Future imperfect

The first and last few weeks of any year are high season for prognostications, and I admit I was tempted to take a stab at what 2010 would look like. Fortunately, I remembered something I wrote in June about the glorious possibilities inherent in the moment changes take hold, and so I decided to leave the business of Publishing Future to those better able to see it.

Happily, though, David Wilk saved me from being wholly silent this holiday season. A couple of weeks back, David asked me to talk about some research examining the impact of peer-to-peer file sharing (piracy) on paid content sales.

David’s interests range pretty widely, and he and I wound up touching upon a variety of related topics. This week, he put up a podcast of the conversation, one that is interesting not just for the piracy talk, but (toward the end) you’ll hear him tease out the kernel of an idea that became a blog post shortly after we spoke.

It’s not part of the podcast, but I recently learned from David that he is working on an exciting “labor of love” project: reprinting a facsimile of a book called The 1910 Plan of New Haven written by Cass Gilbertand Frederick Law Olmsted. It is tied to the document’s 100th anniversary.

I’m not knowledgeable in this area, but David describes the plan as “one of the most important in the history of city planning and architecture”. To fund the project, David is working to raise money through subscriptions and donations … I’ll look to share more here as information becomes available.

About Brian O'Leary

Founder and principal of Magellan Media Consulting, Brian O’Leary helps enterprises with media and publishing components capitalize on the power of content. A veteran of more than 30 years in the publishing industry and a prolific content producer himself, Brian leverages the breadth and depth of his experience to deliver innovative content solutions.

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