May 2011
1 post
Farewell of a book
When I reach the end of a book, I begin to plan when I will read the last pages. Sometimes I cannot say farewell to a story and the characters, so I delay the moment of ending my beloved book. Because I know, when I end the book, the relationship between me and my book is over. Then the book will swarm around in my thoughts and before I know it I am already up in another world in the next...
April 2011
5 posts
when stories come alive
‘The assault’ was waiting for me in my bookcase. I tried to read the book when I was around the age of fourteen, but it simply could not reach me. I had put away the book and it wasn’t since last week that I took it into my hands again. Now the book took me to my imagination in the short period of two evenings. The short but beautiful trip through the book made me realize that I, for this book,...
Last-minute call for thought-provoking books
We’re launching *openmargin, the community in the margin of your book, on the famous The Next Web conference in Amsterdam. We’ll present our iPad app on-stage during the finals of the startup-rally, on April 28th.
For the launch we’re working together with authors and publishers who are ahead of the curve. By adding an *openmargin to their ebooks they turn readers into...
we welcome a new generation of authors
We see a new generation of authors is on the rise. They connect with their readers through blogs, twitter and self-publishing platforms.
If you’re one of these authors, consider adding an *openmargin to your work. *openmargin is an open space within a digital book where readers share their thoughts. The original book stays as it is, but the margin turns into a place for dialogue....
Books are our master
The books on top of my bookcase are the ones I still have to read. Some books are ready to be taken on vacation, others are asking to be read before bedtime. ‘Animal stories for every party’ invites me to read a couple of short stories, after this I fall asleep with fantastic inspirations. ‘Made to stick’ asks me to get a chair and to take place at my desk. Its cover, chapters and letters seduce...
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
2 posts
1 tag
*openmargin presentation
Here’s the presentation we gave at the State of Social Media Summit in Amsterdam, on October 29th. It was an intimate setting, so we could discuss our main questions with the public. Like, how do we grow a mindful community on our openmargin platform?
Enjoy the presentation!
Presentation *openmargin
October 2010
2 posts
Looking for the good stuff?
If you came here by reference of James Bridle’s talk or article on Open Bookmarks you might be wondering where to learn more about the *openmargin platform and how to join the beta.
For more information we recommend to read through this page and if that sounds interesting sign up for the beta-list.
If you want to speak to us personally you can email Joep, one of the co-founders, at joep AT...
Open Bookmarks →
James Bridle on his initiative Open Bookmarks. (Includes a sneak peak of the *openmargin beta).
September 2010
5 posts
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Kindle for the Web: How Amazon will leverage... →
Amazon just introduced Kindle for the Web. The service, which is labeled as ‘in beta’, allows anyone to embed ‘sample chapters’ of the Kindle book into their website.
The name ‘Kindle for the Web’ might suggest we can expect a full-fledged webbased ereader soon, turning any device with a web-browser into an eReader with access to Amazon’s giant eBook...
open writers
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”
- Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author known for his economical writing style. He committed suicide with his favorite gun.
This is a 6-word story. Hemingway called it his best work. It may be short, but it’s definitely not simple. As a reader you can sense the world in-between these words. Depending...
2 tags
We're pitching at PICNIC Pitch Night!
We have been selected as one of the ten start-ups to pitch our business during the PICNIC Pitch Night! Considering PICNIC is one of the coolest European conferences this is pretty epic.
We’ll be pitching *openmargin at September 22nd to the PICNIC audience and the following impressive jury:
Andrea Vogel, Ernst & Young, Partner
Menno van Leeuwen, ABN AMRO, Sector Banker Media &...
Kom je ook?: We won the audience award!
Yesterday we pitched *openmargin at ‘Kom je ook?’. A conference with an honest theme: mistakes. We were one of the seven participants who got two minutes to tell about their product or service. And we’re proud to tell you we won the audience award. Thanks to all the lovely people who placed their RFID badge under our umbrella (great set-up from the mediamatic people). Now we...
3 tags
Come see our presentation at 'Kom je ook'
We’re proud to announce we’ve been nominated to present *openmargin this thursday at the ‘Kom je ook‘-event organized by Mediamatic.
More information can be found on the event’s website (in Dutch). We’ll be presenting between 14:45h and 15:15h.
Event details: Location: Kloveniersburgwal 50, Amsterdam Date: Thursday, September 9th Entrance fee: €99 (ex VAT), if...
August 2010
2 posts
Compensate your attention footprint
We’re all locked inside our own body. Which is a shame of-course. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a spirit, traveling around the world and staying in different bodies? Hearing what they hear, seeing what they see.
Unfortunately there’s not yet a travel-agency for spirits (if you start one, I’ll be the first customer), but there’s another possibility: listening. By...
1 tag
Announcing the Beta
The last couple of months we have been steadily developing the *openmargin platform. A space where readers of the same book can share their perspective inside the margin to initiate a dialogue with like-minded people.
Today we invite you to take the very first version for a test ride. It’s still an early beta with a lot of known and unknown bugs, so the road will be bumpy, but nevertheless...
June 2010
1 post
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Looking for iPad eReader developers
We’re currently putting the finishing touches on the first version of openmargin. Part of this is the API, which will allow developers of eReaders to incorporate openmargin-functionality into their existing app. Although we’re currently developing our own basic openmargin-enabled eReader app on the iPad, we’d like to start talking with external developers as well to see how we can help eachother.
