Thursday, February 5, 2009 3:14 PM
Book Camp Toronto: The publishing community organizes from the ground up
gbloggers
GUEST POST
By Mark Bertils (index // mb)
The book is a tremendous technology. As an object, it is so great it has barely changed in 400 years. But the book is due for a reboot. The Internet and inventions like Wikipedia are challenging the book's position as the predominant vessel for sharing information and stories. This isn't news. But talk of the death of print is mostly smoke. The form doesn't need to improve; the way we conceive stories and the way the book industry operates does. There are smart people from all over trying to figure out what is next for this very reliable medium. The trick has been getting those people connected.
Enter Jeremy Ettinghausen, the pioneering digital publisher at Penguin UK. Ettinghausen and a few friends took the unconference concept -- where "there is no agenda until .. the attendees make one up" -- and announced BookCamp, which happened in London on January 17. It was a mixer for technologists and publishing types. Attendees explored a number of challenges and opportunities in story-telling, publishing, and marketing. By all accounts, it was a smashing success.
Montreal's Hugh McGuire attended BookCamp in London. McGuire is involved with a few projects, like Librivox.org, that are book-industry related. He wanted the conversation started in UK to continue when he got back to Canada. He was keen to import the BookCamp concept to North America.
Fast forward to this week. News of Reed Business's cancellation of Book Expo Canada -- the annual book industry trade show -- quickly rippled through the community and resulted inevitably in chatter on the micro-blogging service Twitter. Talk of organizing separate gatherings for booksellers, editors, and small publishers abounded. It seemed like an excellent time for McGuire and his fellow organizers to announce Book Camp Toronto. (Disclosure: This writer is a co-organizer). In quick succession The MaRS Centre for Innovation was secured for June 6, 2009 and the BookCampTO wiki was created for participants to register and self-organize.
The spirit behind BookCampTO is to gather together engaged and passionate people from across North America to talk books and meet one another. It is entirely grass roots. All are welcome. The cost is free. To participate, attendees are encouraged to bring their ideas on the future of books (and perhaps a little lunch money).
With any luck the inventor of the next Wikipedia will attend.
