TOC Conference News

Innovation Transforms How Readers Receive Content

Sebastopol, CA, March 2, 2009 - The O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, held February 9-11, 2009 in New York City, highlighted the many dynamic possibilities ahead for publishers who embrace a digital future. At the heart of the world’s publishing capital, TOC showcased the tools, the business models, and the knowledge that publishers need to succeed in a changing landscape. The conference deciphered trends and technologies that can keep the industry profitable and more connected to readers.

In a time when naysayers question publishing’s very survival, TOC showed the industry how to flourish.

Featured keynotes included one by Tim O’Reilly, CEO and founder of O’Reilly Media, who gave conference-goers reasons to stay excited and optimistic about the future of publishing. Nick Bilton, who explores technologies for The New York Times R&D Labs, talked about the future of news. Bob Stein, executive director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, said books are no longer objects but instead are becoming places where readers and authors congregate. Other keynote speakers included Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo, Peter Brantley of Digital Library Federation, Neelan Choksi of Lexcycle, Cory Doctorow of Happy Mutants LLC, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books, Jason Fried of 37signals, Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com, Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan, and Nina Paley of Nina Paley Productions.

Read the full press release.

Not so long ago, conventional wisdom was that the publishing industry was somehow immune to many of the developments that have transformed every other form of media over the past few years. Book publishers held a deep and abiding faith in the power of the printed volume to withstand the insurgency of digital media.

That faith has fractured a bit over the past year as publishers have watched the surprising success of the Kindle and the emergence of the iPhone as a viable digital reading device.

Suddenly publishers are racing to come to terms with their digital future. In recent months we’ve seen publishers delivering iPhone apps, experiment with DRM-free content, and offering free downloads.

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen this exact same transformation take place in nearly every other form of media. From past history we know that once the digital media ball starts rolling, the status quo can change very rapidly. It is, no doubt, an exciting time to watch the publishing industry, but a scary time to actually be part of that industry — unless, of course, you’re open to new business models and a complete reinvention of everything you do.

There’s no better place to watch the future of publishing unfold than at O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change conference, the annual event that attracts industry professionals, visionaries, and thought leaders.

TOC 09 is scheduled to run from February 9 through 11th in New York City. This year’s event features a full slate of presentations and panel discussions from some of the industry’s leading thinkers, including Tim O’Reilly, Jeff Jarvis, Cory Doctorow, and our own Kassia Krozser, who will be leading the “Smart Women Read eBooks” panel.

Last year’s conference was sold out, and I have no doubt the same will be true this year. While the economy is bad and companies everywhere are looking to cut expenses, TOC is one of those events that’s just too important for publishers to miss.

Read the article.

Program Will Explore What Digital Publishing Means Today

Sebastopol, CA, October 28 - Registration has opened for the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, taking place February 9-11, 2009, at the Marriot Marquis Times Square in New York City. Program Chair Andrew Savikas and co-Chair Mac Slocum have announced the program, which investigates the emerging trends in digital publishing through keynotes, sessions, tutorials, panels, and other events designed to surpass the high expectations inspired by the sold-out TOC 2008.

The third annual TOC Conference will decipher the tools of change for the industry and help cut through the hype in order to reach a more profitable future in publishing. From authoring, editing, and layout to distribution and consumption, new technologies will continue to change all aspects of publishing. TOC 2009 will focus on industry-wide strategic issues, like the changing retail and supply-chain landscape. In addition to examining “long-view” trends, the conference will also supply practical tales from pioneers already experimenting and innovating on the digital frontier of paid content.

Read the full press release.

The O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference 2009 will parse the future February 9-11, 2009, at the Marriot Marquis in New York City. Following last year’s sold-out conference in New York, Program Chair Andrew Savikas invites proposals for conference sessions and tutorials for this third year of the TOC Conference.

