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O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference Shows Way to Digital Future: Innovation Transforms How Readers Receive Content

Press release: March 2, 2009

Sebastopol, CA, March 2, 2009 - The O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, held February 9-11, 2009 in New York City, highlighted the many dynamic possibilities ahead for publishers who embrace a digital future. At the heart of the world's publishing capital, TOC showcased the tools, the business models, and the knowledge that publishers need to succeed in a changing landscape. The conference deciphered trends and technologies that can keep the industry profitable and more connected to readers.

In a time when naysayers question publishing's very survival, TOC showed the industry how to flourish.

Featured keynotes included one by Tim O'Reilly, CEO and founder of O'Reilly Media, who gave conference-goers reasons to stay excited and optimistic about the future of publishing. Nick Bilton, who explores technologies for The New York Times R&D Labs, talked about the future of news. Bob Stein, executive director of the Institute for the Future of the Book, said books are no longer objects but instead are becoming places where readers and authors congregate. Other keynote speakers included Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo, Peter Brantley of Digital Library Federation, Neelan Choksi of Lexcycle, Cory Doctorow of Happy Mutants LLC, Jason Epstein of On Demand Books, Jason Fried of 37signals, Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine.com, Sara Lloyd of Pan Macmillan, and Nina Paley of Nina Paley Productions.

Conference co-chairs Andrew Savikas and Mac Slocum attracted 150 speakers to tackle tough issues through plenary and breakout sessions, half-day tutorials, and product demonstrations. Practical information alternated with big-picture concepts, with topics like how to publish on demand, how to make money in a world of "free," how to make publishing part of a broader community experience, and how to deliver to customers wherever they may be. Speakers addressed cutting-edge topics like content for mobile/smart phones, Web-based marketing and promotion, digital publishing and authoring tools, using file-sharing sites to increase sales, and developing supply chains in an online world.

During the conference, Safari Books Online demonstrated the beta of its mobile version of safaribooksonline.com, which it plans to release later in the month, and O'Reilly Media announced that it has brought the open source Bookworm eBook reader into O'Reilly Labs. Bookworm provides a way to read both online and from a mobile phone any of the more than 400 eBooks now available as eBook bundles from O'Reilly. O'Reilly Media also revealed it has opened up RDF metadata for all of its books. The experimental "O'Reilly Product Metadata Interface" (OPMI) exposes RDF for all of O'Reilly's titles, organized by ISBN.

Sponsors at TOC included iPublishCentral, Ingram, oXygen XML Editor, Adobe, codeMantra, Connotate, DPCI, Innodata Isogen, LibreDigital, Lulu, Malloy, Mark Logic, Media Services Group, Quark, ReadHowYouWant, RSuite, Safari Books Online, Smashwords, Sterling Commerce, and Verso Digital. Several sponsors and exhibitors made announcements at TOC. Plastic Logic previewed its new eReader device and announced new content partners; Impelsys revealed 150 publishers had signed up for iPublish Central; Sharebook introduced new technology to make web-to-print functionality easy to use and install; Lexcycle announced support for Adobe eBooks in Stanza; and Connotate showed new on-demand features for Agent Community Gen 2. For complete information on O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2009 Conference, including keynote videos, speaker presentation files, and photos, visit: http://www.toccon.com

To read news and comments on TOC, go to:
http://www.toccon.com/toc2009/public/content/news-coverage

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Find the tools you need to learn about publishing innovators and connect with the right ideas from around the web at: toc.oreilly.com.

To read Tim O'Reilly's take on the future, go to the O'Reilly Radar at: http://radar.oreilly.com/

For information about exhibiting at or sponsoring the next TOC conference, contact Sharon Cordesse at scordesse@oreilly.com.

If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact mediapartners@oreilly.com.

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