Digital Directions: Addressing The Human Element of Digital Change
What are some of the challenges that must be overcome by the intervention of the human element? A few that come to mind include:
● The end of "print-first." "Print-first" is an approach to cross-platform publishing in which all digital delivery formats are derivatives of the print product. The book is first composed and optimized for the paper page, then digital outputs (such as ebooks) are produced by wrestling the print product into a digital delivery format. This is hardly an optimized approach since "p-books" and ebooks are distinct in some fundamental ways, such as their use and disuse of page numbers, internal and external hyperlinks and so on. Yet, since "print-first" introduces the least disruption to publishers and their service providers, it has become a standard, though strategically unattractive, practice.
- People:
- Andrew Brenneman