How students are transforming information and what it means for publishing

** This was an interesting session from someone who has been involved in the publishing field for a long time. There are some good ideas and some not-so-good ideas, but it's great that a group is thinking seriously about this issue**

Reader's changing habits:
- google is first choice for research
- the library has become a social space in addition to work
- social networking sites are becoming a new model/medium for publishing - students are creating very vibrant and creative spaces that are facilitating discussion among peers
- Multi-player gaming environments
- students are accessing content on various mobile and other devices

Issues for publishers:
- develop new ways to organize, store and deliver information
- tools and functionality are becoming just as important as content
- need to rethink publishing models
- can the current publishing organizations make this transition?

Scholarly publishing's past
- controlled content discovery and delivery, as well as creation
- This is causing them to focus on protecting the content for "proper use"
- so they tend to avoid partnerships with commercial enterprises
- and disapprove of students' use of their academic technology as entertainment

Scholarly publishing's future
- digital publications that allow exploration of web resources with selection and quality guidance
- storage and delivery for remote access on multiple devices
- Interoperability with online networking and gaming communities

How to move forward
- partnerships with others in the information industry
- user community needs to be brought into the process as guidance
- they need to understand these other environments that are being used

New models
- Networked space for learning (MySpace model for discussions and collaborative work)
- Publisher portals (search results built with editorial expertise and peer review)
- Educational gaming (next generation textbooks involving interactive and collaborative work)

Social networking model (MySpace)
- Myspace/Facebook type of environment for academic work
- which contains dialogue/discussion about class readings
- and collaborate on multimedia projects
- with the support of faculty and librarians
(note: think about this in relation to the talk by Carrie Windham on net gen students)

Publisher portal model
- publishers that have specific editorial strengths will build portals
- they will use their traditional skills for content selection, development, peer review and design
- seacrch engines will partner, adding value to their services
- and publishers will benefit through exposure on the search engine
(note: this seems to be a very conservative model, keeping with old ideas... but maybe that's what needs to be done)

Online Gaming Model
- move textbooks into a new format
- Publishers develop multi player environments that host areas for leadership, team building and problem-solving in lieu of texbooks
- learning objectives will be upheld
- benefit is that students work in an interactive, multimedia mode, collaborating with others remotely
(note: again, think about this in relation to net gen students... is this something that's going to appeal or no?

Benefits of the new models
- it's useful to see a blurring of lines between scholarly and commercial worlds
- it offers the ability for publishers to capitalize on skills of people in other areas
- and it provides and opportunity to collaborate rather than compete with commercial technology organizations

Issues of mutual dependence come up:
- search engines need publisher content
- libraries need use of their collections
- scholars need effective access to info
- students need tools and systems to determine quality of content

Credibility of content
- students are experienced with finding information, but not with evaluating its quality
- what is the role of teachers, librarians and publishers in providing guidance?

Quality assessment models
- Traditional - publishers are experts, they evaluate quality and pass it down
- New - peer to peer assessment is now developing, where groups now determine the value of information
(note: what are the implications of this? perhaps a hybridized model is best?)

changes in credibility models
- traditional model leaves out end user
- peer to peer places assessment in hands of community
- does learning become a process of being admitted to a community rather than receiving experts knowledge?
- if so, how do we ensure quality?

Possible approaches to credibility issue
- Educational resources that combine teachers materials, digital library holdings, the open web, and a collaborative community space

Need for IT partnerships with publishers
- content producers do not have the skills required to create these models alone
- important work is taking place in IT that is relevant for publishing
- collaboration with higher ed IT divisions will be needed
- what are the models for this kind of partnership within higher ed?

Incentives for change
- fact: younger users are creating new models for communication and information creation and use
- question: what role will scholarly publishers carve out for themselves in this new world
- requirement: clear vision of the future, new kinds of organizations, and new roles

New roles for players:
authors - write books, create new kinds of resources
libraries - provide info services - design new tools for finding info