...
March 2010
5 posts
A history lesson about the future
The very first newspaper was ‘Publick Occurrences’. It was four pages long, with one page left blank intentionally. People were encouraged to write on it, be part of the conversation and pass it along to someone else.
Overtime news became big business. People were shut out of this conversation.
Nick Bilton on Poptech
2 tags
Annotating YouTube Videos Using Its Just Announced... →
YouTube is adding automated captions to its videos. Aside from the obvious benefits, this also allows for very specific annotations.
Video is an ‘external-paced medium’ which means as viewer you can’t decide how fast you consume the given information. You just have to go along with the speed the maker of the video decided. This is a big different with texts, which are...
3 tags
Quick review: Bite-Size Edits
Bite-Size Edits is a game where players get points for editing. Discover new writers and engage with great authors, while improving the world’s sentences.
Bite-Size Edits was first built to allow authors to crowdsource the editing process by utilizing their social network. The idea is a lot of people get a random piece of text. They are then asked to suggest changes if deemed necessary. All...
February 2010
9 posts
(Dutch) 'Hervorming auteursrechten onvermijdelijk' →
Een fundamentele hervorming van auteursrechten is onvermijdelijk en daarbij zal de positie van de burger moeten worden versterkt, aldus europarlementariër Christiaan Engström van de Zweedse Piraten Partij.
Happy Birthday *openmargin
One year ago we (Ruth, Marc, Joep) were having dinner in a pizzeria in Prague (http://bit.ly/atzRTO).
There we had a brainstorm (ripped placemats as post-its) about our expectations for the post-school era, with ourselves as a starting point.
A few months later, there was the birth of *openmargin. But the very first seeds were planted in this meeting.
We want the very first beginning to be the...
The Wired iPad App: A Video Demonstration →
Elisabeth Murdoch, Ross Pruden: Social networking,... →
“Fans remain the best salesmen of our content, even if that behavior is on the borderline of piracy. Danger of the new world is that we must concede that we’ll lose some control.”
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“Kindle Development Kit for Active Content”
– A lot of words, and it’s now available in private beta. It means we can run applications on the Kindle in the near future, that’s an exciting prospect. We already know a nice feature. Are you the “Kindle Development Kit for Active Content”-developer who can make this happen...
2 tags
if:book: reading vs writing →
Dan Visel talks about why we need to “re-conceptualize how we think about exchange and consumption of books”.
The problem here is that we tend to think of cultural production in economic terms. Historically, the book has been terrific at spreading ideas; however, as a vehicle for getting creators paid, its record isn’t the best
We need to re-conceptualize how we think about...
January 2010
5 posts
“A book is a physical souvenir, a concrete instantiation of your ideas in a...”
– Seth Godin
1 tag
*openmargin is hiring (freelancers)!
We’re a young startup based in The Netherlands working on a platform to make the digital book a social experience. We are currently looking for both an experienced developer who knows his (or her!) bash-kungfu and an awesome interaction designer that can translate our crazy ideas into a next-level user interface.
At first on a freelance-basis for 2-3 months (starting ASAP!), but...
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Collective Wisdom and the Digital Book
Sitting at my desk, my attention drifted to the books sitting in a pile to my right. Reading their spines, I noticed that read together, they form a sort of collective wisdom:
You are what you choose and the rest is noise
The presentation of self in everyday life ways of seeing
Digital ground frame analysis
How kindergarten came to America musicophilia
(Admittedly that last one might be...
2 tags
HP Slate unveiled →
Steve Ballmer (CEO at Microsoft) just unveiled the HP Slate which is a tablet PC running Windows and features multi-touch. Since it runs Windows it also runs Amazon’s Kindle app which allows you to read eBooks. No word yet on possible input-mechanisms (e.g. a a multi-touch keyboard?).
I’m looking forward to see how the Windows experience is on such a device. I’m a bit skeptical...
December 2009
4 posts
2 tags
Review: RethinkingMedia [Event]
As you may have read, last week we went to RethinkingMedia. A conference where mostly Dutch people from the publishing world came together to answer one question: Who’s paying for the media? With the internet disrupting the publishing industry the current business-models don’t seem to work anymore so it’s time for something different.
So you can imagine my surprisal when talk after talk every...
2 tags
Review: V2_ Augmented Reality meeting Rotterdam...
‘You cannot be a specialist in Augmented Reality (AR), you can only be a collaborator’. These words were spoken by Jan Misker of V2_, at the beginning of the first meeting of the AR-ecosystem. And according to this statement, organizers Kwela and Carl, did a great job in bringing together collaborators from different backgrounds. Artists, developers, entrepreneurs and educators. They were all...
1 tag
RethinkingMedia: Show me the money [Event]
The media industry is undergoing some radical changes, but who is paying? While some newspapers are putting up a pay wall, others are embracing the openness. Will the book industry follow in the foot steps of the music industry? Coming thursday media professionals from around the world will gather during the RethinkingMedia conference to try and answer these and other questions.
While the...
Welcome
Welcome to *openmargin dialogue, a place where we hope to have an on-going discussion of the digital book revolution!
Have something to share? Please contact us via email or send a tweet to @openmargin.