Hidden Cost of Digital?

Here’s an article about colleges capping broadband usage on campus and students having to pay for data overlimit fees.  As digital books become more embedded with rich-media and takes up more and more data transmission this issue could be one of those unforeseen consequences of going digital.  Will faculty have to deal with students who say, “I could not access my digital course materials because I went over my data limit and I can’t afford to pay the fees?”

This leads to asking the question, what is the real cost for going digital?   Many schools have ‘free’ (nothing is really free- tuition is suppose to cover those costs) internet access and may not limit downloads.  But what if the student does not have access to internet at home or cannot afford broadband access to required educational content?  Are download rates higher as students move toward tablet devices like the iPad?  Will students need to subscribe to internet or broadband services so that they can read their assignments?  Will students without such access be at a disadvantage as digital course materials become the norm? 

We were recently asked, "What is the average data usage for student’s courses?"  Honestly, we do not know. If anyone has any data out there please share with us your findings.  Is it insignificant?  Will it become significant down the road? 

Understanding EPUB 3.0

The International Digital Publishing Forum(IDPF), a global trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry, has promoted EPUB 3.0 to a final IDPF Recommended Specification for the interchange and delivery format for eBooks and other digital publications. 

Many of the enhancements to the digital standard will have implications for digital course materials or e-textbooks, so folks in this space should be aware of this development.  Supported by HTML5, EPUB 3 adds rich media (audio, video), interactivity (JavaScript), global language support (including vertical writing), styling and layout enhancements, SVG, embedded fonts, expanded metadata facilities, MathML, and synchronization of audio with text and other enhancements for accessibility.

"EPUB has become the industry standard format for digital publications based on Web Standards that are structured, reliable, device-independent, and accessible," said Bill McCoy, Executive Director, IDPF. "As digital publications evolve from digitized text into enhanced eBooks and new forms of expression, EPUB 3 will dramatically expand the ability of authors and publishers to deliver richer experiences to their readers across disparate devices, in browsers and in apps.

You can learn more about the new format in this article published by O’reilly Media. The article is an easy read and very perceptive even for non-techies. It is a free download from O’Reilly’s website but you must register and check-out as if you were purchasing.

600 School Districts use iPads for Course Materials

Are iPads better investment than traditional textbooks?

One principal in Boston thinks so, according to this story in eSchoolNews.  The article states that Patrick Larkin, Principal at Burlington High School, believes the $500.00 iPads are a better long-term investment than textbooks.  When asked about textbooks, Larkin said,

I don’t want to generalize, because I don’t want to insult people who are working hard to make those resources but they’re pretty much outdated the minute they’re printed and certainly by the time they’re delivered.  The bottom line is that the iPads will give our kids a chance to use much more relevant materials.

More than 600 school districts in the country now have a one-to-one computing program using iPads ranging from wealthy suburban schools to school districts in New York and Chicago, according to the article.  However, experts in the article warns that districts looking to adopt such devices need to ensure the resources are available to support wireless infrastructure, repairs, and other costs associated with a such programs.

More Tools for Professors to Customize Textbooks

The Chronicle recently reported on a trend we have been monitoring for a while.  From small start-ups to the big publishers, custom textbooks are becoming the common denominator in digital publishing.  With pressure from students who complain course materials are overpriced, professors are taking the Frankenstein mash-up approach to adopting course materials these days by taking materials from here and there, making textbooks much more affordable.

Customized course materials is not a new concept for faculty, pubishers, or college stores, but new innovations in digital technology in conjunction with the open source movement are enabling new growth in this course material segment.  Moving content to this segment is often beneficial as it reduces the cost of course materials for students, provides faculty with resources more tailored to their classes, and sell-through via the store improves. 

The Chronicle article covers several of the players -- new and traditional -- who currently operate in the custom publishing area. 

Study finds Rise in College Student’s Purchasing Power

re:fuel released its 11^th annual College Explorer survey, according to Marketwatch.

The recent findings shows that the more than 20 million new college students’ spending power set a new record with $417 billion dollars, a 14% jump from last year’s study.  Overall discretionary spending for this population was $76 billion.  The article acknowledges that part of the growth in spending power is due to rising tuition costs and higher education costs.  Here are some other notable findings of the study discussed in the article.

Food is a major discrectionary spending area.  Discretionary spending on food increased by 39% since last year's study and accounts for almost half (46%) of college students' total discretionary budget.  Of the $35.2 billion reported towards food spending - $20 billion is being spent on groceries, $12 billion in restaurants and $3 billion in convenience stores.  Nearly all students (90%) report visiting a grocery store in a typical month, and they do so more than once per week (4.7 times a month).  These numbers suggest that food is a potential growth category for college stores.

On the technology front, students report that on average they now own six digital devices and spend a cumulative 11.4 hours per day using technology. Cell phones are quickly being replaced by smart phones.  Cell phone ownership decreased from 84% of students in 2010 to just over half (55%) in 2011.  Smartphone ownership  jumped more than 61% in the same time period.  In 2010, just one quarter of students (26%) reported owning a smart phone device, and that figure rose to 42% in 2011.  20% of students expecting to purchase a smartphone  in the year ahead. This places it ahead of other coveted items like laptops (17%) and tablet computers (11%).

Related to social media, a full 88% of students are Facebook users and 25% use Twitter, a slightly higher engagement over last year.   53% have followed or "liked" a brand on Facebook, and only 16% have done so on Twitter. Students who say they "friended" a brand in order to be the first to know about company news dropped from 48% last year to 40% in the current survey. Forty-eight percent (48%) of students have followed a brand's social networking page to take advantage of special offers and just 22% regularly read a brand's page for updates. Of note, more than 44% of students reported actively avoiding ads on social media sites, placing them among the most avoided media types.

The survey reports on several other statistics as well and the full report is worth reading.

UCLA Cleared of Copyright Infringement

University of California at Los Angeles recently prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit for streaming videos online.

According to the Chronicle, one copyright expert thinks the UCLA decision helps the HathiTrust digital-library consortium in its copyright lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild over the digitization of books from university libraries.

