Mark your calendar: O'Reilly TOC Conference 22-24 February

Nate the great · 01-13-2010, 05:39 PM

The fourth annual O'Reilly Tools of Change Conference is going to kick off in just over a month. It promises to be a fascinating 3 days in New York City. Topics include:

Ebook Contracts: Critical Terms and Lessons Learned from Both Sides of the Table
Reinvent as an Economic Necessity
Copyright-In-Motion
Running Two Companies: Taking Book Publishing Beyond Publishing Books
A Different Model: Building a Digital Publishing House
Rethinking Copyright for the Digital World
The Next Generation of Ebooks: Invent It or Witness It!
How Academics and Students Use Ebooks: Evidence from the JISC National Ebooks
The Future of Digital Textbooks
Going Beyond Ebooks: One Publisher's Journey from a Book to Training, Print to Digital

It does look interesting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, MobileRead won't be covering the conference. We can't afford the $1600 fee.

lilac_jive · 01-13-2010, 06:05 PM

Bummer. I'd love to go, NYC isn't far from me but that is way too much money.

anurag · 01-13-2010, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

...

It does look interesting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, MobileRead won't b covering the conference. We can't afford the $1600 fee.

This conference is for publishers who're not quite sure what their ebook strategy should be and who fear getting left behind if they don't 'get into' digital publishing right now. O'Reilly Media is one of the few publishing industry orgs that have a well-defined ebook strategy, and the conference is simply O'Reilly's way of making money off of other people's ignorance and insecurities. The conference isn't meant for ebook users, and the discussions are not likely to be useful or enlightening for the average MobileRead visitor except for the odd tidbit about O'Reilly's digital sales figures. O'Reilly's ebook strategies don't translate well to mainstream publishing and other technical publishers (Packt, Manning) already seem to be doing well selling ebooks. So I'm not sure if the conference is really worth $1600 to anyone. But fear has always played a big role in parting people from their money, and I'm sure this conference will be no different.

In any case, that's $1600 well-spent elsewhere Nate!

Edit: If you're a publisher who wants to 'get' ebooks but has no idea how to go about it, this conference is indeed a good starting point, but you'll still have to hire 'digital media consultants' when you get down to implementing an ebook strategy. But you'll know who to hire, because you'll meet them at this conference!

kjk · 01-13-2010, 06:46 PM

Is the Ibis Reader program going to be released there?

Nate the great · 01-13-2010, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anurag

This conference is for publishers who're not quite sure what their ebook strategy should be and who fear getting left behind if they don't 'get into' digital publishing right now. O'Reilly Media is one of the few publishing industry orgs that have a well-defined ebook strategy, and the conference is simply O'Reilly's way of making money off of other people's ignorance and insecurities. The conference isn't meant for ebook users, and the discussions are not likely to be useful or enlightening for the average MobileRead visitor except for the odd tidbit about O'Reilly's digital sales figures. O'Reilly's ebook strategies don't translate well to mainstream publishing and other technical publishers (Packt, Manning) already seem to be doing well selling ebooks. So I'm not sure if the conference is really worth $1600 to anyone. But fear has always played a big role in parting people from their money, and I'm sure this conference will be no different.

Oh, I know it's not worth $1600. I tried to get a press pass and was rebuffed.

Daithi · 01-13-2010, 07:41 PM

I thought the topics looked really interesting, and I'm very interested in not only O'Reilly's viewpoints of the topics being discussed but also viewpoints of other attendees. I have to imagine that many of the attendees will be small publishers trying to take advantage of the new digital age of books. The conference also has some pretty big name sponsors for the event (Adobe, Mirasol, Google, and HP are a few). I don't have the cash, or more importantly the time, but I look forward to hearing about the conference.

If anyone is going, please let us know. BTW, if anyone does register, they can use the discount code “toc10bosq” and save $250 (this is from the site booksquare.com which is a pretty nice site).

anurag · 01-13-2010, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Oh, I know it's not worth $1600. I tried to get a press pass and was rebuffed.

No kidding - for all their talk about 'harnessing new media', they turned down an excellent opportunity for free publicity through a powerful 'new media' channel.

You could try messaging Tim O'Reilly on Twitter from MobileRead's account - he's a smart guy, should know better than to turn down thousand of free eyeballs.

Direct Ebooks · 01-14-2010, 04:52 AM

This might be a bit crazy, and I don't know if anyone else is interested, but I would donate a small amount to a fund (paypal?) to send Nate/MR rep to the conference in return for full, thorough, professional reviews? (not that we've come to expect anything less Nate!

