I'm reposting this as I think it's a great idea. From Richard Guthrie's blog: Many of us write and paint and produce and perform work of all kinds. What if we joined together into a collective and begin to explore spreading the word about each other’s works through our own online lists, blogs etc..It could develop all sorts of unseen paths. Many of us are all doing it already but instead of keeping it all in-house let’s open our doors and windows and cross bridges… The deal: each of provides the other with materials. We share our lists, our...

Good news from the Wattpad people. They say that 20 Android phones will be out by the end of the year. That's a surprise to me. From the press release they sent me: Wattpad, the world’s most popular ebook community, today announced the availability of its popular mobile application on Google’s Android Market. “With over 20 new Android-based phones available before the end of 2009, Android has definitely reached critical mass,” enthused Eva Lau, COO of Wattpad. “We are extremely pleased to bring the Wattpad experience to all Android users.” Wattpad is the world’s most widely used mobile...

This looks as if it could be extremely useful. I've added a bookmark in Safari and am going to check it out. Thanks to Download Squad for the link. What is unique about DocMazy? DocMazy was created so users could search the internet for documentation files such as word files or powerpoint presentations. This is helpful because many of those pages are lost on the internet. DocMazy allows users to search these "lost" files directly and generate a preview of them straight in the browser. Many users will find this useful so that they can uncover more information on a...

Picked this up through Digital Koans and you can read the full press release here: The University of Kansas has become the nation’s first public university to adopt an “open access” policy that makes its faculty’s scholarly journal articles available for free online. The move aligns KU with Harvard and Stanford universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which have similar policies in place. Scholarly articles — the method by which a professor presents original research results — normally are published in peer-reviewed journals and available only through paid subscriptions. Under the new faculty-initiated policy approved by Chancellor Robert Hemenway, digital copies of all...

As soon as I get some time I'm going to check this out in detail: Northwestern University has put online more than 7,000 rare photographs of East Africa that document the European colonization of the area from 1860 through 1960. The images made available to the public today in the Humphrey Winterton Collection of East African Photographs were purchased by the university in 2002 for an undisclosed price. David L. Easterbrook, curator of the university’s Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, said the collection contains photographs and postcards showing how Europeans used the landscape for commercial purposes, as well as images made...

Should librarians care about DRM and e-book standards and affordable hardware? Maybe they should read No more free e-books. PalmAddicts picked up the following complaint from Linda Pettit in beautiful Oak Hill, West Virginia, shown in the photo: “I have been downloading e-books from the library for years…but now I can’t read the books on my Palm m500 anymore. Sure, I could sit at the computer and read them but what fun is that. The libraries now require you to download a new version of Adobe reader, and now the only mobile device you can...

Kevin Herrera, head of  library information technology at the University of Mississippi Libraries, hopes you’ll fill out the appropriate survey(s) below. Respectively, the two surveys are for: Users of e-books, e-book hardware, and e-book software Library employees Whether you live inside or outside the U.S., here’s a chance to speak up on such issues as e-book costs vs. those for p-books. As described, the study concerns “use of e-books, e-book readers such as the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader, and e-book software on portable devices such as smartphones....

Many Kindle fans celebrate their ability to focus on books and articles. They don’t want the distractions of a sophisticated Web browser or decent e-mail program. For the latest articulation of this viewpoint, check out a PaidContent post headlined The Real Genius of The Kindle? The Return of ‘Unitasking’---by SmartMoney’s Tom Weber: Over a few weeks, I rediscovered my ability to simply read the book or article I had punched up in the first place. (Just like---gasp!---old-fashioned printed matter.) It’s particularly enjoyable when reading a newspaper or magazine—enough so that I’ve been...

“Ownership isn’t a panacea, especially in an age of information abundance. Will I be concerned if the Kindle dies and books I’ve read on it become inaccessible on that platform? Not really. If I want to read them again, there will be plenty of alternative ways in the future. And my bookshelves long ago stopped being my collection of known facts and resources.” – Kent Anderson, in The Scholarly Kitchen. The TeleRead take: Raw red meat to start the week. Have at it, gang. Here’s a head start. Related: Psst! Amazon DRM may limit how many clips...

What a laugh---e-book standards without provisions for shared annotations! I remain disappointed that the IDPF hasn’t acted on this, at least not to my knowledge. Just what’s up, guys? Publishers should fret less over locking up textbooks and more about ways to increase their utility, so they stand less chance of losing out to Wikis and the open Web. And don’t just think of annotations within individual books, but among all books. Some annotations may apply to more than one title, for example. Meanwhile Peter Brantley at the Internet Archive has pointed to a presentation on...

David and I had a great time at the MobileRead meet up. Here are a couple of shots of various readers in Nate the Great’s impressive collection. MobileRead's policy is not to publish pictures of its members---to ensure their privacy---so I haven't included any other pictures here. Kaz won an autographed copy of David's book The Solomon Scandals and Nate won a CD from Steve Jordan with his latest SF book. It was great fun to put some faces to the names I've been reading all these years. Technorati Tags: Nate the Great,Steve Jordan Books,Lens...

David was intrigued by my bike and asked me to post a picture and tell you a bit about it. It's a 2001 BMW K1200LTC with about 50,000 miles on it. It's 1200 cc's and weighs about 950 pounds. It has got heated seats and handgrips, CB radio, AM, FM 4 speaker stereo with cassette player and a CD changer in the trunk. I use my iPod with it most of the time, however. It also has cruise control, an electric windshield that can be raised and lowered, reverse gear, and, most importantly, anti-lock brakes....