October 2012

Bowker: Number of self-published books up 287% since 2006

In a new report on self-publishing, Bowker — the company that handles ISBNs (book identifier codes) and other bibliographic info for books published in the U.S. — says that the number of print and e-books self-published annually is up by 287 percent since 2006 and now totals over 235,000 titles.

Bowker finds that 148,424 print books were self-published in 2011 — that means that 43 percent of all print books published in the U.S. in 2011 were self-published. 87,201 e-books were self-published. Publishers Lunch notes a few important caveats: Bowker only counts titles with ISBNs, so “KDP exclusives and other sources that still don’t use ISBN numbers” aren’t included. That means the number of self-published e-books is likely much higher than 87,201. In addition, the print and digital editions of a single title may be counted twice. Bowker finds that four large companies dominate the self-publishing space. In 2011, Amazon’s CreateSpace was behind the creation of 58,412 titles, or 39 percent of all self-published print books. Smashwords was the largest e-book producer, accounting for 40,608 titles, or 47 percent of all self-published e-books.

Army Leaders Promote Need for Offensive Cyber Capability

The Army needs to develop offensive cyber capabilities it can wield in battle the same way it uses artillery or air power, top service commanders explained at the Association of the United States Army annual conference.

Lt. Gen. Rhett Hernandez, commander of Army Cyberspace Command at Fort Meade (MD), said cyber threats against Army networks today are “real, growing, sophisticated and evolving . . . they are changing the way we operate.” The threats require sophisticated defensive systems to detect and deter attackers. But the Army also must have the ability to “conduct cyber offensive operations when directed,” he said, adding that the ability to conduct cyberattacks should be integrated with traditional joint fires capabilities such as artillery.

Saving Billions in IT Spending

Over the last six months, agencies across the Federal government have been undertaking a coordinated effort to scour their IT budgets to find unnecessary IT spending and develop a plan to root out waste. This effort – called PortfolioStat – has resulted in ambitious plans that will save the government $2.5 billion over the next three years through consolidating duplicative systems, buying in bulk, and ending or streamlining off-track projects.

Under PortfolioStat, agencies have collected and analyzed baseline data on 13 specific types of commodity IT investments, spanning infrastructure, business systems, and enterprise IT. These areas have the most significant opportunities for reducing waste. OMB worked with agencies to review their data and compare their spending to other agencies and private sector benchmarks in order to assess the agency’s current state and develop a list of opportunities to reduce inefficiency, duplication, and unnecessary spending. Based on this analysis, agencies drafted PortfolioStat plans, which were then reviewed in Deputy-Secretary-led PortfolioStat sessions with the Federal Chief Information Officer.

Samsung does not infringe on Apple's multitouch patent, Dutch court rules

Samsung's Galaxy devices don't infringe on an Apple multitouch patent that describes technology that prevents smartphone users from pushing two on-screen buttons at the same time, the Court of the Hague ruled.

The technique used in Android is sufficiently different from Apple's patent, the judge said. "The court judges that Samsung with the trading of its Galaxy products does not infringe on EP 948," said judge Peter Blok and two other judges. "Apple, as the unsuccessful party, will be ordered to pay the litigation costs," the judges wrote. Samsung's costs already exceed $422,000. Apple sued Samsung in the Netherlands over a multitouch patent called "touch event model." The technology described in the patent disables parts of the screen of a multitouch device when an application developer deems it necessary to do so to avoid undesirable input.

President Obama seeks compromise on cyber security executive order

President Barack Obama is reported to be willing to compromise on cyber security. There have been continuing reports since early September that the president is preparing an executive order to implement some of the provisions of the 2012 Cyber Security Act (CSA), after it failed to come to a vote in the Senate in early August. There are reports that a final draft is circulating that includes a major compromise to settle differences between those who want government to have free access to networks under attack, and those concerned about violations of privacy.

Republicans Increasingly Positive About Campaign

A new survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Oct. 18-21 among 1,005 adults, finds that 63% of the public says the campaign is interesting, while 28% say it is dull. Last month, 53% found the campaign interesting.

From January through June, majorities said the campaign was dull, and no more than about four-in-ten found it interesting. 73% of Republicans say the campaign is interesting, up 23 points since early September and by far the highest percentage of the year. More independents also view the campaign as interesting (56% today, 45% in September). The percentage of Democrats who say the campaign is interesting, which jumped 19 points between June and September, is unchanged since then (66%). Compared with a month ago, far more Republicans also view the campaign informative (69% now, 49% then,). And substantially fewer say the campaign is “too long” than did so in September (42% now, 62% then). In fact, the percentage of Republicans who say the campaign is too long is now about as low as it was in January (49%) at the start of the GOP primaries. Democrats’ and independents’ views about whether the campaign is informative and too long are little changed since September. On both measures, opinions among Democrats turned much more positive between June and September.

‘Pittsburgh is getting pounded’ by ads

“Save the tears for Pennsylvania’s TV stations passed over by the presidential race,” advised the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Tim McNulty on the paper’s Early Returns blog last week. “Pittsburgh is getting pounded” with political ads, McNulty wrote, citing data from the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Ad Sleuth project showing that between October 10 and 17, “the Pittsburgh market has received the third-most political ad reservations in the nation”—time reserved for future ads, meaning the “pounding” in Pittsburgh isn’t likely to let up between now and election day. A major factor in the ad pounding is the race between one-term Democratic US Rep. Mark Critz and his Republican challenger, Keith Rothfus, in the redrawn 12 District which wraps Pittsburgh to the north and stretches east to Altoona and west to the Ohio border. Last month, Politico ranked Critz v. Rothfus the third most-expensive House race in the country based on outside group and national party committee spending through the end of September, which Politico put at $3.5 million.

NetCoalition winds down operations

The tech trade group NetCoalition is winding down its operations after launching a little more than a decade ago during the heyday of the dot-com boom. Three firms that lobbied on behalf of NetCoalition — TwinLogic Strategies, Jochum Shore & Trossevin PC and Moore Consulting — filed termination reports during the recent lobbying quarter to show they will no longer be working for the group. Those shops helped spearhead NetCoalition's legislative strategy as the group fought the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) — controversial bills that lawmakers shelved in January after a wave of online protests. Markham Erickson, the executive director of the group, confirmed that NetCoalition would close its doors after it finalizes two pending matters in the D.C. Circuit Court. The newly launched Internet Association will replace it.

McSlarrow to Head Comcast's Mountain Region

Kyle McSlarrow, who has been president of Comcast/NBCU's DC office, has been named the company’s regional VP of the Mountain Division, overseeing cable systems in Utah and Arizona. He will report to Steve White, president of the West Division and be based in Salt Lake City. According to a source speaking on background, McSlarrow will not be replaced. The D.C. office had been reporting to McSlarrow, who had been reporting to executive VP David Cohen.

Big Data in More Hands

Software that captures lots of data and uses it to make predictions has mostly been the province of engineers skilled in arcane databases and statisticians capable of developing complex algorithms. As the business gets bigger, however, software makers are domesticating their products in the hope they will prove attractive to a broader population.

Benton

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