“The 2009 TOC Conference will explore the changing meaning of ‘digital publishing.’ New devices like the Kindle and the iPhone have opened up new sales and distribution channels for paid content, and those channels are as open to new players as to existing publishers. New business models are emerging that look very strange to a publisher, but at their core do the familiar jobs of developing content, aggregating audiences, and connecting the two. The act of publishing is here to stay, but the role of existing publishers remains an open question,” says Savikas.

Read more.

Andrew Savikas, chair of the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, on The Times and Derek Gottfrid’s presentation at OSCON:

But there’s something going on at the Times that probably won’t make it to Silicon Alley Insider, much less the mainstream business press, and it’s something that’s starting to make me think the Times just might succeed in adapting to the changing rules of the media and publishing game (though there will almost certainly be many more casualties before it’s over).

So what’s the Times doing that’s so important? They’re hacking.

Read the rest of the story.

Kassia Krozser’s post on the JK Rowling proceedings has started a vigorous conversation. She also cites a presentation made at TOC 2008:

Last week’s JK Rowling/Warner Brothers versus RDR Books trial made me very uncomfortable. On one hand, I completely support an author’s right to protect copyright. It’s time this nation (world, really) learned serious lessons about copyright — what it is, how it’s applied, fair use (yes, kids, fair use is part of copyright). But there’s something, well, chilling about how this case has played out…Rowling is famously protective of her copyright, to the point that her zealousness has backfired. As Kirk Biglione noted in his “Tools of Change” presentation (download PDF), Rowling’s refusal to release an ebook version of the “Harry Potter” series due to fear of piracy (among other reasons) lead to, you guessed it!, increased piracy without a single legal alternative for consumers. Demand existed for the ebook — small demand, sure, but demand — yet only the pirates met it.

Bill Kasdorf has posted a thoughtful article on the conference:

The recent O’Reilly Tools of Change conference (February 11-13 in New York) - whose catchy acronym, TOC, belies its focus on books - was, as advertised, all about change. (Tools, not so much.) Although there wasn’t one standout bowl-them-over demonstration or announcement like the one that captivated attendees at the inaugural TOC last year in San Jose (a book that enabled you to interact with the Web via its “print” pages), there was plenty of buzz. And that buzz frequently threatened to escalate into a rumble or a roar. Arguably more significant than any dazzling demo could be, it was the recurring theme that packed the most punch: The world of publishing is changing in fundamental ways that can be ignored but not avoided - and ignored only at serious peril to some of publishing’s most firmly established paradigms.

It’s not just for students anymore. In an interview recorded at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference held in New York City on February 11, 2008, Beyond the Book’s Christopher Kenneally talks with Dan Gillmor, Director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.

Kermit Pattison references TOC in this Fast Interview with Harlequin’s Brent Lewis on how romance novels are being read–and writte–on cell phones and why size really doesn’t matter.

Harvard Business Digital shot and shared their TOC session, Gadgetopia II:

Kassia Krozser has posted two very thoughtful pieces about TOC 2008 over on Booksquare:

• What Have You Done For Me Lately?
• Putting The Multidirectional In Conversation

Peter Osnos posted this piece on the event:

In New York last week there was a three-day event in a midtown hotel called the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, organized by O’Reilly Media, one of the leading digital information companies. These occasions have a particular rhythm of keynotes, breakouts, and networking designed to feature the new products of supporting vendors and panels or speakers evangelizing for their take on the next big thing. Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail, for example, and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell were seminal in defining the phenomena of media delivery and popular preference. For all the brouhaha around the digital revolution, I should add, both of these were read in very large numbers in printed books. In any case, the goal of Tools of Change and similar occasions is to find coherent ways to explain change in the media world and to supply the apparatus and services these systems make necessary.

Andrew R. Albanese devoted two sections of the February 12 issue to TOC articles, “Publishers Look Warily to the Future” and “Publishers: If You’re Not Failing, You’re Not Trying Hard Enough.”

Dave Kellogg, CEO of Mark Logic Corporation, posted some notes and thoughts on Tim’s TOC presentation.

