|
|
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
e- publishing and its current dilemmas
Have you heard of a terrible fellow called Paul Carr. I haven't either, till the other day I came across his article in The Guardian ( August 16, 2004 ) . He was of course writing a column in a well established print medium. But he was actually dwelling upon the dilemmas of an e-publisher. He has reasons to do so, because he is the editor- in - chief of an aggressive e mail news letter called Thefridaything ( It,s e- world, you know, don't expect spaces in between). To get a taste of how that stuff is, you can go to www.thefridaything.co.uk and see a sample news letter . And, mind you, it is an e - stuff for which you have to pay for , whether your e mail provider thinks it is spam or not.
According to their own policy statement thefridaything ( shall I start putting spaces, so that MS word will keep quiet ! ) it is a fiercely independent weekly email comment sheet. Casting a cynical eye over the week's events, it is rarely fair and never balanced. Despite their best efforts to alienate readers by making light of human tragedy and charging an annual subscription fee, they have been unable to shake off critical acclaim."The Observer" described them as "Hilariously cynical", a very true assessment .
They claim to have thousands of readers in more than 20 countries, and say they are the most successful publication of its type in Europe. They charge an annual subscription to the Friday Thing (52 weekly issues) for just £15 . To get a sample of how they write , just see how they reacted to Paula Radcliffe's second attempt to complete a smaller long distance run. As Simon Barnes of "The Times" put it, it's hell being ordinary , though most of us get used to it . But Paula Radcliffe understandably had despire when she could not complete marathon but she found ordinariness and learnt the lesson in a hard way when she could not complete 10, 000 metres one day before the close of Olympics. Now , see how the " thefridaything " comments upon the issue . ".Dear Paula... It is important to keep a sense of perspective about sporting events. But, by not being the best runner, you have negated not only the concept of 'perspective', but also honour and morality. If you had even the slightest sense of decency, there would only be one word on your mind: suicide. " Don,t you think it is to much to be said to an athlete . If not , read on "tft" further. " You weep, Paula, and we weep with you. But we do not weep FOR you. We weep tears of frustration because we can't string you from the nearest lamppost, after beating you with flails made from barbed wire." Enough. With this sort of writing , they are able to get paid to send their publication to netizens.
I quoted the whole stuff just to show that e- publishing is a powerful medium, which is yet to be understood by many. It is easy to read , easy to print, completely cross- platform compatible ( net jargon ) and virtually instantaneous . But the dilemma faced by the e- publishers is that one day they get stamped as "spam" and the decision of the e mail client is final and irrevocable. And who decides which is spam or not. Some e- mechanism operating at the e- brain of the e mail client. Have you noticed that even an intelligent, yet powerful e mail client like Yahoo! sometimes decides that the images of a CT scan sent by a colleague or a teaching website is spam ( sorry, I am a radiologist ) while the distress mails by the ex wives of the African dictators are never considered as spam! What is the way out ? Paul Carr suggests alternate methods of distribution like, publishing full contents on web behind a subscriber's only wall, maintain a register of legitimate e mail publishers etc. Otherwise , Paul is afraid , that all the e mail publishers will have to give up altogether and start selling cheap Viagra to the masses .
I can understand the lament. But who is responsible for the scenario. None , other than the e- publishers themselves. While asking somebody to register , previously the practice was to check a box , if you would like to receive promotional offers. Of late - have you noticed ? - you have to check the box if you do not want to receive che3p vi3gra or lengthen an organ!
I believe , the future lies in RSS readers ( I am afraid, at least in India RSS means something else , an apolitical political word , which will evoke mixed reactions depending on whether you are pro RSS or ant- RSS . Our RSS means Read, Search and Subscribe . ( at least in the first twenty of the results of google search which yielded 32, 600, 000 results for RSS ( definition) in 0.21 seconds , only one was on Indian RSS ( it is an apolitical organization of Hindu fundamentalists - you may agree or disagree, if you are an Indian ) and one was on Royal Statistical society . The remaining eighteen were on the RSS , our topic of interest. Now just read on and make up your mind to whether to become an RSS convert !
"What is RSS?
RSS is a relatively new publishing system. You don't view RSS with a Web browser. Instead, you install an RSS reader-sometimes called an aggregator-on your computer and tell it which RSS channels you want to receive. The program regularly collects all the most recent content for you automatically from all the channels you have subscribed to, so it's ready for you when you want to view it. There are no subscription hassles: you say when you want to start and stop receiving the information without having to sign up anywhere or give your name or e-mail address. And as the RSS system bypasses e-mail, all those spam and delivery problems vanish, both for you and for me.
RSS software
These are just some of the RSS readers available for MS Windows: Awasu; Bottom Feeder; Feed Demon; FeedReader; NewsGator; rssReader; and Syndirella. For more, and for details of readers for other operating systems, visit the Google directory entry
Bye-see you next week ….Dr.P.V.Ramachandran
|
| ARCHIVES |
SUBSCRIBE |
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Friday, October 15, 2004
Friday, October 22, 2004
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Friday, November 12, 2004
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Saturday, November 27, 2004
|
|
|
|
|