The Association for Information Media and Equipment (AIME) and Ambrose Video Publishing filed the lawsuit against UCLA for streaming a Shakespeare play for faculty and students to use as part of curriculum.  The plaintiffs asserted that UCLA violated copyright and breached its contract by duplicating DVD’s of the play that was acquired from Ambrose.

The judge in the case held that UCLA had not waived its constitutional “sovereign immunity,” a principle that prevents state universities from being sued without their consent in federal court.  The court also found that the association did not own the copyrights and therefore did not establish its standing to bring the case.

Chronicle interviewed James Grimmelmann, an associate professor at New York Law School who commented that “universities will have a little more breathing room for using media,” and “this decision will make the Authors Guild case against HathiTrust more of a long shot.”  “If the HathiTrust suit were to be decided tomorrow by the same court, it would be dismissed.” Mr. Grimmelmann says.

Further, Chronicle also quoted Kevin Smith, Duke University’s scholarly-communications officer, who says “because much of the dismissal hung on the sovereign-immunity question, “a major part of the decision applies only to state entities” and “does not translate to private universities.”

Retail Systems Research Report on the State of the Store

Retail Systems Research continues to produce interesting and relevant stories and reports for retailers in an age of technology.  In one recent report RSR discusses their annual study on the "state of the store" or retailing.  Here is a quick quip:

Our findings consistently show retailers understand the importance of creating a better in-store shopping experience for their customers. However, in 2010 it became clear that armed with more technology than most store employees and managers, the consumer was crafting her own experience – and much of it was outside the boundaries of the store’s four walls. The question is no longer, “How can we make the in-store experience as satisfying as the web?” It has become, “How can we make our stores more significant than showrooms for on-line merchants?”

As stores think more about increasing traffic, and providing more and more products and services online, several of the lessons within the report are worth examining.  Key lessons in this year's report seem to focus on the importance of making sure that the people on the floor are educated in the products being offered.  The report also discusses the importance of using technology in retail to engage customers, and in doing so available technologies can drive customers to the store rather than away from it. 

The 29 page report is available for free with site registration and is worth the time to download and read. There is more than one actionable takeaway that retailers can pull from the piece.

Community College Student Survey on Use of Technology on Campus

The Lone Star College System conducted a student-driven survey of more than 6,000 students from 36 two-year colleges on the impact of technology on their academic performance.   According to one article, 78 percent of students responded said that their grades and learning are improved when technology is used consistently and effectively.  Campus Technology articles’ main take a ways are: 1. Schools should not implement technology for the sake of technology; 2. When  technology is deployed that the technology is working properly; and (3) That faculty needs to know how to use the technology and they should actually use it. 

Remembering Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

As most folks are probably aware by now, co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, 56, passed away Wednesday after fighting with cancer for many years.  Jobs took a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August. 

Here are some of his famous quotes to remember him by.

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

“My job is not to be easy on people. My jobs is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.”

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

“I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.”

“Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.”

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” - Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998

Happy National Student Day!

Today is the inaugural National Student Day, a day celebrating and promoting college students’ social responsibility. More than 500 college stores across the United States and Canada are holding celebrations recognizing their students. Some of the events taking place include food drives, giveaways, and even a pet adoption. Visit the National Student Day Facebook page often over the next few weeks to see pictures of the celebrations.

Also, the National Student Day contest will close on Oct. 14 at 5pm EST. We have more than 100 stories! If you haven’t already, take a few minutes to read some of the entries as some of them are very heartwarming.

BookRiff Announces ‘Build Your Own Book’ Platform Launch

PublisherWeekly (PW) reports that, BookRiff, a novel digital publishing company will go live with their technology on October 6^th.  BookRiff’s platform uses an ePub reader and allows users to create their own book by piecing together chapters, articles, or other content.  Users pay for content which is delivered in a variety of formats such as print-on-demand and content rights holders are given royalties.   According to PW, publishers who will provide content include O'Reilly Media, Harvard Common Press, Stonesong Press, Sterling Publishers, EnThrillEntertainment, as well as Douglas & McIntyre, Greystone Books and New Society Publishers.

There are a growing number of competitors to enable campus creation of "mashable" books -- a category we traditionally refer to as custom publishing or coursepacks.  Cengage has probably received some of the greatest press around this concept, but AcademicPub, BookMasters, LiquidText, Xanadu, and others offer comparable solutions.  As custom publishing grows as a way to preserve market share, grow revenue, and decrease course materials costs for students, it is likely that others will enter this space with potential solutions for faculty and stores. 

E-Books Not So Popular at CSUF

Here is an article an article from The Daily Titan, the school newspaper at California State University Fullerton, that reports that e-books are not catching on at their campus.  While the bookstore offers e-textbooks, CSFU students are not taking that option when purchasing their course books.  “If there are 100 students in the class, about 3 to 5 will buy the e-books,“ says Text Adoption Manager Mike Dickerson.

One of the reasons for the slow adoption is that there is a significant lack of availability of e-book versions of the most popular textbooks on college campuses, said Jeff Cohen, CEO of CampusBooks.com.  Cohen also said e-book prices aren’t as good as people believe them to be.  Other reason for the lack of enthusiasm about e-books is that publishers make it hard for students to bypass paying for e-books by imposing restrictions that limit e-books’ usage, expiration dates, and printing limits.

Of course, as we have reported on this blog in the past and in presentations elsewhere, there are a variety of other factors also influencing the adoption of digital texts by students.  Many of the larger adoptions are now available through sources like CourseSmart, which has partnered with many campus bookstores.  However, the majority of titles are still not available, or easily available, though a consolidated source.  Digital sales require more consumer and faculty education, due to differences in DRM and licensing terms.  Type of institution also matters, with sales higher among for-profit schools and adult commuting populations.  Student expectations of digital are also not "pdf-equivalents" of the text and in response we increasingly we see more emphasis by publishers being placed on "born digital" versions of course material resources.  In short, there are many reasons why adoption has been slow, but many of those factors are showing signs of shift.

