sandy Thatcher
> Penn State University Press