)

If anyone else is interested, I'll pledge 50$ right now.

Any takers?

Daithi · 01-14-2010, 09:25 AM

I'd pledge $50.

nboshart · 01-14-2010, 10:34 AM

Hey folks,
Actually TOC is the preeminent industry conference on digital books. Many large houses send multiple representatives, as do book agencies, standards group (BISG, IDPF, etc) and last year they even held an event before Frankfurt. The keynote speaker is Arianna Huffington.

And if you can find me a small press that has the cash for a $1600 ticket and three nights in New York, I will... well, be very surprised.

Anyway, I'm going and will be happy to report back.

Nic

Daithi · 01-14-2010, 12:01 PM

Excellent, nboshart. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Direct Ebooks · 01-14-2010, 12:51 PM

Great stuff NBOshart. looking forward to it too.

01-13-2010, 05:39 PM	#1
Nate the great Sir Penguin of Edinburgh Posts: 12,375 Karma: 23555235 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: DC Metro area Device: Shake a stick plus 1	Mark your calendar: O'Reilly TOC Conference 22-24 February The fourth annual O'Reilly Tools of Change Conference is going to kick off in just over a month. It promises to be a fascinating 3 days in New York City. Topics include: Ebook Contracts: Critical Terms and Lessons Learned from Both Sides of the Table Reinvent as an Economic Necessity Copyright-In-Motion Running Two Companies: Taking Book Publishing Beyond Publishing Books A Different Model: Building a Digital Publishing House Rethinking Copyright for the Digital World The Next Generation of Ebooks: Invent It or Witness It! How Academics and Students Use Ebooks: Evidence from the JISC National Ebooks The Future of Digital Textbooks Going Beyond Ebooks: One Publisher's Journey from a Book to Training, Print to Digital It does look interesting, doesn't it? Unfortunately, MobileRead won't be covering the conference. We can't afford the $1600 fee. Last edited by Nate the great; 01-13-2010 at 06:08 PM.

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01-13-2010, 06:05 PM	#2
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	Bummer. I'd love to go, NYC isn't far from me but that is way too much money.

01-13-2010, 06:46 PM	#4
kjk . Posts: 3,408 Karma: 5647231 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: never enough	Is the Ibis Reader program going to be released there?

01-13-2010, 07:41 PM	#6
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	I thought the topics looked really interesting, and I'm very interested in not only O'Reilly's viewpoints of the topics being discussed but also viewpoints of other attendees. I have to imagine that many of the attendees will be small publishers trying to take advantage of the new digital age of books. The conference also has some pretty big name sponsors for the event (Adobe, Mirasol, Google, and HP are a few). I don't have the cash, or more importantly the time, but I look forward to hearing about the conference. If anyone is going, please let us know. BTW, if anyone does register, they can use the discount code “toc10bosq” and save $250 (this is from the site booksquare.com which is a pretty nice site).

01-14-2010, 04:52 AM	#8
Direct Ebooks Hibernian eBook Warrior Posts: 184 Karma: 1264 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Cork, Ireland Device: Sony Reader	This might be a bit crazy, and I don't know if anyone else is interested, but I would donate a small amount to a fund (paypal?) to send Nate/MR rep to the conference in return for full, thorough, professional reviews? (not that we've come to expect anything less Nate! ) If anyone else is interested, I'll pledge 50$ right now. Any takers?

01-14-2010, 09:25 AM	#9
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	I'd pledge $50.

01-14-2010, 10:34 AM	#10
nboshart Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 456 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo	Hey folks, Actually TOC is the preeminent industry conference on digital books. Many large houses send multiple representatives, as do book agencies, standards group (BISG, IDPF, etc) and last year they even held an event before Frankfurt. The keynote speaker is Arianna Huffington. And if you can find me a small press that has the cash for a $1600 ticket and three nights in New York, I will... well, be very surprised. Anyway, I'm going and will be happy to report back. Nic

01-14-2010, 12:01 PM	#11
Daithi Publishers are evil! Posts: 2,418 Karma: 36205264 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Rhode Island Device: Various Kindles	Excellent, nboshart. I look forward to hearing back from you.

01-14-2010, 12:51 PM	#12
Direct Ebooks Hibernian eBook Warrior Posts: 184 Karma: 1264 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Cork, Ireland Device: Sony Reader	Great stuff NBOshart. looking forward to it too.