There is also a question around the true size of the digital course materials market.  Take MyMathLab by Pearson as an example.  It probably outsells the leading print textbook product by 3-to-1 (that is in dollars if not units).  It is a top selling product for many stores, but few stores (or publishers) would count that as a "digital textbook sale."  As more products are available in digital format, and as more of those products provide richer learning contexts, digital sales will increase.  There are also a percentage of sales that happen directly through other sources, which college stores cannot track.  A case of "we may not know what we do not know" -- and that relates to market share.  We do not know what percentage of digital sales we are losing to other sources.   Recall that record stores were not seeing big sales of digital music back in 2003.  What a difference less than a decade makes.  What is the true size of the digital course materials market across all digital products (not just .pdf substitutes for print)? 

So my question regarding the original article cited in this story -- were students surveyed to find out if they are using digital course materials, and if so where they were being acquired?  How many students at CSUF are using digital course materials accessed through the library or purchased someplace else?  The number may still be small, but if we are trying to track trends, the data might provide for a more accurate picture.  The move to digital is certainly more a question now of "when" rather than "if." Despite currently low in-store sales it is important for stores to continue to monitor digital sales and experiment to learn how to transition to new forms of content delivery.  Failure to do so will likely mean increased channel obsolescence with time.

BTW -- I tend to consider CSUF a well-managed college store.  My comments are not intended to be a critique of the store's performance around digital, but to provide a different perspective on the low digital sales many stores report.  I know a number of stores take the low sales numbers and use that to justify not doing anything with digital.  Such decisions weaken both the store and the channel in terms of future positioning.  Even well-managed stores like CSUF's find that digital course material sales are not yet comparable to digital trade book sales in other channels, but they are experimenting and tracking so that when the shift does come they will be better prepared with viable solutions.

New Platforms to Access University Press E-Books

Wired Campus reports several online platforms for University-Press Ebooks that are about to be introduced into the market.  These include Oxford Press’s University Press Scholarship Online, ProjectMUSE, JSTOR, and University Publishing Online, a Cambridge University Press’s platform.

Oxford Press announced that its University Press Scholarship Online will includes monographs from the American University in Cairo Press, Fordham University Press, Hong Kong University Press, University Press of Florida, and the University Press of Kentucky, with Edinburgh University Press and Policy Press scheduled to join the project in March 20.

According to Wired Campus ProjectMUSE Ebooks will include more than 14,000 titles from 66 university and scholarly presses.  JSTOR, has more than 20 publishers that are participating and expects to reach 30 by the time  it goes live in the summer of 2012, says the article.

University Publishing Online, Cambridge University Press’s has publishers on board like  Books India, Liverpool University Press, and the Mathematical Association of America, as well as Cambridge University Press.

Happy 100th Anniversary to U of Maine Bookstore!

The University of Maine’s Bookstore celebrates its 100th anniversary thanks to its students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.   The store stays connected to its constituents by getting involved in annual events and donates proceeds from sales of specific items, such as the Holiday Ornament Series, to campus-sponsored student organizations.  The store also regularly help to support fundraisers, volunteerism, alumni events and new student orientation.   The bookstore’s offerings include textbook options such as rentals and eBooks, and the Computer Connection.

2000% Increase in Textbook Rental

eCampus, an online textbook retailer, issued an interesting press release reporting an observed surge of textbook rental to the tune of 2000% increase over the last two years.  eCampus says that one in five of all college textbook purchases online today through their site are textbook rentals in contrast to online rentals accounting for just 1 percent of all sales two years ago.   According to eCampus, new textbooks account for 40 percent of textbook sales on their site  down from 71 percent four years ago.  eCampus also reports that the purchase of used textbooks on their site has grown steadily over the past three years, from 29 percent of all sales in 2009 to more than two-thirds (37 percent) today.

Barnes & Noble Partners with Self-Publishing Company Lulu.com

This week B&N and Lulu.com announced a partnership to help self-publishing authors more easily publish and distribute their works via NOOK eReader.  Lulu.com is a self-publishing company with 1.1 million authors and 20,000 titles in their catalogue each month. The company provides a publishing services for writers in exchange for a percentage of profits. "This partnership is another step in our passionate effort to help Lulu creators reach more readers and sell more books," says Bob Young, Founder and CEO of Lulu.  Barnes &Noble VP of eBooks, Jim Hilt commented: "We are excited to partner with Lulu.com to bring its catalog of fantastic eBooks to our rapidly growing community of millions of NOOK owners and readers.

Will e-books create a bigger digital divide?

“Could Abraham Lincoln have become president of the United States in a world in which poor children lack access to physical books?”

A recent article in Technology Review asks this question.  The piece may be best summed up with the following passage:

I challenge anyone reading this to recall his or her earliest experiences with books -- nearly all of which, I'm willing to bet, were second-hand, passed on by family members or purchased in that condition. Now consider that the eBook completely eliminates both the secondary book market and any control that libraries -- i.e. the public -- has over the copies of a text it has purchased.


Except under limited circumstances, eBooks cannot be loaned or resold. They cannot be gifted, nor discovered on a trip through the shelves of a friend or the local library. They cannot be re-bound and, unlike all the rediscovered works that literally gave birth to the Renaissance, they will not last for centuries. Indeed, publishers are already limiting the number of times a library can loan out an eBook to 26.

Herein resides one of the great challenges to ebooks today:  they do not fit our conceptual model of how books and related content worked in the past.  If I buy a song on iTunes, I can burn it to CD, share it with my friends, and more.  The same is not true with ebooks.  I frequently cannot share them, they are harder to discover, and they may even expire after a time period.  The concept of what it means to own a book is changing, and this could have implications for accessibility as well.  

