What’s more interesting is that books aren’t a whole new thing; they have been with us for such a long time that we can derive a much better sense for what people /need/, we just have to figure out what they would like, or what they would like when they see/feel/use but don’t know it yet. The web was all new and unproven, and had remained unproven for a very long while; to this day, we still stumble forwards with what the web ought to be.

For me as a technologist, there are few things more exciting to be at this meeting point where we are essentially evolving a very old medium. It means there are old “habits” we have to deal with, but that’s only part of it. Gives me goosebumps, it does.

– [publishers] need to continue to keep things locked down and in the maw until we figure out how to inflate prices in other ways to keep margins high enough for everyone to get a cut

-and-

– we should explore every imaginable way to disseminate content and reach readers, even if that means giving it away for free or looking-the-other-way and tacitly accepting a limited amount of the ILLEGAL and BAD.

Then I came home and took a swig of the mouthwash that is Lewis Hyde’s The Gift, to remind myself that we as creators don’t have to keep literature confined to strict market terms.

Love the Zen Garden– big fat kudos!
– Mtte.

I think the techy sessions probably attracted more resistance, because skills/jobs are on the line due to changing tech.

I was actually shocked at how positive the engagement was in the rest of the sessions.

And yes, I did not quite get this: “we need clearer price signals on ebooks…” but I did not have the chance to talk with the woman who said it.