After my last couple of air travel experiences, I vowed to start taking the train more. Canceled and missed flights led to frustration, so I don’t blame authors reluctant to embark on book tours — even if they’re more worried about budget than getting stuck at Dulles over night. Unfortunately this change in book promotions has led to the virtual shuttering of BookTour.com, a site dedicated to helping authors organize these trips, and helping readers find events.

I think there’s more than just limited marketing budgets behind the fall of BookTour.com. I’ve been to my fair share of author events. In college I had no choice but to attend them as homework for publishing classes. Sometimes the authors are fun and engaging, and sometimes they just read from the book — which I can do myself. More recently I saw Wally Lamb read an excerpt from his unreleased, forthcoming novel. That was cool, and I felt a little like I was being let in on the secret. My favorite author experience, though, was at the Connecticut Forum’s Book Club event where John Irving, Azar Nafisi, and Jonathan Franzen engaged in a panel discussion about more than just their own books. (more…)

Today, Google announced plans to buy Motorola Mobile, or as one of my friends put it in a Facebook post: “In other news, Google moves forward with their plans for total world domination… good for them.” The search giant says:

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

This move, however, has some anti-monopoly hackles raised. Jamie Court, president and CEO of Consumer Watchdog, issued a statement raising questions about the acquisition. He wrote: (more…)

Yesterday, Future U.S., a publisher of gaming and technology media properties  announced an exclusive partnership with Justin.tv, owner of Twitch.tv, a gaming video and chat community. Twitch.tv, for the non-gamers among you, is a place where you watch streaming video of game play. It’s not exactly my thing, but that’s kind of the point… These two companies are joining forces to provide more content for a very specific demographic.

“Justin.tv and Digital Future are partnering because the core audience is the male influencer… This partnership really represents the perfect marriage, allowing us to cross-link and deliver engaging content ranging from long form 8 hour live videos to short form 30 second clips,” says Rachelle Considine, VP of sales and marketing at Future U.S. “The partnership will also allow Digital Future to deliver a coveted unduplicated audience of nearly 8 million influential, engaged 18-34 year old males, furthering Future’s expansion into the digital space.  Simultaneously, Twitch.tv is able to grow its audience by tapping Future’s established network of loyal gaming fans.” (more…)

From its inception in 2005, the BlogHer Conference has aimed to bring together female leaders in social media to network with one another and to connect with brands for mutually beneficial engagement. BlogHer founders Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, and Lisa Stone have said that with the first conference, which drew 300 attendees, they wanted to answer the question, “Where are the women in blogging?”

The 2011 BlogHer conference, held August 4-6 at the San Diego Convention Center and attended by 3,600 mostly female bloggers, provided a definitive answer to the question—they’re at BlogHer, and their collective online voice is influencing purchase decisions across the board. During the keynote address on August 5, the BlogHer co-founders quantified that influence with highlights of the BlogHer annual Social Media Matters study, conducted by the Nielson Company in April 2011. (more…)

You may have heard that Facebook bought ebook publisher Push Pop press, and you’re probably wondering if Mark Zuckerberg is going to try and sell you his memoir next time you sign into your account. Facebook says no. According to the Push Pop site:

Although Facebook isn’t planning to start publishing digital books, the ideas and technology behind Push Pop Press will be integrated with Facebook, giving people even richer ways to share their stories.

This could be big news for publishers using Facebook to push their content to the 750+ million users. Imagine the slick capabilities of Push Pop at your disposal, turning a boring old text post into an engaging multimedia experience. But when you consider Facebook’s quest to go beyond its social network borders and into entertainment distribution, this new acquisition gets even more interesting.

Sure, Facebook is home to one of the largest gaming platforms in the world and even started streaming movies through a deal with Warner Brothers, but the social network doesn’t own the Zynga games or WB movies that drive so much traffic to the site. Facebook could be getting out ahead of the ebook competition.

It may also be worth considering this purchase in light of the June sale of MySpace to Specific Media and Justin Timberlake. It was widely  reported at the time that the new owners intended to make MySpace an entertainment destination–which it always sort of was, at least for musicians. It may be more than a little interesting to see how these two sites pursue the same goal.

I’ve always bristled a little at the idea that the Facebook-generation has no sense, or expectation of privacy. I started thinking about this concept more this week, oddly enough, when I listened to a Slate podcast on digital manners about whether someone was obligated to announce a death in the family via Facebook. It asked the question, “Are some things too private for Facebook?”

I answered with a resounding, “Yes!”

Certainly there are people on social networks who shamelessly detail every mundane thought, deep emotion, or devastating loss. I’ve always assumed these people have no sense of privacy in general — that they argue in public with their significant others, cry in the office, and give strangers detailed updates on their recent trip to the doctor. Basically, I figure they are the kind of people you don’t want to be stuck next to on a plane. (more…)

Apparently, 54% of businesses block use of social media at work…despite those same companies continuing to invest in online communities. This seems absurd to me, and has ever since I read David Meerman Scott’s column on the subject way back in 2008. At the time he wrote:

If you trust your employees, they might surprise you with the ways they promote your business on social media sites. But if you don’t trust them, you end up with only the corporate dregs who don’t mind working in an organization that won’t let them communicate with others in the ways that people are using today, such as social networking, video sharing, blogs, forums, and the like. (more…)

I’ve written about being one of those crazy cord-cutters here before, but now I’ve got a new dilemma — and so does much of the rest of my streaming brethren. You see, I’m getting ready to move, and it just so happens to coincide with Netflix’s announcement that it will be separating its streaming and DVD plans. In short, this sucks for me. I subscribe to Netflix and stream content through my Roku box,  and get a DVD every now and then with some movie or show on it that is not available through the streaming service. Right now, Treme is just sitting there waiting for me to pop it in the DVD player.

This has worked for me, but now Netflix will be charging $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming, but it’s going to cost you more money if you want DVDs as well. (In fact, it seems to be the company’s mission to make it as difficult as possible to even figure out what the DVD plan rates are if my quick glance at its website is any indication.) Long story short, my current plan would nearly double in price. (more…)

Were you a huge fan of the viral Old Spice commercials?Did they compel you to run out and buy a years’ supply of deodorant or aftershave? If so, you’re probably just the person Brut is trying to target with its news internet campaign, Brut News Network (BNN).

According to the press release:

The BNN features the latest Internet videos along with commentary on hot topics and discussions that often include the insight of America’s #1 sports talk radio host and sports expert, Jim Rome, via frequent cameo appearances. The two BNN hosts, Bob and Ned, who love sports, explosions and people falling down as much as the next guy, grab audience’s attention by providing two minute videos of comic relief with episodes featuring topics such as Parkour, extreme sports fails, office pranks, and much more. (more…)

We’ve all watched a toddler who can barely walk a straight line deftly navigate his or her way through Mom’s smartphone and thought, “Whoa!” Those Digital Natives have a way of really throwing their grandparents — who are still fighting with their printers over the “PC Load Letter”  error message — for a loop. Now, though, one survey is claiming kids can predict the future of technology. According to press materials :

Latitude asked kids across the world to draw the answer to this question: “What would you like your computer or the Internet to do that it can’t do right now?”

The goal of the study was to catch a glimpse into possible futures for technology as seen by digital natives, and to highlight actionable opportunities for creators of new content, user experience (UX), and technology offerings that resonate with people of all ages.

The findings: Children across the world anticipate recent updates to Google image search, new applications for robots, real-world gaming and other cutting-edge possibilities for tech. (more…)