Harris Poll on E-reader's habits

Here’s yet another survey suggesting e-readers are here to stay and growing.  Here are some of the highlights of the poll:

• One in six Americans (15%) uses an e-Reader device up from less than one in ten (8%) a year ago.
• Those who do not have an e-Reader, one in six (15%) say they are likely to get an e-Reader device in the next six months.
• Overall, 16% of Americans read between 11 and 20 books a year with one in five reading 21 or more books in a year (20%).  Those who have an e-Reader, one-third read 11-20 books a year (32%) and over one-quarter read 21 or more books in an average year (27%).
• One-third of Americans (32%) say they have not purchased any books in the past year compared to only 6% of e-Reader users who say the same.
• One in ten Americans purchased between 11 and 20 books (10%) or 21 or more books (9%) in the past year.   Those who use e-readers, 17% purchased between 11 and 20 and 17% purchased 21 or more books in the past year.
• Half of both e-Reader users (50% and non-users (51%) say they read the same amount as they did six months ago.
• 24%  of non e-Reader users say they are reading less than they did before (compared to just 8% of e-Reader users), over one-third of e-Reader users (36%) say they are reading more compared to just 16% of non-users.

Google Wallet's impact on retail

Mobile Commerce Daily reports that it does not believe Google Wallet app will have much impact on short term retail sales but there are long-term benefits such as loyalty conversion rates and increased qualified sales. 

“The enrollment rate for loyalty programs could reach up to 70 percent thanks to NFC-enabled mobile wallets such as Google Wallet.  If you are paying with your phone, you already have the phone out so the barrier to converting someone is radically lower.” per Matt Wise, CEO of ePrize. 

“We see the launch of Google Wallet as a significant step forward in the hugely expanding North American and global mcommerce marketplace,” says Gary Schwartz, MEF North America chair and CEO of Impact Mobile, Toronto, Canada. “Google’s product brings awareness to the viability of mobile payments across a wide audience of consumers and merchants.”

Mobile commerce is expected to grow significantly in North America this year, having lagged behind many other countries.  Students are often early adopters of new technologies, so stores should expect that shopping-saavy students will soon be looking at more mobile payments.

Amazon Tablet Announced

In the most recent iteration of the device wars, today Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced the release of Amazon Kindle Fire.  The Android-based tablet weighs 14.6 ounces and features a 7-inch screen and will retail for $199.  The new Kindle Fire will be ready to ship on November 15.

Kindle Fire uses Amazon’s proprietary cloud-based and syncing technologies that would allow all content to be backed up on Amazon’s cloud storage.  Additionally, Kindle Fire uses Whipersync technology that allows for automatic, wireless syncing that does not require any plug-ins to computers.  Mobile browsing is capable using Amazon’s own Silk browser that will allow for faster page loading and supports Adobe® Flash® Player.  Perhaps the only surprise is that Amazon moved off at least one proprietary element by using the Android operating system.

In at least some of the early press, the Amazon Tablet was viewed as "No iPad Killer."  Instead some industry analysts believe it is going to be a “poor” technology and will only be a "stopgap" in order to get a tablet out the door for the 2011 holiday season.  The opinion is attributed to the fact that the tablet uses a slower processor and using a failed Playbook hardware platform.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see what features Amazon builds into the tablet, particularly given the comnpany's conitinuing interest in the digital textbook market. 

Must Read for Marketing on Facebook

A recent white paper by BulbStorm discusses 10 myths and misconceptions about marketing on Facebook.   Matt Simpson, developer of Facebook apps suggests asking the following questions before launching your Facebook marketing campaign. 

• Am I seeking virality? If the premise of your promotion is to go viral, it’s a huge red flag. That’s not to say that a creative concept and well-built technology won’t drive organic growth. But don’t expect to spam the news feed and get away with it.
• Am I using Facebook functionality? Be careful here! Do not ask fans to post, like or comment on content on your wall or photo albums. Do not use “like” buttons as a voting mechanism. You must run your promotion through a third-party application.
• Am I collecting contact information? At the end of your campaign, you’ll have to contact your winners to distribute prizes. Remember to collect their contact info in your promotion app, because you cannot contact them through Facebook.

Lowes Employees Armed and Ready for Tech Savvy Do-It-Yourselfers

Retail Systems Research has another interesting piece of news this week.  Lowes is arming their employees with 42,000 I-phones in order to engage better with the highly knowledgeable weekend warriors-men and women. This is after Home Depot announced its 10,000 Motorola initiative for their employees. The big box chains obviously are getting that "an uninformed, uneducated employee on the selling floor was more damaging than having no employees on the selling floor at all." The i-Phone will feature several functions - inventory checking, showing how-to videos and use lowes.com in store aisles.
The lesson in this article is an age old lesson in retail- engage with your customers and offer the buying experience that they expect.

Cengage and Verba Join to Offer Students More Pricing Options

Cengage Learning, and Verba announced they are working together to offer college students a variety of online pricing and format options for textbooks.

CengageBrain.com is Cengage's online course materials site where students have the choice to rent or purchase from the company's learning products. From the site, students can rent textbooks or purchase print textbooks, eTextbooks, individual eChapters and audio books. Verba's web comparison tool (Compare) is integrated into the college store website so that students do not need to navigate through multiple sites to see a wide range of pricing and format options.

"Students want options. Providing access to CengageBrain.com pricing within Verba's online comparison shopping tools will help students be aware of more format and price options," said Stephen Hochheiser, Vice President, College Store & Public Affairs for Cengage Learning.   The article goes on to note that by enabling the CengageBrain links, college store customers will benefit from existing affiliate programs and stores can also increase market share by satisfying more of their students through the stores' websites.

Money for New TextBook Authors

While we have not reported on the open source movement much lately, developments continue.  Recently, the Saylor Foundation, a non-profit organization, announced that it would pay new textbook authors up to $20,000 to put their textbooks under a Creative Commons license allowing free use to anyone while keeping copyright protection for the author. Of course, books submitted must meet the Foundation’s set criteria. The foundation currently has more than 200 college textbooks in the collection free to anyone in the globe as part of the Foundation’s mission to drive down cost of education to zero.

Recent Poll Suggests Consumers are Getting Daily Deals Fatigue

Once thought of as a novelty in E-Commerce, there appears to be a trend suggesting that fatigue is settling in on daily deals. Consumers were asked whether they are tuning out of daily deal sites and 36% said yes, to a large degree, 43% said yes, to a moderate degree, and only 4% said no.

