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Do Free Online Books Make Money?
Does making a book freely available online hurt or enhance the sales of the hardcopy? Advocates suggest that if you read a bit of the book online you’re more likely to buy the hardcopy if you like it and finish reading it on paper. You’re also more likely to recommend it to friends who might buy it, too. Those against think that free only equals more free, and no one is going to buy a book if you get given the whole thing at no cost. Neil Gaiman and his publisher have been experimenting with this question, and Gaiman’s American Gods has been available for free online for a month (it disappears again in a few days). So, it’s definitely interesting to see who many people read the book, and how hardcopy sales appear to have been effected. So: the initial stats from Neil Gaiman’s blog:
It’s worth drawing people’s attention to the fact that the free online reading copy of American Gods is now in its last six days online (it ends 31 March 08). I learned this from an email from Harper Collins, which also told me the latest batch of statistics.
For American Gods:
68,000 unique visitors to the book pages of American Gods
3,000,000 book pages viewed in aggregate
And that the weekly book sales of American Gods have apparently gone up by 300%, rather than tumbling into the abyss. (Which is — the rise, not the tumble — what I thought would happen. Or at least, what I devoutly hoped would happen.)
The book is up at This URL, if you’re interested, or want to pass it along to a friend.
While this example isn’t exactly necessarily a template for new authors – Gaiman’s existing reputation as an author and his well-read blog both come into play in looking at the figures (not to mention that American Gods is an excellent read) – the overall figures are definitely encouraging and hopefully we’ll see more experiments like this one in the future (and, yes, I realise this isn’t the first such experiment – hello Cory Doctorow – but it’s still a noteworthy one).
Hillary Clinton and the perils of stock footage
We’ve been talking about all sorts of things to do with media production these past few weeks in my Digital Media unit, including some conversations about stock footage. So, it’s rather timely to see that, as has been widely blogged elsewhere, one of Hillary Clinton’s campaign advertisements has turned back on her due to the use of purchased stock footage. This is the advertisement in question, about the Red Phone ringing at 3am:
However, it turns out that the little girl supposedly afraid in her bed has grown up since that footage was shot, and Casey Knowles is no fan of Hillary Clinton as she explains in this rebuttal on YouTube:
Casey Knowles’ point that she “reject the politics of fear” is powerful given the message the stock footage of her younger self was being used to convey. It’s one of the perils of using stock footage that the people in that footage may very well have a life and opinion of their own. There’s nothing more effective that that last line: “I’m Casey Knowles and I approve this message. And not the other one. Something worth remembering both in politics and when sourcing stock footage from archives. [Via Barry]
Make A Cylon?!?
First thought: if we’ve learnt anything at all from Battlestar Galactica, shouldn’t we know better than to make a Cylon? (Intelligent machines evolving and rising up against their human oppressors and so on…)
That said, when MAKE, DVICE and the SciFi Channel team up and recruit Cylon actors Tricia Helfer (Number Six) and Grace Park (Boomer) to judge a competition in which entrants must physically construct (not just photoshop) a Cylon, I’m intrigued to see what emerges! Let’s just hope the entries aren’t too realistic. Details here.
Tale of Mighty Rudd Ascension
As the description tells us, “Short propaganda philosophy tells tale of mighty Rudd ascension” …
Without a doubt, one of the best political satires, and mashups, of the 2007 Federal Election campaign thus far. And, yes, for those who watch The 7.30 Report, I am getting YouTube pointers from Michael Brissenden these days. After all, he’s a keen YouTube watcher himself now; as last night’s report said:
The 2007 election will be remembered as the YouTube campaign – the first time the internet became a real force. Both sides are exploiting cyber space relentlessly but as we have seen already, the net is not always such a comfortable place for politicians.
Bring on the political discomfort! 🙂
Update: NineMSN staff writers seem to like this clip, too.
Dove’s Onslaught
Last year as part of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign they produced the important and memorable Evolution video which graphically illustrated the many, many steps between a photograph being taken and the image based on that photograph ending up on a billboard or fashion magazine cover. This year Dove have, in my opinion, produced another fine clip which looks at the tirade of body images and messages young girls and women encounter through various media in their everyday life. It’s called Onslaught:
Incidentally, while I know these viral videos are something of a marketer’s dream, I don’t think that distracts from the message one little bit.
Which WitchBlade?
A few months ago I wrote about my disappointment with a statuette of Mary-Jane Watson from the Spider-Man comics which showed her basically washing Peter Parker’s Spider-Suit whilst standing in an overly provocative pose. There was substantial community dismay at this overtly objectifying piece (especially since MJ has, at times, been one of the stronger women in the Spider-Man franchise). It seems this dismay has had little sway, evinced by this new “limited-edition Witchblade Schoolgirl” piece hitting the shelves:
I could rant further, but I think this response over at Occasional Superheroine is probably the most apt one.
