Twitterviews

Not sure if this is a new term in the English language, but if it is it's going to stick. George Stephanopolous (jeez, hard spell!) is doing a Twitterview with John McCain on Tuesday of next week. Q and A is still going to be limited to the 140 char max so should be a really interesting study in the extent to which message really is medium.

If done correctly, this is just a fantastic example of how different communication types (e.g. public two party interview) can traverse technologies.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090313/ap_en_ot/twitter_stephanopoulos_mccain

One issue I have with the approach is that you actually have to follow both George and John in order to see the interview. Seems a more persistent relationship than I'd have hoped when all I want is the transactional value of seeing the Twitterview.

Open Publishing

As per usual, Tim O'Reilly is making a strong case. This time it's in favor of thinking about the complexity of free. He's specifically applying his thinking to the world of publishing and noting that he's successfully monetized the attention from free content to:

• Sell books;
• Establish a topic as relevant and credible to then sell books;
• Sell tickets to events, the interest for which was generated by free content.

I've embedded the video below. In the beginning he outlines a role for publishers that is both dead on and inspiring.


Tim O'Reilly makes the argument for Open Publishing @ TOC 2009 from Open Publishing Lab @ RIT on Vimeo.