Team Member: Kevin Shockey

Once Andrew Savikas took over as CEO of Safari Books, he realized a few things about the online subscription model. First, he realized Safari Books has had a 100% growth each year for the last ten (10) years. Second, he witnessed the number of tablets double over Christmas 2011. This meant that customers were becoming accustomed to reading online and using online subscription services. In this keynote, Andrew suggests that subscription models offer a bona-fide business model for publishers of many genres of books.

How To Be Black is a book that has shades of gallows humor, racism, satire, autobiography and self-help. But throughout the comical and anecdotal narrative of the book runs a low vein, an undertone that challenges the fallacious social beliefs about racial stereotypes. Its author Baratunde Thurston explains how the book began, what the book is about, why he wrote it, and how it evolved as he was writing and producing it. In the end it is a fascinating exploration of the future of publishing, today.

Remember the smell of old books from your first visit to a library? For many, it brings back fond memories. Unfortunately, in the mad dash to create the future of publishing, libraries are misunderstood and often overlooked. In this keynote, Barbara Genco, shares the results of research to better understand the relationship between libraries and their patrons. So far, the research provides powerful evidence that libraries are a key piece in the future of publishing.

For Patrick Lightbody, sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledgehammer. Of course, that was one of Lightbody's breakthrough innovations when he founded Browser Mob. His other was relying upon Amazon Web Services. In this keynote address, Lightbody explains how depending upon AWS allowed him to focus entirely on his core business. He also shares four lessons he gained from growing his startup company on the cloud.

Can you recall what it feels like when an opportunity is exploding, right in front of you? Like the gold rush in the United States in the 1800's, big data appears to be peaking right now. It certainly has gotten a lot of attention lately, but Mark Masden places it in context in this keynote address. Big data is just another phase of computer science and our use of computers to model, capture, and analyze business processes. Mark emphasizes that we avoid collecting data without a clear vision for its potential.

Do you remember hearing about the massive opposition to SOPA and ACTA? It was a surprising show of unity, and helped temporarily defeat these efforts. Joe Karaganis has been studying global copyright infringement. In a recent report, Joe explains why "piracy" is too easy to stop. He also describes a global problem where less developed countries are prohibited from gaining access to information. In response, he recommends establishing "shadow libraries" to help students everywhere.

In the early years of the Internet, many of the leading companies were startups. Now they employ thousands of people, but as they've grown, they've become less risky. With growing demands to meet expectations, companies must remain innovative. Two common strategies are: (a) buying a startup with innovative products and people; (b) establishing organizational structures that replicate the culture and attitudes of a technology startup. In this panel discussion, executives from AOL discuss their experiences keeping the startup spirit alive.

Remember what publishing was like before the Internet? Many do; many still wish publishing was like it was before computers. Surely, publishing has irrevocably changed. In Eric Ries' mind, publishing has now joined the leagues of music and film, and become a software industry. In this keynote, Eric shares an analogy where he compares publishing a book to entrepreneurship. Eric describes how he approached the publication of his own book and ends with a lean startup recipe for any content producer.

Did you know California's entire research network of educational institutions, kindergarten through college, now empties directly into Amazon's cloud storage system? From data generated by thousands of Web 2.0 companies every second to terabytes of data generated by government at every level; this may be the golden age of data set collection. In this presentation Werner Vogels defines Big Data, examines the challenges that big data creates, and invites everyone to consider the types of innovation necessary to handle them.

Does pizza taste better than broccoli? If you're like most people, you're going to answer pizza. It should come as no surprise then, that many health experts point to our preference for unhealthy food as a leading cause for the obesity problem in the United States. Clay Johnson suggests that a similar trend is happening in the way we consume content. In this keynote, Clay illustrates how our web preferences are impacting the type of content media companies produce and what we can do to combat our information over-consumption.