Here are some quotes from the study report:

“Consumers may love those deep discounts but they'll never respect the retailers in the morning. There are a lot of ways to build loyalty but buying it isn't one of them.”
Ryan Mathews, Founder, ceo, Black Monk Consulting

“Value is a shopper concept that extends far beyond the price. “
Anne Howe, Founder, Anne Howe Associates

“It's time for retailers to think of something other than price (quality? design?) to differentiate because, ok, we get it, you're cheap! What else makes you better?”
Lee Peterson, EVP Creative Services, WD Partners

At the end of the proverbial day, customers want to buy what they want to buy (more or less), not what companies are trying to sell them. This model might work better if there was more discretionary spending. (Then again if there was more discretionary spending, people wouldn't flock to deal sites in the first place.) All in all, the electronic deal business may turn out to be largely a flash in the pan.”

Fabien Tiburce, President, Compliantia, Retail Audits & Task Management

Tips for Developing a Mobile Game Plan

Book Business's feature article this month is on “21 Tips for Developing Your Mobile Game Plan.” Book Business asked several industry executives who have navigated the mobile waters to share their insights on how to develop a successful mobile strategy. While geared toward publishers, there are a number of items on the list relevant to booksellers too.  Here is the list, with details available in the article.

1. Focus initially on iOS and Android platform and get revenue flowing.
2. Determine the level of interactivity for your app. Avoid “feature creep.”
3. Develop enough apps and to learn what your ROI is for the specific app.

4. Get one product to be successful even on a small scale. Learn from it and then follow up with updates and feature enhancements as appropriate
5. Get a few apps on the market that are well-targeted and bug-free create your core base of loyal buyers. Marketing will be key. Develop relationship with Apple and Google.
6. Make sure to nurture good relationship with the big e-book vendors.

7. Publishing e-books is more work. More formats = more work.
8. You will need to transform your traditional workflow to manage digital content.
9. Digital publishing is still manually intensive.

10. Develop for more than just the desktop.
11. There is no best way, only good ways. Remember there are a lot of ways consumers access content.
12. Rethink what your product is.

13. Be bold with Mobile App as we were with Web 10 years ago.
14. More than one way to go mobile- mobile app or mobile web.
15. Accept Apps will cannibalize your other platform but you will keep customers

16. Learn how to work with Apple
17. Build as installed base of users of free apps and then make use of in-app purchasing to sell paid apps to that installed base.
18. Take the plunge.

19. Mobile Search strategy is different from Web search .
20. Mobile strategy should be focus on “action-oriented activities.”
21. A mobile search has to yield a result with eBooks that are interesting to read, priced competitively, and available to buy [immediately] on mobile or in-store.

iPads for less than $5 a day on Campus

An article in Campus Technology recently noted that with a grant from the Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education, several schools in California began a digital device rental program allowing students to rent devices ranging from iPads to digital cameras. Student at California State University Bay can now rent iPads for $25 a week, $120 for a semester, and a loaded Macbook for $150. The rental program is modeled after the library system and charges apply for late returns.

Pay for eBooks via Phone Bill

Readers around the world will have option to easily pay for eBooks thought their phone bill. Bango, mobile analytics and payment company,announed that it provides Mobcast, the digital book software platform, with operator billing for its mobile digital bookshop GoSpoken.com. Bango allows customers to place a charge on their phone bill for purchases made directly from the mobile version of GoSpoken’s digital bookstore. According to the article, this click-to-pay consumer experience is seamless and secure, maximizing conversion rates for purchases from connected phones and tablets across multiple platforms and networks including Wi-Fi. “By using Bango to deliver a consistent operator payment experience to all our customers we have seen a marked increase in sales. Conversion rates using operator billing are much higher than using other methods, and easier for our consumers”, said Stephen Crawford, Operations Director, Mobcast.

Students Give Up Sex for Digital Textbooks

A recent survey found that one in four students say they would abstain from sex for a month if they could have all their textbooks in digital format. Here are some other interesting Infographic stats posted by Economy Watch:

By 2014, nearly 19% of US Textbook Market will be Digital.

There was a 400% increase in digital textbook sales between 2008-2009

42% of students either bought or at least seen a digital textbook in 2010. That is a 24% increase from 2007.

South Korea is investing $2Billion to make sure all textbooks are digital by 2015. An equivalent investment for US would be $10Billion.

Almost three-fourths of the $7.5 Billion in textbook sales are brand new textbooks.

Digital textbooks are, on average, 53% cheaper than new print books.

Check out the infographic for some other interesting stats. 

NetFlix provides lessons for stores...

There has been a lot of flack  surrounding movie rental company NetFlix lately.  First they changed their pricing plans.  Now they are separating the physical DVD business from the streaming business -- requiring customers to have two accounts.  Amidst all of this is was a breakdown in communications between the company and its customers as the company tries to transition from a world of more physical media to one of more digital delivery.

There are several lessons book stores could learn from NetFlix's recent foibles:  Perils of rental models; transitioning from physical to digital; or communication.   However, one quote from CEO Reed Hastings in his apology blog post captures one of the key messages I think stores should hear. 

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming. Most companies that are great at something--like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores--do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) because they are afraid to hurt their initial business. Eventually these companies realize their error of not focusing enough on the new thing, and then the company fights desperately and hopelessly to recover. Companies rarely die from moving too fast, and they frequently die from moving too slowly.

And there it is.  So whether we are talking about mobile commerce, digital course materials, rental, data analytics, price comparison, or any of a number of other technologies and developments in the retail book space -- we can not be afraid as a channel to venture boldly into a new future if we hope to have one.  This may mean trying new models that at first seem less profitable or sacrificing margins for market share. 

I hear many arguments that say "digital course materials is moving slowly, so I do not need to worry about it."  I believe this strategy is flawed.  Frankly, I do not care so much whether digital course materials take off this year, or in 5 years, or in 10.  We can all debate the rate at which digital takes hold, but that debate is hardly productive.  The truth is that the transition has begun.  Our window of opportunity to drive developments in favor of stores is now.  We must as a channel place "enough focus on the new thing" that when the time comes to move quickly we are not caught in a position of desperation or unviability.  That is key aspect of channel and business stewardship, and it is a critical strategic activity for all levels of management.  With the emerging technologies ahead of us, we are more likely to fail for having taken no action, than we are for having acted and making some mistakes along the way. 