Of course, the comic book industry (or the associated model market) are far from alone in extremely problematic and sexist representations as this Boing Boing post on hyper-sexualized advertising reminds us.
Kevin 07! (Or: Team Rudd gets its Web2.0 on!)
So, Kevin07 is here! Australian Labor leader Kevin Rudd has gotten all web2.0 and has a new portal website which integrates nicely with Labor and Rudd’s re-vamped MySpace page, YouTube and Facebook. As I’ve discussed in the past month, Labor has already shown far more success in using MySpace and Facebook than the Liberal party. Liberal leader and current PM John Howard has tried to use YouTube, but each video clip led to the deleting of comments and each video also seems to have less and less viewers.
Kevin07 was launched today, so for historical archival purposes, here is a full screenshot from day one:
The layout is fairly straight-forward and is clearly based on a the design of both the Hillary08 (screenshot) and Obama08 (screenshot) campaigns for the 2008 US Presidential election. There is a little danger in Australia in pushing the individual (Kevin) over the party (Labor) since Australians are still less comfortable with celebrity politics (hence, among other things, no Australia President) but I’ve got to say I think the Labor media advisors have done a very decent job on this portal. In an article in PerthNow, Rudd’s team certainly seem to be making the right noises about how social software would work during the election campaign:
“Kevin07 will encourage supporters to interact with one another, participate in blogs and stay in touch with what is happening on the campaign trail,” Labor’s campaign director Tim Gartrell said.
On the negative side, ABC News has a story about some very strongly worded responses from Liberal Party faithful:
But Assistant Treasurer Peter Dutton says voters will eventually see the light, and has labelled Mr Rudd’s approach as a “load of crap”.
“People at the moment are looking at Kevin Rudd like they’re looking at a promo for Big Brother,” he said.
“I mean it’s exciting, it’s fresh and when the big night comes, and people actually have a closer look and they look at the detail and they get a better understanding about what the show is about, they actually realise that the show is a load of crap.”
“The thing I say to Australians is please, don’t just look at the media tart, look at the policy detail.”
However, what Peter Dutton fails to understand, is that a generation who started watching Big Brother when they were 13 are old enough to vote this year. More to the point, dismissing the web, which is a central social space for those in the late teens and twenties, is clearly alienating the majority of a key demographic group. On more stable ground, The Age has tried to take Team Rudd to task for not registering all the possible Kevin07 variant domains (.net, .org etc) but if that’s the only issues the mainstream media can find, then I’d have to say Kevin07 is a winner in terms of design and its connectivity with voters.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
The US release date for the much anticipated Blade Runner: The Final Cut DVD has been set at 18 December 2007 (I hope the same date will be true for Australia, but I can’t find anything to confirm that yet). There are sets from 2 to 5 discs in size, including the package pictured, which comes in briefcase in the style of one holding the the Voight-Kampff test in the film. It all looks very exciting, and, unlike, say, George Lucas’ Star Wars Special Editions, the Blade Runner sets will contain all the versions of the film, from the 1982 release, the first Director’s Cut, the new Final Cut and, for those getting the 5-disc pack, a work-print (which I’ve never seen) which has all sorts of changes that never made it to any cinema screens at any time.
One of the best parts of this collection will have to be the new ‘Dangerous Days’ documentary which seeks to be a ‘definitive’ look at the film, but really will just add more to the film’s ongoing mythology. Yahoo! has a few preview clips up, which include footage showing new interviews with most of the cast and crew, including James Edward Olmos and Harrison Ford. I thought the previous Blade Runner documentary put together by Mark Kermode was pretty good, so I’m hoping to be dazzled by ‘Dangerous Days’ if it has even more to show about the film and its cultural impact.
I’m quite pleased this set is on its way – when I was lecturing earlier this year on Blade Runner I was really starting to think it would be the last time this film would seem relevant to students, but I think this re-release will spark further interest in the film, its peppered production history and the importance of the questions it provokes. Yes, I think Deckard is a replicant in every cut, but I’d be pleased to hear why you disagree … or agree! 🙂 [Via AICN]
For Harrison Ford fans, you can also check out the Comicon report from Ford, Spielberg and others from the set of Indiana Jones 4!
Update: Blade Runner: The Final Cut will get a cinematic premiere on September 1st at the 64th Venice Film Festival!
Happenings from and about Creative Commons in Australia
On the back of a lot of really interesting work and events last year, Creative Commons Australia have released their “Unlocking the Potential Through Creative Commons” report which examines the role (and potential roles) of Creative Commons licensing in Australia. It’s an easy read and has lots of examples, so very useful for artists, media producers, educators and many others who are thinking about the Creative Commons as the right copyright for their work!
