The TOC program explored where digital publishing is today and where it will go next, covering topics such as how publishers can get closer to and build communities with their customers, ways publishers can add value for consumers, distribution of content, data's crucial role in digital publishing, the dangers of DRM, the possibilities created by new ereading devices, and the explosive growth of the international mobile market, which program chair Andrew Savikas describes as "a bookstore in your pocket."
Featured speakers included Ray Kurzweil in conversation with Tim O'Reilly, Founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Arianna Huffington on the golden age of publishing, and Ramy Habeeb of Kotobarabia, who spoke on "1,001 Arabian Rights: Digital Publishing and Its Role in Exposing Non-English Languages." Anthony Antolino of COPIA, James Cathey of Qualcomm, Peter Collingridge of Enhanced Editions, Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment, Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, William Patry of Google, Frances Pinter of Bloomsbury Academic, Skip Prichard of Ingram, Sameer Shariff of iPublishCentral, and Scott Sigler of Dark ¯verlord Media completed the roster of featured speakers.
TOC makes news. This year, O'Reilly Media introduced their new Digital Distribution Service Division, which offers to help publishers meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century. Speakers also announced launches at TOC, as Liza Daly introduced the browser-based IBIs ebook reader system, Ray Kurzweil demoed Blio, his new ereading software developed in conjunction with Baker & Taylor; and Erin McKean of Wordnik presented the Smashwords initiative.
Sponsors of TOC 2010 included Ingram Content Group Inc., Qualcomm, COPIA, Impelsys, Innodata Isogen, Adobe, Aptara, Baker & Taylor, Blackboard, Bowker, codeMantra, Connotate, Google, HP, LibreDigital, MagMe, Malloy, Mark Logic, oXygen XML Editor, Chuckwalla, Foxit Software, Jacquette Consulting, Jouve North America, Lulu, Marvell, The Media Services Group, PubServ, Safari Books Online, Semedica, Virtusales, Vitrium Systems, and Smashwords.
Sponsors also chose TOC as the best event to release their news. Jouve announced the acquisition of TexTech International; Foxit offered a PDF Publishing Solution; Lulu opened doors to developers; Vitrium Systems partnered with Foxit Corporation to support Protectedpdf; and MagMe announced their company launch.
Registration for TOC 2011 in New York City February 14-16, has opened at
toccon.com/toc2011
For complete information on O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2010, including keynote videos, speaker presentation files, photos, and media,
see:
toccon.com/toc2010/public/content/news-coverage
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.