Ok.  Back off of my soap-box. 

Pew Research studies on digital.

The Pew Research Center recently released results from a pair of survey studies.  In one study with the Chronicle of Higher Education, two-thirds of 1055 college presidents predicted that in 10 years more than half of all textbooks used in undergraduate programs will be in digital format.  In the other study, which focused on college graduates, 23% had taken a class online, with that number growing to 46% among students graduating in the last decade.  Online classes are where the larger percentage of digital adoptions currently appear to be.  Thus it is interesting that college presidents are nearly twice as likely than graduates to indicate that current online class offerings are equal to the in-class experience. 

College presidents increasingly recognize the importance digital textbooks will have on the future of higher education.  Proactive stores will be prepared to offer visions what college stores will look like in the future, particularly related to digital course materials.

Forming mobile commerce strategy

Here’s an article on m-commerce strategy for those of you who are contemplating going mobile. In summary, if you intend on setting up a mobile app for your store make sure you have a clear “m-strategy” that defines what you are trying to accomplish by going mobile.  Always focus on customer needs and not what your business partner wants you to have. One of the implications of this for stores is the need to monitor your customer’s mobile experience. Stores must continually improve their capabilities to make data-driven decisions.  Plan on having a process to collect, analyze, and learn from the data you collect.  Mobile commerce is still relatively new, and there is much to learn yet.  However, the future of retail will be more heavily dependent on mobile and related technologies.  

Soundtracks for EBooks?

Yes, that is correct. Just as sound and music enhances the emotional impact of movies and television shows, New York City-based startup Booktrack is trying to do the same for ebooks. With an iOS app already in the market and an Adroid app on the way, Booktrack allows ebook readers to listen to ambient background noise relevant to the book's current setting, specific sound effects synchronized to the text as it is read. 

Will this new twist on audiobooks entice people to read more in digital formats?   Probably unlikely.  However, it is another step in the slow transition or evolution of digital reading materials, and the technology is likely to find a usage.  More power to it if it does. On a side note Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal, is the lead investor of Booktrack.

Largest Postsecondary iPad-based eTextbook Initiative

In a recent press release the Eminata Group, one of Canada's larger independent post-secondary institutions, and Pearson are partnering to deliver all of Eminat’s campus’ course content via Apple iPad. This is the largest such initiative in North America.  It currently being piloted in a few programs in four campuses but over the next three years the partnership hopes to bring all programs under a digital delivery system.    The pilot covers hundreds of Pearson texts, and will allow students access to content via iPads or back on Macs/PCs.

The number of pilots continues to increase, and it is important that we keep a broader eye to track experiments or developments that might otherwise fly under the radar.  The for-profit and professional schools appear to be moving toward digital more quickly.  This is likely because of the greater control over curriculum, and student populations that consist more of adult learners and workforce-based learners who tend to find digital course materials more convenient.  Even so, these experiments are worth watching as some lessons learned here will flow into the more traditional higher education market.

Indiana University Adopts eText Option for Campus

In a recent press release Indiana University (IU) signs with publishers John Wiley & Sons Inc., Bedford, Freeman  & Worth Publishing Group, W.W. Norton, and Flat World Knowledge to provide students the ability to access digital or printed hard copies, and uninterrupted access to all of their eTexts while attending IU.

Similar to IU’s model agreements with Adobe and Microsoft, the terms with the publishers will provide a substantial discount and reduced eText restrictions in exchange for a much lower, guaranteed eText fee from each student who is enrolled in a course section that adopts a particular eText.

According to IU, the agreements are intended to give students the choice between a digital or print version of their course materials. Students can choose to access their eTexts in digital and/or print formats, and there will be a print-on-demand option for students who prefer a hardcopy of an eText to keep after graduation.

Indiana-based company Courseload was selected to provide the software for students to read and annotate their eTexts. Courseload’s software integrates directly with IU's Oncourse system and enables students to tag, search, collaborate as a study group or view multimedia on any computer or mobile device. Courseload has worked very closely with IU's Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Center to ensure that the software is accessible for students with disabilities.

Crowdsourced Book

Hacking the Academy that represents current practice in developing and testing ideas about new publishing models. It was made possible through an innovative partnership between the University of Michigan Library and the University of Michigan Press with the intent of modeling library-press collaboration at U-M.

Hacking the Academy is a book compiled from a single week of blog posts and tweets soliciting ideas for how the higher education could encourage positive change using digital media and technology. The project was headed by Dan Cohen and Tom Scheiunfeldt, of George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media, as research designed to question the conventional university-press system. Within a span one of week they received 329 submissions from 177 authors with almost a hundred submissions written during the one week span. Subjects covered in the book include educational technology, tenure, lecture, curriculum, and libraries.

Renting and buying used textbooks cheaper than e-books

There is a perception that digital textbooks should be cheaper than printed ones.  From what I have seen and understand, not only is this not the case, but there is typically good reason.  For one, the print and distribution costs are not 50-75% of the cost of creating a book, despite expectations or perceptions.  Not that there is not room for further supply chain or production efficiencies, but frankly, just because it is electronic does not mean it will cost less.

To back up this observation, a recent study by CampusBooks.com reports that renting or buying a used textbook was cheapest for 91.6% of the top 1000 textbooks for back-to-school. The other 8.4% of the time, e-books were less expensive -- somtimes significantly so.

On a separate note, while something of a press release, the story does point out (once again) the importance of stores being a part of price comparison.  We know students engage in price comparison, and that the trend to do so is increasing.  If stores do not participate in such comparisons they are out of the equation from the perspective of purchasing decision.  

Ebooks' Real Impact on the Book Publishing Market: 2009 – 2011

The Aptara studies on ebooks in the past couple years have been interesting.  On Sept 20th the company will offer a free webinar that covers results, trends, and best practices of ebook publishers as uncovered over the past two years in a multi-survey series.  Survey findings will be presented.

