Publishers freak out because Amazon’s cutting into their territory

cause Amazon, with its growing clout as an e-book outlet and ability to work around the traditional system, has made significant inroads as a publisher of books, with at least one bestseller to its name. They will publish 122 books this fall in electronic and physical form.
reaction Large publishers and agents are starting to freak out. In one case, Hawaiian writer Kiana Davenport angered the publisher of a forthcoming book and got sued because she dared use Amazon to self-publish an old anthology no publisher wanted. source

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So why are government and media going after Craigslist? The same reason, I think, that media and government in, for example, Germany are demonizing Google (even as the German people give Google its biggest market share anywhere in the world). They’re going after the disruptors, the biggest disruptors in sight.
Jeff Jarvis • Explaining his reasoning about the whole Craigslist “Adult Services” thing, which sounds like a fairly original angle on the whole thing. Craigslist has cost the newspaper industry billions in revenue by simply being able to provide a once-expensive service (classified ads) for free. With a decline in classified revenue of $13 billion across the industry, which might make the media more apt to give this controversy a little extra coverage. “I’m not suggesting conspiracy; I rarely do,” Jarvis writes. “But I do see old power structures huddling together against the cold breath of technologists bringing change.” Remember creative destruction? This is how oid dinosaurs can react to it, if it’s necessary. source

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They actually got a first issue out the door. And it looks pretty neat. Best of luck! source

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Netbooks are popular Sure, lots of people could use the horsepower of a speedy laptop or a top-tier desktop computer (MacBook for lyfe), but many are choosing to go with cheap Netbooks instead. These computers are small, inexpensive, sometimes as low as $200, and often use open-source software such as Ubuntu. They can’t handle much more than surfing the Web and hitting up YouTube, but for many, that’s all they need.
It’s happened before Back in the 1990s, the players atop the tech heap included America Online and Sun Microsystems, both relegated to footnotes in today’s market. With netbooks and other disruptive technologies, the cycle could repeat itself: Current big players like Microsoft just announced huge layoffs, and CEO Steve Ballmer noted this fear when announcing the layoffs. “Our model is not for a quick rebound,” he said.
“Creative destruction”Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist from the early 20th century, seems to have nailed the current workings of Silicon Valley with his writings on business cycles. Basically, companies rise to the top of the heap, only to be taken down by other companies with smarter, more svelte ideas. The rise and fall of companies leads to more innovation. And a pretty cool to term describe it. source

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16 Oct 2011 23:47