On February 12, 2008, Near-Time and O’Reilly Media announced the prepress launch of Software Craftsmanship on the Near-Time platform. The site features the entire book contents and includes interactive components powered by Near-Time.

Ron Hogan posted several entries on TOC:

• O’Reilly: It Ain’t Easy Being Free, But It Can Work
• Tools of Change: Stephen Abram
• Tools of Change: Bill Burger
• Tools of Change: Seth Godin
• Tools of Change: Quick Takes

More notes from participant George Walkley, on talks by Bob Young of Lulu, Tim O’Reilly, and Kirk Biglione.

“The second O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference ends today,” wrote Caroline Vanderlip last week, “and it is remarkable to see how much more vibrant this conference was compared to the first last summer. Yes, the first was in CA - close to the tech world that is supplying many of the ‘tools’ but not to the greatest number in the publishing community, for whom these tools are meant. But I also believe that the publishing world has started to embrace the digital era more energetically, recognizing that it will transform the industry in untold ways, and attention needs to be paid.”

At Authorlink, Doris Booth has posted two stories:

• O’Reilly Teen Panel Turns Up Surprises On Digital Lifestyles–A group of six teenagers ranging from 13 to 20 gave some surprising insights into their digital lifestyles February 13 at the O’Reilly Tools for Change conference in New York.
• Publishers Prepare For Transformation At O’Reilly Event–Today’s publishers face a gaping landscape of technological change, from everywhere they turn– in writing and development, production, distribution and consumption, in bean counting and legal departments.

Calvin Reid has posted a thoughtful piece wrapping up the last day of the conference, opening with “Although this year’s O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference may have lacked the keynote star power of last year’s event, the conference’s move from San Jose to Manhattan clearly reaped benefits.”

We pre-recorded an interview for TOC with Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users and O’Reilly CEO Tim O’Reilly to show on the opening day. We’ve just posted it on blip.tv with the keynote presentations from 2007.

Today marks the conclusion of the second annual O’Reilly TOC (Tools of Change) Conference for Publishing,” writes Michael Drew. ” As you might expect, virtually every discussion that took place at that conference revolved in some way, shape, or form around how technology is evolving the book industry.”

TOC participant George Walkley has written the first in a series of posts with his notes from the conference, bullet-point style.

Mark Coker, a speaker at TOC this year, made this announcement at the conference about his company, Smashwords:

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ — O’Reilly Tools of Change — Smashwords, a new digital publishing startup, today previewed a breakthrough ebook publishing platform for authors and publishers at the O’Reilly Tools of Change publishing conference in New York City. The company began accepting applications today for a limited number of beta testers at http://www.smashwords.com .

TOC committee member Jeff Gomez muses on the idea of content vs. context vs. contact:

During this morning’s opening keynote sessions of the second O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, which is being held this week in Manhattan, a number of the speakers did their best to kill the age-old (well, maybe not age-old, but certainly decade-old) notion that “content is king.”

TOC sponsor LibreDigitial made this announcement at TOC today:

New eCompile Services Allows Publishers to Deliver Custom Book Content Offerings On-Demand

NEW YORK - February 12, 2008 - At the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, LibreDigital, a division of NewsStand, Inc., today announced the availability of its next-generation eCompile Service, a technology enhancement to the LibreDigital Internet Warehouse for Publishers that empowers forward-thinking publishers to provide consumers with book “mash-ups” - or custom books made from content compiled from different book titles in publisher portfolios.

Calvin Reid provides an overview of some of the first-day highlights at TOC:

O’Reilly’s second annual Tools of Change for Publishing conference opened yesterday in New York City with a series of keynote speakers who challenged publishers to embrace opportunities in a new digital era that has fundamentally transformed the nature of reading, the delivery of content and, indeed, the role of the publisher altogether.

Conference-goer Patrick Nielsen-Hayden blogged some of his favorite lines of the conference so far:

In case any Making Light readers happen to be here, I should mention that I’m at the O’Reilly Tools for Change for Publishing conference in New York all day today, as I was most of yesterday as well…it’s been pretty interesting. From my erratic notes, some favorite moments so far:

Stephen Abram: “What does it mean to deal with a world with too much information? By 2020 your iPod will have enough storage for all the information ever created in all media. Formats die; human social needs trump everything.”