While oriented toward publishers, this session should be of interest to stores as well.  It should reveal some of the challenges facing our supply chain partners (i.e., publishers) relative to digital, and give some insight into where they are and where they are headed.  This session will also include experts from both the US and Europe, which I think will add an interesting dimension to the discussion. 

Among affluent Americans, print media is tops

Traditional outlets for accessing media still reign supreme with the affluent, a study conducted by Advertising Age  reveals. Using the Mendelsohn Affluent Barometer, which surveys the affluent on various topics, Ad Age gauged new and traditional media usage by this group. The results showed that traditional media won out, with 93% of all affluents reading hard copy magazines, and 86% reading hard copy newspapers. Only 27% viewed magazines by computer, and only 39% accessed their newspaper that way.

The numbers varied with the 18-34 age group, with 88% reading hard copy of magazines, and 70% reading hard copy newspapers. As an alternate viewing method, 35% view magazines on computer, while 54% view their newspapers online as well. This survey shows that although the affluent have more access to alternate technology with which to view traditional media, as well as the the savviness to use them, traditional methods seem to win out in the end -- at least for now.

E-textbooks: Current Shortcomings

A colleague sent me this audio session on E-books on Campus.  Speakers were Jeff Young Senior Writer, Chronicle of Higher Education, Eric Frank ,President and Co-Founder, Flat World Knowledge, Inc., and Matt MacInnis, Founder and CEO, Inkling. They talked about the affect of E-books in campus curricula and why the adoption rate for E-books has not been as high as expected.

Here are some of the reasons the speakers gave as to why they believe adoption of digital course materials have been slower than anticipated:

1. Pricing Model Out of Sync
2. Digital Divide
3. Industry is very confusing and in a flux
4. Hard to read large amounts on E-books
5. Battery Life
6. Good for Liberal Arts but not so good for Social Sciences
7. Distractions on the Screen

Other reasons we have found in studies did not appear on their list, which was interesting.  The hour-long audio session is interesting, however, and worth a listen over lunch.

An Inkling of textbook innovation

Many of us are probably aware of tech start-up Inkling.  If not here is a great collection of videos on the company.  They now have interactive versions of dozens of textbooks, geared toward tablet devices, developed with cooperation from leading textbook publishers -- and representing some of the largest textbook adoptions.  The videos are something all stores should watch -- partly to understand how these technologies are marketed to students, and also to help stores gain a quick glimpse into the beginning of the future for the digital textbook:

Copyright licensing on campus

Here is an interesting project going on at Stanford University. It is called the Stanford IP Exchange (SIPX) and the system is intended to provide tailored copyright licenses on campus. The project includes both print on demand (POD) and publishing on demand technologies, and addresses a problem we have heard from faculty at various institutions.  The custom coursepack business is, of course, a solid percentage of the textbook market, and is likely to increase in the future with many comparable initiatives underway.  This project has some interesting elements to it, however, and is another worth watching.

More than 2/3 of mobile device owners participated in M-Commerce

A recent study reports that 2/3rds of mobile device owners also participate in mobile commerce.  Out of 1600 surveyed, 39 percent of smartphone owners make purchases with their handheld devices once a month. Additionally, 60 percent of mobile owners use their smartphones to help them shop every month. According to the study, more than two-thirds of active mobile consumers are 16 to 24 years old.  That is the prime customer age group for college stores.  Additionally, 31 percent of active mobile consumers are Baby Boomers and are aged 45 to 64 years old.

The study also points to the rise of social media as a factor in driving mobile purchases. According to the study “mobile shoppers were more likely to be influenced by recommendations from friends, family and customer reviews than traditional promotion channels, including store displays and store associates. Social networks allow mobile shopper to know what their peers and friends reviews want, which in turn impacts them.”

We would like to hear what different stores are doing to engage in m-commerce or social media.  Any great success stories to share?  Or failures we can learn from?  Or ideas we might try?

M-Commerce Increases foot traffic

Another article reminding us M-Commerce (Mobile Commerce) is a must for retailers. M-commerce is enabling consumers to research, price compare, and be informed and is becoming more than just an impulse buying tool. “Consumer mindsets and expectations are that they should now be able to purchase anything on a mobile device that they can on the computer or in a store.” According to the article, “for every one mobile transaction, the store locator is used 63 times, showcasing that mobile can have a significant influence on driving customers to the retailer’s store so they can touch and see the product in person before they buy."  This presents opportunities for retailers to both drive foot-traffic and capture sales.

Price Comparison- Be in it to win it!

Recently Amazon announced the release of an iPhone App, Amazon Student. The app is essentially a price comparison tool aimed at college students. Other features of the app allow the user to buy and sell books as well.

Here is another reason why college stores need to be cognizant of the value of offering price comparison, with tools like Verba. As mobile apps for price comparison becomes a common tool for customers, stores need to be aware that if they are not part of the price comparison the fail to become an option for the consumer. Price comparison is as much about consumer trust and relationships as it is about transparency.  If your store is not listed in the comparison you simply do not exist for the consumer. It’s simple, you got to be in the game to at least have a chance to win it.  Providing price comparison information is an easy way to help retain market share.

Disclosure:  NACS Media Solutions does have a partnership arrangement with Verba.  We believe strongly that this type of technology should be widely adopted by the college store community.  The move of Amazon into this space further demonstrates that this technology makes sense -- and college stores were there first!  Amazon followed our industry's example almost 18 months later! 

College Store News Interview

With the start of the school year there are always news stories about textbooks.  Some of these involve store interviews.  Abbie Shellist, Assistant Director of the University of Tennessee Bookstore via WBIR, their local TV station, provided a great interview for a story that focused on traditional versus digital course materials.  Final quote by the anchorwoman, "It looks like e-books are here to stay." 



If other stores have been involved in local interviews -- please share.

Friending the new first-year students

College stores once had near exclusive reach to incoming first-year students.   Today that is not so much the case, with social media and the reach of mobile devices.   Fast Company had an interesting article this week about the importance of building a relationship with these new students, and some suggestions on how to (and how not to) do it.  As technology changes the medium of our core product as well as the transaction mechanism over the next decade the focus now is on market share. 

