Entries tagged with “wikis” from Tools of Change for Publishing

Shelfari Rolls Out Editable Author Profiles

Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Shelfari is looking to spur author-reader community through editable author profiles (here's an example). From TechCrunch:

Each author's page will feature an open wiki in addition to a message board and a list of written books. Shelfari hopes to set itself apart from other big name wikis (namely Wikipedia) by encouraging authors themselves to join the community and modify their own pages. Many sites tend to discourage this practice because of obvious bias concerns, but Shelfari believes the interaction to be seen between authors and their fans will compensate for this drawback.

LibraryThing, another community-centric book site, also offers a level of editable profile information.

(Via Peter Brantley's read20 listserv.)

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New Publishing Models

Allen Noren
February 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

I spend a fair amount of my evening time searching for and studying new publishing models, most of which are unfortunately not being created by traditional publishers. Bill Burger of the Copyright Clearance Center talked about some excellent sites that we as publishers should be studying. They are:

Wikitravel: Though there are a plethora of travel sites available, this one is built on the very successful Wikipedia model. And now users can purchase a book through it, no traditional publisher involved.

Encyclopedia of Life: A dense and gorgeous site that comes to us without the involvement of a traditional publisher.

Sermo.com: A members-only site for doctors in the Boston area that publishes medical information, without the involvement of a traditional publisher.

I could add a bunch more to this list--Knol, 101 Cookbook, Baby Center--but the trend is clear, and if publishers aren't willing to participate in this new world, really participate, then alternatives will be created.