Ben Vershbow: “Curating the conversation will be a whole new kind of editorial job.”

Abram again: “Context, not ‘content,’ is king. If you don’t know the context in which your users are inhaling your information and making use of it, what their goals are, you’re not there.”

One of our TOC participants is blogging TOC:

Today and tomorrow, I’m at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference, for work. I’m here to understand how the publishing industry is using technology, and how I can help them get their digital content on site faster and more effectively.

The conference started with the message that the biggest challenge facing publishers isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. Following that were many keynotes and sessions that focused around the idea of creating and engaging with community.

Over on his Publishers Weekly blog, David Rothman writes about a new tool for small publishers:

Tizra, Inc., a new company based in Providence, R.I., which is putting on a demonstation Monday at around 7:30 p.m. at the Tools of Change Conference in New York, is aiming for customers like you. The same demo link will lead to info on other five-minute presentations from organizations ranging from the accessibility-oriented DAISY Consortium to Tipjoy (”supporting free content through micropayment tipping”).

Carlie Fairchild, publisher of Linux Journal, lists some highlights of the first day of TOC:

I’m in NYC for the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference. Here we have a chance to meet like-minded publishers, albeit most here are in the book, not magazine business. Regardless the attendees here say words like “XML”, “RSS” and “long tail” and we’re just giddy to hear our little techie language spoken.

Program chair Andrew Savikas announced two new features to further the conversation around the future of publishing: Tools of Change for Publishing blog and the TOC Job Board.

Seybold’s John Parsons has written an overview of TOC (pdf), picking out some of the sessions and topics he finds most meaningful.

A nice pick up on the latest TOC news release:

Driven by the Internet, technology is fundamentally transforming publishing.

Blogger Fran Toolan writes about publishing issues, referencing TOC in a larger piece:

I would argue that publishers need to become - or re-emerge as - ‘Reader Services companies’. They need to facilitate the styles and habits of the reader in whatever form or fashion that reader is, and to lower the barriers that exist between the brain of the recipient and the ideas of the author.

Medialoper is lending support for TOC 2008:

TOC is an O’Reilly Media sponsored event, designed to help the slow moving world of book publishing ease gently into the 21st century. It’s the place to be if you have any interest at all in the future of publishing. It’s also one of those rare events that will likely have a substantial impact on an entire industry for years to come.

Here is the official registration is open release for the Tools of Change Conference:

2008 TOC Conference Will Turn the Page on Publishing Technology

Always nice to get a conference mention in the GalleyCat. Ron Hogan plugs TOC:

When I met SharedBook CEO Caroline Vanderlip at the O’Reilly “Tools of Change” conference this summer, one of the first ideas I got from her company’s “reverse publishing platform,” which essentially allows users to pick and choose from a database of registered content and assemble their own books, was for personalized cookbooks.

Here is an official copy of the “call for participation” news release for TOC:

Call for participation is now open

TOC also got a mention with Publisher’s Weekly:

The conference, which focuses on the way technology is shaping and changing the industry, will this year explore what defines today’s publishing business.

More mentions of our TOC call for participation….

Last June we told you about O’Reilly Media’s inaugural Tools of Change for Publishing conference (TOC), an event designed to expose publishers to a range of new technologies that are transforming their industry.

Cory mentions TOC in this post:

O’Reilly is throwing their second annual conference on the future of publishing, called “Tools of Change,” next February in New York, and they’re looking for talk proposals

This is detailed article about O’Reilly Media, Tim ,and eventually discusses the Tools of Change Conference:

Open the door to O’Reilly Media’s headquarters and you won’t see the usual reception desk. Instead, you’ll enter a minilibrary stacked with an impressive collection of its publications in its floor-to-ceiling bookcases.