The Class of 2015, the article notes, are:

hyper-connected, tech savvy thinkers with a budget and their own personal brand to uphold. [...]  Their outlook on life has been dramatically altered by world events and social media. Technology has enabled their own personal brand-building, beginning from the time they were old enough to click a mouse. And when they say something, it’s not a handful of the select few who hear them, it’s hundreds upon hundreds of “friends” with open ears and fingers just itching to text or tweet.

Coupled with this observation, the article provides five pieces of advice for understanding the needs of the new first-year students who will make up the Class of 2015.

1. HELP THEM EXPRESS THEIR PERSONAL BRAND -- and they will embrace yours.
2. INTEGRATE ORGANICALLY INTO THEIR WORLD -- and go to where the customer is (i.e., online)
3. GET IN GOOD WITH THEIR FRIENDS -- and understand social networking
4. BECOME AN ON-DEMAND BRAND -- aggregate the services they need and make it easy
5. GET TO KNOW THEM AND DON’T ASSUME -- values change, and trust is more important than ever

Each of the above suggestions in the article is coupled with an example of a "company that is getting it right."  The message here to stores is that if you are not yet thinking about social media, it is just another way in which you are losing out on market share and the relationship which was traditionally the retailer's strength.

 

Now more than ever it is time to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.

 

Innovation is all about value.

I had the pleasure of telling parts of the NACS/NACS Media Solutions innovation story in two sessions at the ASAE meeting in August.  ASAE is the American Society for Association Executives -- and YES, there IS an association for everything!  Regardless, innovation was a major theme at the conference this year, and one of the interesting aspects of ASAE's approach is the clear definitional link they have between innovation and value.

There is a great blog on innovation excellence that is worth following -- and which will soon be added to our blog roll on the right.  One of the recent posts was about how innovation is all about value.  The posting includes the following quote:

Innovation transforms the useful seeds of invention into solutions valued above every existing alternative – and widely adopted. [...] Often usefulness comes from what a product or service does for you, and value comes from how it does it. If you’re looking to truly deliver innovative products and services into the marketplace, then once you succeed at the designing and developing the ‘what’, don’t forget to also focus on achieving excellence in the ‘how’.

It also talks about innovation as being more than just about ideas -- and as much about thinking of innovation as idea investment opportunities.  Meaning, that to be successful at innovation we must think about innovation as more than just ideas + execution.  Rather, the author argues that innovation is a product of value creation (i.e., new value for stakeholders), value access (ease with which stakeholders can access the innovation), and value translation (helping/educating people on how the innovation adds value to their lives). 

These aspects of innovation and value have real significance for those of us in the course materials market and can help explain some of the reason why digital course materials have had difficulty in the marketplace.  Things like DRM and a lack of standards for access among content make digital course materials less accessible.  We have also seen that digital course materials require greater consumer education than the traditional format of a book.  We all know how to use a printed textbook more or less, but we have found that digital course materials require more education for consumers, and that when that education occurs, the willingness of students to buy digital course materials increases.

One last piece on this blog post -- a comment from a colleague who is one of the more innovative store managers out there.  He wrote:

Very interesting read. Takes what is typically an intangible concept and adds a practicality that reaches beyond simple "execution" towards excellence and success. It reminded me of the concept of creating a need or market where it doesn't exist yet. One approach is to poll customers and give them what they want, but this is the challenge of identifying (through innovation) something your customers don't yet know they need. This sometimes requires mind reading, but is really about knowing your customer - who they are and how they live, not just what they want. In training & education, this is the "I don't know what I don't know."

I could not have said it better.

The CITE goes Mobile

You can now view The CITE even when you are not at your office.  Use the QR Code below with your mobile device to connect to The CITE's mobile page.  In the year ahead we will be talking more about mobile as a significant emerging trend for retail and course materials.  Thus, it seemed appropriate to make our site more mobile as well. 

The CITE returns!

Hi everyone. Sorry for The CITE being on a longer hiatus than originally expected or indicated. Thanks to everyone who sent messages to see if everything was okay and to everyone who came to the site to see if we were posting again. More than 10k of you came back at least once this month to see if posting was active again, and many days had over 1000 unique visitors -- more than a few of you checked back very often! My apologies for making you wait, but thank you for your persistence!

Regular posts have already been scheduled to start showing beginning on Monday (Aug 29)and we should be back to regular daily posts quickly. A great deal has occured in the past two months while we were on hiatus, so we will try to mix some updates of news from the summer in with current events. A few quick items on the blog to point out:

A new look. You will notice a slightly updated look and feel to the page. Hopefully this revised layout will make it easier to use and find information of value.

Ask Your Questions. In addition we will be experimenting with a "community answers" tool over on the right-hand toolbar. Currently, it only seems work for select browsers or if you log in. The latter should not be necessary. If you can see content under the "community answers" label, then your browser works with this widget. Here you can post questions to me or the community. I will work to see if I can resolve the problems with the widget, if not, it will likely get removed. You can always send messages to me directly with your questions.

New Voices. The blog will have some new voices. We have hired a new Emerging Technologies Strategist (Jeong Oh) who will be a regular contributor to the blog. Our Digital Media Specialist (Veronica Gancov) will contribute occasional posts. Our fantastic publication team will hopefully also continue to send stories to me for posting.

Thank you again for your continued interest and support. On to the blogging!!!

The CITE on a short hiatus.

To our loyal readers,

The CITE now reaches tens of thousands of readers from more than 170 countries. Your continued interest in our part of the conversation is appreciated. However, due to travel and meetings, preparation to launch some larger pilots and programs, and some resource constraints, the CITE will be on hiatus for the month of July.

We plan to make several announcements in August -- and of course, much is happening quickly in this space these days so there will be a number of news stories to report. We will look to get back to frequent if not daily postings next month.

We are also looking at moving the blog to a new platform, and may make that shift in the next month, time permitting.

I hope that many of you return when posting resumes in August. In the interim, please feel free to post questions here which you would like to see answered in future blog posts.

Best regards,
M