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19/07/06 Chris Anderson: The Long Tail - Summer Reading
I dropped into Easons today to pick up my copy of ‘The Long Tail’ by Chris Anderson after reading the much raved reviews, and a buzz about it from a number of Irish.
The book looks good. I managed to read the first chapter while stuck on the platform during a 50 minute DART delay. Anderson tries to explain how without any extra storage or delivery charges of less popular digital media than the most popular it is possible to leverage the ‘long tail’ of the product sales graph to overshadow your biggest sellers. This is how eBay, iTunes, Rhapsody and many others have managed their millions.
Wired editor Anderson declares the death of “common culture” and insists that it’s for the best. Why don’t we all watch the same TV shows, like we used to? Because not long ago, “we had fewer alternatives to compete for our screen attention,” he writes. Smash hits have existed largely because of scarcity: with a finite number of bookstore shelves and theaters and Wal-Mart CD racks, “it’s only sensible to fill them with the titles that will sell best.” Today, Web sites and online retailers offer seemingly infinite inventory, and the result is the “shattering of the mainstream into a zillion different cultural shards.”
I’m looking forward to reading this book while travelling in New Zealand over the next month.
(Please note: I’m away from July 22nd until August 20th. If you require to make contact please use email or a SMS. In the meantime you can follow in photos!)
I have created a custom Amazon store of my recommended reading lists and book reviews. You can get your own copy of The Long Tail here.
Tags: Books, Chris Anderson, General, long tail, Observations, sbook review
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29/05/07 Team Geared Up Blog » World First: Autopilot Drone from Lego - talking about outdoor adventure, gear & expeditions.
[...] UK (Team Geared Up) - Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame has built a DIY Drone model plane controlled by Lego with his young son. It has Lego Technics [...]