Also in Australia, the CC Au blog looks at a recent controversy which has arisen due to Virgin Mobile in Australia using Flickr images licensed under Creative Commons terms. It appears Virgin may have ignored a CC ‘non-commercial’ clause in at least one case, but also on the table is the moral question of getting the permission of people who actually appear in the photos, especially since some of the advertisements put out by Virgin Mobile are clearly mocking in the people in the pictures. That said, clearly this is a very mainstream use of CC-licensed work and that’s definitely welcome. It’s also noteworthy that at least some of the photographers are delighted to see their work appearing as part of this campaign. For some of the more vitriolic comments which highlight the grey areas between intent and use, see the comments of these two Flickr images. It’s also worth checking out the online arm of Virgin’s campaign using these images (which, I have to say, is actually quite a clever use of some of these pictures!)
More broadly, last month Mary Taylor Huber from the US Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching gave a series of guest talks here in Perth (you can hear Mary’s lecture here) and focused on what she calls building the ‘teaching commons’ which is, essentially, shared ideas and resources about teaching and learning across the globe. In our conversation after her public lecture, we were talking about the Creative Commons as the mechanism by which the actual resources of a teaching commons could be shared. Following that idea, I was absolutely delighted to see Creative Commons central announce that their CC Learn – “the education division of Creative Commons” – has gone live, with this fantastic mission statement:
* With legal barriers, we advocate for licensing of educational materials under interoperable terms, such as those provided by Creative Commons licenses, that allow unhampered modification, remixing, and redistribution. We also educate teachers, learners, and policy makers about copyright and fair-use issues pertaining to education.
* With technical barriers, we promote interoperability standards and tools to facilitate remixing and reuse.
* With social barriers, we encourage teachers and learners to re-use educational materials available on the Web, and to build on each other’s contributions.
Obviously CC Learn is in its early stages, but the mission is definitely a very important one and I can’t wait to see CC Learn grow!
Update (8.50am, 28 Jul 07): I’ve been reading more about the Virgin Mobile use of Flickr CC images and these posts are worth reading: “Uh, I thought YOU got the release . . .” by Carolyn E. Wright, looking at the need for model release forms for commercial use of people in photos; a post from Ian Wilson who was quite happy to see his image used by Virgin Mobile; Agency Spy’s “Flickr Is Going To Cost Virgin Mobile Millions Of Dollars“; and a longer conversation on Flickr “Virgin Mobile advertising campaign using Flickr photos“.
The US Presidential Race ’08 is now a pillow-fight between bikini-clad crush girls!
As Chuck and a quite a few others have pointed out, Barely Political have released another viral video, this time featuring an MTV style showdown between the singing, dancing political spokesmodel* Obama Girl and her political nemesis, Giuliani Girl:
I rather like Chuck’s description of this clip as a “a singing and dancing competition on the streets of Brooklyn that suggests a spiced up version of West Side Story, with a little politics thrown in.” As with the Obama Girl and Hott4Hill clips discussed earlier, the question as to whether these clips actually have any meaningful place in promoting political awareness is an important one. The lyrics certainly presume some knowledge of politics and of the candidates, but I suspect the demographic most likely to be watching the videos in YouTube are probably not of voting age.
As Craig Rubens from NewTeeVee asks:
Is this the “Happy Birthday Mr. President” of the YouTube era? The ladies of Barely Political owe quite a bit to the imitable Marilyn Monroe. Or is this more the Jib Jab of the 2008 election, whose This Land traveled in very much the same media circles back on ‘04?
I like the comparison with Jib Jab, as it certainly reminds us that US politics has already had its first election (’04) with viral video input, and the Crush Girl vids have some sort of history. That said, I also worry with Rubens that for all the cynicism about politics in the US, given such a narrow ranges of choices at the end of the day, these clips really could make a difference in an apathetic voter’s mind:
So, will Barely Political work its way up to political punditry levels of Stewart/Colbert? Likely not, but it’s broken new ground with the powers of viral videos, coming out with multiple iterations of a successful formula. I’d like to think that my vote won’t be influenced by Hooters girls chanting political candidates names, but like I said before, I am a member of an easily swayed demographic. So, while maybe not the most cerebral of political commentaries, Obama girl very well might be the most primal.
In a clearer light, it’s great to see Taryn Southern (who didn’t just perform, but also wrote the Hott4Hill clip) bemused by the fact that many commentators are missing the that fact that her clip, at least, is definitely satirical:
I’m still surprised at the number of people who don’t realize the video is a parody. Between Hillary’s face in Mt. Rushmore and my bikini body superimposed on George Washington crossing the Delaware, how could it get anymore silly?
Meanwhile, on the home front, the Oz in 30 Seconds citizen-produced political video campaign in Australia (run by GetUp) has entered the voting phase. Nothing as racy as the US clips, but some really impressive political commentary to be seen here!
* I’ve loved the term spokesmodel ever since hearing it for the first time in the wonderful film LA Story. I’m so pleased to finally have an appropriate context in which to use it!
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