And so, in the last two years a simple, strong truth has emerged: The future of books is built upon networked platforms, not islands. More than any surface advancement — interface, navigational, typographic, or similar — platforms define how we read going forward. Platforms shape systems — those of production, consumption, distribution — and all critical changes happening in digital books and publishing happen within systems. Post-artifact books and publishing2 is not just about text on screens.
Platforming Books — by Craig Mod
Interesting piece about how mere words no longer make a “book,” and how we need to think harder about how the way we deliver those mere words needs to involve such things as figuring out where we’re going to finance them, access them, what they’ll look on a particular platform, how they’ll connect to other related information and resources, and how people are going to be able to share and talk about those words on that and other platforms.
It’s a lot more complicated, but a lot more interesting, seems to me, as a long-time trafficker in mere words.
