The document summarizes a discussion from The Refinement Club about the future of books. Key points discussed include expanding the reading experience through social reading, contextual connections to other information, and new models for publishing like co-creating books and embracing self-publishing. Smart curation by publishers was presented as a way for them to remain relevant by guiding readers to new literary experiences based on their preferences and behaviors.

1. THE FUTURE
OF BOOKS
#MassRefinement 04
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2. The Refinement Club
Started out with Johannes
Rummelhoff and Gro Larsson,
meeting to solve problems and
publish concepts, but evolved into
being a forum for sharing ideas. We
brought in Benedikte Kluge to help
organize what we now call Mass-
Refinements.
Mass-Refinements are about
bringing people together to share
their ideas and thoughts on a certain
subject. We then take the input from
the session and put it in context. This
time we talked about the future of the
book.
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3. How can we expand &
enrich the reading
experience and keep the
art of the book when/if
we leave paper behind?
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4. INSIGHTS
‣ Quality
What will happen to the quality of literature if
self-publishing takes over? The future of
publishing houses and editors were a big part
of the discussions.
‣ Sharing
Social reading and its possibilities.
‣ Context
Getting information that is relevant to what
you’re reading, which in turn can enhance
your reading experience.
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5. INSIGHTS
‣ Enrichments
Enrich the reading experience beyond the
written word.
‣ Co-creation
New ways of writing.
‣ Distribution
How, where and what’s the price?
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6. SMART CURATION
Making publishers
relevant in the future
Imagine when a book is like a
video on Youtube. How do you find
the book you should read? A video
might only take a few seconds for
you to realize if it’s any good or
not, but a book needs more time.
This is the perfect opportunity for
a publishing house to stay
relevant by using their expertise
to guide you to your new literary
experience.
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7. Smart curation learns by your behaviour and reading
habits and adds your peers into the mix.
Smart curation works a bit like the iPad app Zite, and
suggests new books for you to read. The proposals
depend on the your pre-selected preferences in genres,
authors and books you like, but it also learns by your
behavior within the application and your reading habits.
By blending in your friends’ preferred readings, and
suggestions, the perfect read is almost guaranteed...
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8. Expert curation, browsing and micro-payments.
Last we add a premium option, an expert with vast
skills and knowledge within your interest fields. This
expert organizes, optimizes and refines the algorithmic
and social curation. This retains and expands the
bookstore/library experience and gives the user a
unique opportunity to dive into a perfectly tailored book
journey.
All the books are browseable and utilize micro
payments, so if you find a book you think you like, you
can read the first chapter for free. You can then decide
to buy the book or pay a small amount to read a little
further into the book, if you’re still undecided. The
transaction takes place directly in the app / website.
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9. EXPANDING THE BOOK
Enriching the reading experience
When you’re reading books, you often want to
understand more about the content, from the meaning
of a foreign word, pictures/ maps of the scenery, to
encyclopedia descriptions and author's notes.
Like Kindle books are linked to Oxford English
Dictionary, which let's you look up words, there should
be a link to a user generated reference guide, edited in
the same way as Wikipedia, with references, analysis,
sound tracks, cultural references and historical events.
The combination of Wikipedia policy, granting quality
content, inline and accessible in the book, makes this
unique.
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10. Contextual connections - connecting books and
passages with other content and passages based on
the context of the book.
By expanding and linking the content of books and
knowledge in a meaningful way, a more fulfilling and
elaborate reading experience will occur.
A contextual book connects the analogue book to the
cloud and leverages the collective intelligence of all the
users on the internet and gives the reader a deeper
insight of the book and its theme.
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11. EXAMPLES
‣ Literary references
For example, if you’re reading a book where the main
character is reading Moby Dick, the contextual book
will show you the passage that is most relevant to what
you are reading.
‣ Soundtrack
Listen to the music that is picked to set the mood, or
music that is featured in the story you are reading.
There can also be user generated alternatives
‣ Film & photos
See footage that is relevant to what you’re reading.
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12. EXAMPLES
‣ Notes & comments
Share notes and comments, public or specific for
certain individuals or groups.
‣ Plot & characters
Easily get an overview of who’s who and did what in
lengthy, character rich novels.
‣ Cloud connected
Search for any word or sentence, and find relevant
websites.
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13. DEMOCRATIZING THE
BOOK BUSINESS
Co-creating books and self-publishing
The business of books and literature is a hierarchic
business where it’s difficult to get your books
published. It’s time to take a look at how we write and
publish books in the world of tomorrow.
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14. Co-creation - books tapping into the collective
intelligence.
A system that facilitates and encourages authors to
collaborate and share experiences and expertise.
Books written by many authors can exceed in quality
and engagement, by providing a broader foundation,
than books written by just one author. You could call it
open source writing!
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15. Self-publishing - embracing the long tail.
There are already a lot of services available for self-
publishing and we think there’s a lot of potential in this
segment, but there’s also some things to consider. Like
how do we retain the quality?
One idea could be if the self-publish service would also
provide expert editors for a premium fee, or to
crowdsource it.
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16. THE POSSIBILITIES ARE
ENDLESS. WHAT DO YOU
WISH FOR THE FUTURE
OF THE BOOK?
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17. Ideas conceived at
The Refinement Club’s
Mass-Refinement v.04
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18. FACILITATED BY:
‣ KATACHI MAGAZINE
‣ Benedikte Kluge
‣ Gro Larsson
‣ Johannes Rummelhoff
Thanks to all the participants!
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19. GET IN TOUCH ON:
www.therefinementclub.com
facebook.com/TheRefinementClub
twitter.com/RefinementClub
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