I’m putting the finishing touches on a big online project (goes live this weekend), and while I’ve written a lot of websites in my life, I didn’t write this one.
That’s an oddly painful admission, because this is one website I probably should have written; a conservation group that’s right in my personal wheelhouse.
Instead, I was part developer, part online marketing consultant, project lead, and once it’s launched, I’ll become the content manager.
I’m tired and behind on other projects and sleep deprived, and there’s absolutely no way I could have written it too.
Being magisterial is right in keeping with the New Professional Consultant Me, but it’s also a recognition that you can’t move forward without leaving something behind.
In this case, I’m leaving behind the site’s static content, but I’ll write most of the enduring content streams, which means — over time — I’ll have a bigger impact on the site’s readership than if I’d written the thing.
It’s an illustration of the shifting nature of words and writing.
Books were objects unto themselves, but they’re fast becoming digital ghosts; collections of words where all that’s left may be the author’s intent (at least until publishers figure out how to market leather-bound digital editions).
Website copy was the foundation of an online presence, but it’s fast being relegated to an archive role by the media streams reaching out from today’s modern sites.
Movies? They’re not things you have as much as things you watch.
And revolutions now rely on cellphones as much as guns.
If there’s a lesson in all this, it’s that you want to put your words where they matter, and you definitely don’t want to be the guy who spent the last few years of his career – and many millions of his employer’s money — inventing the typewriter for which there was no longer a market.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
Ha! It was so quiet because it just sat there, propping up the computer monitor…
When a national chain of pawn shops called Cash Converters came to town (late 1990s?), it went on a buying blitz to up its stock. I still remember, about three months later, a picture in the newspaper of all these typewriters in the dumpster behind their store. The manager said that they’d lost a lot of money buying these things, because now there was no market for them — everyone had moved to computers by that point.
I think there is a difference between typewriters and books though. The book is an end product — a “content accessing device” — and the typewriter is a content generating device. When I’m thinking about it now, the generating devices tend to eliminate previous technology a lot faster. Television never eliminated radio, and the Internet never eliminated television. But digital cameras did away with film right quick.
So too, I believe, the iPad will not eliminate the book. ePublishing might become the norm, but it won’t replace books completely.
~Graham
Graham Strong recently posted..Getting Ready to Go Vertical – Day 204
I think you’re confusing the content with the delivery channel.
A book isn’t a bound chunk of pages; it’s a collection of words (and hopefully ideas), and we’ve only come to regard them as objects because the delivery method is tied to paper.
Books will survive regardless how they’re delivered, though it’s likely the next generation won’t line whole walls of their house with the things because they’re too “valuable” to throw away.
Likewise the Internet not killing television stuff.
They’re just media channels; even if the Internet eventually does TV in and movie theaters close en masse, we’ll simply be watching those moving picture things via a new channel.
Nobody’s died and “movies” will keep getting made.
Just like books.
Clearly, the iPad can’t eliminate the book because it’s simply a way to deliver the words.
Suggesting it will someday kill the printed book is a little closer to the real argument here, and I’d suggest ereaders will eventually do in a sizable chunk of the printed book market.
Books, however, could easily flourish.
The same with publishers, who seem to think they’re in the business of delivering paper when they’re really in the business of delivering words & ideas. The sooner they realize it, the better their chances of survival – and the sooner the latest “Golden Age” of publishing can begin, sans the expensive, unwieldy distribution.
Aha, I am very much not confusing the two — in fact, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what “book” means. In one way, it is the physical entity of a cover, pages, etc. In another, it is — as you say — the content within. Until recently, there was no difference because the book was the content AND the delivery method.
(As an aside — I view it much like the record “album” — the word was synonymous with a collection of songs as well as the LP. Now that the LP is less popular, the term album still means something in that regard.)
So when I say that the ebook (delivery method) will not completely replace the book (delivery method), I’m saying it will be like radio vs. TV — television definitely took over as the dominant delivery system over radio, but it never eradicated it.
My point was that content generating devices are much more likely to be completely eradicated by new technology than content delivery devices.
Typesetters and offset printers were replaced by DTP and laser printers. Digital cameras replaced film. Computers replaced typewriters.
But websites didn’t replace brochures. The Internet is not replacing TV. And I don’t think that ebooks will completely replace books. Certainly, they will dominate the publishing marketplace due to low cost, portability, and ease of use. But I don’t think they’ll replace them completely.
I’m don’t have an answer as to why new content generating devices wipe out old, whereas new content delivery methods don’t. Just an observation…
~Graham
You made me look up a word. Sweet! I’m officially smarter than I was 2 mins ago.
This may be weird to write, but anchoring with “… revolutions now rely on cellphones as much as guns.” was excellent.
Can’t wait to check out the new site.
R Matt Lashley recently posted..Copywriting Tip- Relevant Metaphors Can Trigger Memories And Tap Into Experiences
The “cellphones as much as guns” thing actually presages an upcoming writer interview with the guy who literally wrote the book on online revolution.
Just waiting for the email to arrive…
I’m becoming a fan of yours.
You’re inspiring me to step outside the box more.
And retool.
Cynthia recently posted..Dont You Wish Your Conference Gave You a Wrap Like This
Thanks. Always nice to meet another direct response type.