Net book disagreement, Google spreadsheet (and $2799 cat toy)

666: the number of IT Blogwatch, in which digital book publishing shifts paradigms and Google does spreadsheets. Not to mention using Front Row on a 17" MacBook Pro to entertain your cat...

Publishing goes digital, puts book publishers on alert, according to Mike at Techdirt: "You had to know it was coming ... article last month rethinking the concept of the book in the digital age, those in the book publishing world are starting to freak out about how technology is destroying their grand old business. Both the New York Times and Toronto's Globe and Mail are running stories about those in the book business complaining about how the internet is putting their business at risk ... Of course, while all those authors fret and worry, perhaps a better place to look is a USA Today article, talking about how the author of the majority of the scripts for the TV show Babylon 5 is making a killing publishing on-demand books of Babylon 5 scripts." A great comment from Moneyguy: "Next we'll see book and newspaper publishers suing the internet for their loss of revenue A la the recording industry. Just who they'll sue will be an interesting exercise, but I'm sure some creative lawyer will figure that one out."

» Jeremy Wagstaff adds an interesting element: "So what is the future of books. I think the important distinction to be made first is between books that are read and books that are referred to ...  Indexes are old hat, and ripe for innovation. That innovation is digitization. Once the information, previously locked up in analog format, its accessibility dependent on the agility and diligence of the indexer, is free, the full potential of the book is realised ... So the real issue is about the first category: the books that are read for their own sake. This is more difficult. Such books offer us not just a bit of reading pleasure, but an invitation to enter a universe created by the author ... The book has been proven to work better than all other forms of delivery and writers have, over the centuries, explored the format and made it the success it is. This, I believe, will continue to work ... And then there’s the idea of 'book mashing', where books are no longer the result of one person’s creative genius, but the combination of a writer and her fans’ comments and contributions, or simply an online collaboration a la Wikipedia."

» Yet another idea from Scott Karp: "a book is still an organized body of knowledge on a topic shaped by an author’s vision, perspective, and expertise — but it is also a living, breathing, adaptable entity, able to respond to its readers and incorporate new thinking (both from the author and from readers). So imagine: rather than buying a book, you subscribe to it: you get the current edition, access to reader-only forums (i.e. community) in which the author actively participates, and a “feed” of continuous content updates. If an author were committed to the topic, the book could be sold as an annual subscription ... I’ll admit this idea needs a lot more baking — but I’m going to harness the power of blogging by throwing it out there and enlisting others to help flesh it out."

Meanwhile, in Google-land, a web-based spreadsheet? Amit Agarwal shows some screen shots: "Google has announced Google Spreadsheets which is a web based spreadsheet based on XL2Web software from 2Web Technologies ... Google Spreadsheet offers limited set of features with no support for Charts or Excel Macros ... Though Google says it's working on improving printing, charts, filtering and 'drag and drop' features, in the current state Google Spreadsheet may offer competition to other web-based spreadsheet software like NumSum, ZohoSheet [etc] ... but not to the rock-solid Microsoft Excel. They are still miles apart."

» Danny Sullivan: "The product will be a limited test release, which basically means first come, first served until Google shuts off the flow ... Another crazy non-search direction for Google? Not so much, to me. People store a lot of useful information in spreadsheets. Giving everyone a free one does help encourage the spread of that information ... Businesswise, Google Spreadsheets it's a super smart move in the battle against Microsoft by hitting at a Microsoft strength, Microsoft Office ... Google already has Writely, a light-weight word processor. Google Spreadsheets gives a second element to the office suite that's being built up ... I doubt I'd ever dump Excel. I love it too much ... But the next time I bring up a computer for my wife or mother-in-law and their far less intensive needs, giving them a Writely or a Google Spreadsheets will be a strong alternative to tracking down a spare copy of Office, believe me."

» Ed Burnette adds: "Ok, maybe "Excel killer" is a bit over the top but I couldn't resist after Richard MacManus said not to write that ... Google will make a pre-beta version of Google Spreadsheets available. As they did with GMail's successful viral marketing campaign, if you make it into the test group you'll be able to invite your friends or co-workers to join up too so you can share data with them ... BTW, this is a nice site if you want to learn more about the early days of spreadsheets and Dan Bricklin's VisiCalc (circa 1979)."

» Lee Odden takes a sneaky peaky: "At the time of this writing, there is a tour of features you can take over at the Google Spreadsheets sneak peek site which breaks down the features into: Creating, Sharing and Storing ... Web based applications for document editing and sharing are definitely on the up and up. The 'software as service' concept pioneered in part by salesforce.com has become a lot more mainstream."

Buffer overflow:

    Around the Net

• Tim Bryce: Understanding Information
• Neil Wilson:LDAP Connection Pooling
• Michael Geist: We Are All Journalists Now
• DrunkenData: Dell wants I should know this
• Peter Lattman: Internet Telephony: It’s Springtime for Lawsuits!
• Dave Mabe: Apple + BlackBerry = AppleBerry?
• Bobbie Johnson: Spam king Ryan Pitylak turns "activist"
  
• SearchEngineWatch: Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel's Salary Adjusted To One Dollar

    Around Computerworld

• C.J. Kelly: Cell phone insecurity
• Mitch Betts: Peripheral vision:  Five links that caught my eye
• Mitch Betts: Data disclosures cost millions: prevention costs $100 per laptop
• Joyce Carpenter: Beware the coloring book
• Jerri Ledford: Maybe Microsoft's just easier
• Shark Tank: A Little TOO Efficient
• Martin McKeay: Why even have it there?
• Douglas Schweizter: The price of portability
• Martin MC Brown: A new spin on the thin-client model

And finally... the $2799 cat toy [hat tip: b3ta]

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk. Also contributing to today's post: Judi Dey, our very own Antipodean.