November 7, 2007: Publishing house as open platform?


Another inspiration courtesy of DUX [1]...

Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware [2], gave yesterday's excellent
afternoon keynote. Adam used the term "ecology" quite liberally, suggesting
that designers of all sorts move away from designing products and services
and think more holistically, designing comprehensive ecologies, platforms
(and, dare I say it, experiences).

I love talks like Adam's. For one reason, I already agree--in fact, I
consider myself to be something of an "infrastructuralist" [3]--and I see
the things I've helped build--Argus Associates, the IA Institute [4], and
now Rosenfeld Media [5], as essentially infrastructures or platforms for
smart people to use to shape, sell, and share their ideas and expertise.
But Adam makes this case for holistic platform design so much better than I
ever could hope to. He also uses great visual examples, an ability that,
sadly, will be forever beyond my grasp.

Adam's best example of systematic design is Nike+ [6]. Nike combines
running shoes with an accompanying web site and your iPod to flesh out an
elegantly-designed ecology for its keystone species (and target audience),
runners.

But, as Adam points out, the design is flawed: Nike+ is a closed platform,
its continued existence subject to the whims of the company's future
business decisions. It would be much more likely to survive and improve if
it was opened up to other players (e.g., Facebook, the Roomba, and recently
Apple with its iPhone).

In all my mumbo-jumbo about being an infrastructuralist, it never occurred
to me to consider opening up the Rosenfeld Media publishing platform. Maybe
I've been too down in the weeds (hey, we're hoping to get our first book [7]
to the printer next week!), but that's no excuse. But what exactly would it
mean for a publishing house to work as an open platform?

It's arguable that vanity presses already are open platforms. We could say
the same thing about print-on-demand service provider LuLu.com. [8] We
could even claim that the Internet is an open publishing platform. But none
of those examples do what traditional publishers do: offer the added value
of true editorial services, such as review and selection.

Is there an example of a traditional publisher that offers an open platform
which includes the editorial component? If not, can you imagine one?

I think this could be fun...


BLOUG PERMALINK
http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2007/11/publishing_house_as_ope
n_platf.html

LINKS
[1] http://www.dux2007.org
[2] http://www.studies-observations.com/everyware/
[3] http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2007/03/selftag.html
[4] http://iainstitute.org
[5] http://rosenfeldmedia.com
[6] http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/
[7] http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/mental-models/
[8] http://www.lulu.com/