De digitale læseoplevelser vil snart skylle ind over Danmark. Vi pejler stemningen i bogbranchen når talen falder på e-readers og forretning.

PANEL: Jakob Larsen (DK) Supply Chain Manager, Lindhardt & Ringhof // Jørgen Balle Olesen (DK) direktør, Saxo.com // Lotte Garbers (DK) formand, Dansk Forfatterforening
MODERATOR: Tim Frank Andersen (DK) adm. direktør, Brandzation

Amazon Kindle, e-readeren der truer med at gøre bogreolen overflødig, er netop kommet til Danmark i en ny og forbedret udgave og bogbranchen står overfor den same turbulente digitalomvæltning som musikindustrien har oplevet. Vil det give ny luft til forlagene og skabe nye forretningsmuligheder for boghandlerne? Vil forfatterne i fremtiden få nemmere ved at udkomme – måske endda helt uden forlag? Mød repræsentanter fra forlaget, boghandlerne og forfatterne og døm selv om vi har set begyndelsen til enden for bøger som vi kender dem.

More on this topic
Information: Bogens fremtid er digital [juni 2009]
Ingeniøren: De trykte medier går til skærmen [august 2009]

De digitale læseoplevelser vil snart skylle ind over Danmark. Vi pejler stemningen i bogbranchen når talen falder på e-readers og forretning.

PANEL: Jakob Larsen (DK) Supply Chain Manager, Lindhardt & Ringhof // Jørgen Balle Olesen (DK) direktør, Saxo.com // Lotte Garbers (DK) formand, Dansk Forfatterforening
MODERATOR: Tim Frank Andersen (DK) adm. direktør, Brandzation

Amazon Kindle, e-readeren der truer med at gøre bogreolen overflødig, er netop kommet til Danmark i en ny og forbedret udgave og bogbranchen står overfor den same turbulente digitalomvæltning som musikindustrien har oplevet. Vil det give ny luft til forlagene og skabe nye forretningsmuligheder for boghandlerne? Vil forfatterne i fremtiden få nemmere ved at udkomme – måske endda helt uden forlag? Mød repræsentanter fra forlaget, boghandlerne og forfatterne og døm selv om vi har set begyndelsen til enden for bøger som vi kender dem.

De digitale læseoplevelser vil snart skylle ind over Danmark. Vi pejler stemningen i bogbranchen når talen falder på e-readers og forretning.

PANEL: Jakob Larsen (DK) Supply Chain Manager, Lindhardt & Ringhof // Jørgen Balle Olesen (DK) direktør, Saxo.com // Lotte Garbers (DK) formand, Dansk Forfatterforening
MODERATOR: Tim Frank Andersen (DK) adm. direktør, Brandzation

Amazon Kindle, e-readeren der truer med at gøre bogreolen overflødig, er netop kommet til Danmark i en ny og forbedret udgave og bogbranchen står overfor den same turbulente digitalomvæltning som musikindustrien har oplevet. Vil det give ny luft til forlagene og skabe nye forretningsmuligheder for boghandlerne? Vil forfatterne i fremtiden få nemmere ved at udkomme – måske endda helt uden forlag? Mød repræsentanter fra forlaget, boghandlerne og forfatterne og døm selv om vi har set begyndelsen til enden for bøger som vi kender dem.

Libraries are wonderful places IMHO. Besides being full of lovely media, they are full of real people inhabiting the city. I often seek out city libraries when visiting other parts of the world just to get a feel of the place. As centers of knowledge they somehow mirror the creative and curious outlook of the city and tell you a lot about the attitude of its citizens.

Some are of course more wonderful than others and I can only encourage anyone visiting Amsterdam to swing by the Openbare Bibliotheek Amsterdam (OBA) for look at a modern, well-balanced and user-friendly library. Just like the city itself – how about that!

It’s tempting to bore you with facts of its impressive scale and services but let’s just suffice to say that OBA is the largest public library in Europe and has 600 Mac/PC workstations among its 1000+ seats besides solid WiFi coverage. Wow.

It’s also tempting to bore you with my overly amorous musings about media, architecture and space for play, but instead I’ve decided to take some holiday snapshots of OBA interior. They don’t do it justice, but still I hope to purvey a sense of how this library does more than books – more than media even.

Maybe I’m blinded by library love here, but it truly seems to me that OBA succeeds in bridging the gaps between old media, new media and the users. On every one of its 10 spacious floors, books are as much a part of the interior design as they are media bits. Computers are not hidden away in bulky booths but put in the foreground and arranged imaginatively around the library. Users are not customers, but guests lounging everywhere and truly putting the library to use. The interior of the library balances on a fine edge between stylish minimalism and kindergarten playfulness and it’s mostly pulled of nicely.

The ongoing debate on the future of libraries in a world of digitized content is not in any way irrelevant. We need libraries to inspire future generations, but in a world of many media outlets going increasingly mobile, it’s time to think hard about how you frame the media on display and make it inspiring instead of awkward.

Situated on the Amsterdam waterfront-in-progress, overlooking the city and the passing canal boats, OBA with its multitude of activities and spaces for personal immersion provides a highly appropriate and much sought after frame for all its media-on-offer. The library becomes the medium of inspiration.

Did I mention I’m an avid fan? Here are some pics with mouse-over caption.

Born Digital is published with high praise from Creative Commons-founder Lawrence Lessig, who calls it ”required reading for parents, educators, and anyone who cares about the future.” And who doesn’t basically.

More specifically it’s the future of our teenagers, our culture, our businesses and our regulatory principles that is at stake, according to authors and Professors of Law, John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. The subtitle of their prediction analysis is “Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives” and it accounts for the societal changes brought on by digital technologies, the kids that are surfing them and the 30+ that are struggling to stay afloat.

The book excerpt states that digital natives “have come to have a degree of control over their cultural environment that is unprecedented,” but as much as this development requires caution, the authors wish “to suggest things that all of us – parents, teachers, leaders of companies, and lawmakers – can do to manage this extraordinary transition to a globally connected society without shutting the whole thing down.”

“The purpose of this book is to separate what we need to worry about from what’s not so scary, what we ought to resist from what we ought to embrace.”

This is beautifully in tune with social media pioneer Howard Rheingold’s message in this 3 minute interview: “Is internet communication beneficial or destructive to our social relationships, does it increase or drain away social capital from our societies. The answer: It depends on the knowledge we have of using these media.”

Rheingold, who teaches social media through social media at Stanford, sees it as a tremendous opportunity as well as a challenge for educators to guide the development of participatory media in a mutually beneficial direction. To make the Smart Mobs smarter, instead of more moblike, as he puts it.

I tried to remember incidents of either smart or moblike digital natives in Denmark (and all I got was this lousy t-shirt…?) but somehow I’m short of examples. Anyone? Or does high standard of living just coincide with exceptional social media morals?

Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to the suspenseful pages of Born Digital.