Author Asks: Can Publishing Really Be Replaced by a Button?

This year our Publishing Business Virtual Conference kicked off with a keynote by Rory O’Connor, blogger, filmmaker, journalist and author most recently of “Friends, Followers and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional Media” (City Lights).

In keeping with his habit of posing challenges, the keynote addressed the question: “Can Publishing Really Be Replaced by a Button?”

And what is the answer to this big question? Well, yes and no, of course. O’Connor invoked Arthur C. Clarke, who said: “Anything a machine can do that a teacher can do a machine should do.” But lest listeners interpret this to mean that new technology should replace more traditional methods of publishing, O’Connor explained that what Clarke meant was to let the machines do what they can do to free up the skilled workers to do more, do new things, do even better things.

You can listen to O’Connor’s address on-demand.