BookServer:
II. How, Now,
You & Next
Keith Fahlgren
O'Reilly Media
keith@oreilly.com

Create the
future you want
to inherit

How

The Web
jusfi on Flickr

Publishers

Distributors

Aggregators

Readers

Effective
catalogs
• Intelligent hierarchy
• Search
• Extensive faceting
• Human touch

Now

Very rough!

You

Your Voices
mindaugasdanys on Flickr

Old Content

Letting Go
• Non‐traditional partnerships
• DRM?
• Embrace (some) failure

Why
today?

Things to start
doing today
• Start acquiring international rights
• Catalog pages for every title
• At least one easy purchasing experience
(perhaps via a partnership)

Next

Pain
• Identifying distinct editions
• Handling content updates
• Simplifying transactions
• Understanding lending
• Publisher control or aggregator control?

Rights

Metadata

Opportunities
• Shared annotations
• Seamless updates
• Loans
• Physical + digital

?