Beyond the Book

Download Beyond the Book: The Future of Publishing

Our col­lab­o­ra­tive mul­ti­me­dia pub­li­ca­tion, “Beyond the Book,” will address these big questions:

How will peo­ple read in the future? 

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Humans have been inscrib­ing and shar­ing infor­ma­tion since the cave paint­ing was a cutting-edge tech­nol­ogy. Now our read­ing tools range from 20kg hard­bound dic­tio­nar­ies and light­weight paper­backs to smart­phone screens and e-readers. What tech­nolo­gies will we use to read, write and share infor­ma­tion in the future?

How will peo­ple find new books to read in the future?

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Half the fun of read­ing is hunt­ing for the next book. We used to find books through crit­ics, friends and moments of serendip­ity at the book­store or library. Now algo­rithms and Big Data pre­dict our every lit­er­ary want and need. What is the future of lit­er­ary discovery?

How will books be pro­duced in the future?

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From wood­blocks and the print­ing press to pop-up books and the .epub for­mat, the his­tory of books is also a his­tory of eco­nom­ics and indus­trial pro­duc­tion. Who will pro­duce books in the future, and how?

How will books be edited in the future?

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Will tra­di­tional edi­tors be eclipsed by dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy and crowd­sourc­ing? Wikipedia is a tes­ta­ment to the power of col­lec­tive pub­lish­ing, while algo­rithms are play­ing promi­nent roles in curat­ing the news on web­sites like The Huff­in­g­ton Post and Google News. What will edit­ing look like in the future?

How will the con­cept of the book evolve in the future?

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When we think of a book, we still think of a tan­gi­ble, printed object with pages and a spine. As books become dig­i­tized in more sophis­ti­cated ways, how will the def­i­n­i­tion of “book” change? How will social read­ing, mul­ti­ple path­ways and rich media trans­form the mean­ing of the word “book”?

In what new ways will authors engage with their readers?

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In an increas­ingly crowded lit­er­ary mar­ket­place, authors are sell­ing them­selves as much as their ideas. How will lit­er­ary celebrity evolve with social media and ubiq­ui­tous com­put­ing? What new roles will read­ing com­mu­ni­ties play?

What is the future of pub­lish­ing?

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Tech­no­log­i­cal and social change have severely dis­rupted the pub­lish­ing industry’s eco­nomic and cul­tural machin­ery. How will pub­lish­ers adjust to the new nor­mal in order to remain prof­itable and cul­tur­ally rel­e­vant? What new oppor­tu­ni­ties do dig­i­tal books and more active read­ers pro­vide for inno­va­tion and creativity?