GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Apple says Tuesday 20 March that 3 million of its new iPads have been sold since they hit the market Friday, four days earlier. It announced Monday that it will be paying investors dividends later this year, for the first time since 1995. But not everyone is happy. A group of 22 well-known writers in China are suing Apple for copyright infringement, saying their e-book versions of their works have appeared in the Apple store without their permission or involvement.
They are seeking $7.9 million in damages.
Getting a real Lift, 22-24 February
by Ellen Wallace
JP Rangaswami presenting at Lift 2012 (photo, Ivo Naepflin for Lift)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The number of conversations in Geneva centred around our digital lives, past, present and future, is up this week thanks to the annual Lift Conference, which opened Wednesday 22 February and ends Friday.
The conference itself pulls in several hundred people from the worlds of business, academia and international organizations, with presentations that address geek concerns and broader philosophical questions
Devices and domesticity, potentially uncomfortable bedfellows
One of my favourites on the opening day schedule was Victoria Broadbent of UCL in London asking if our individual personalized digital devices are destroying our Victorian myths of domesticity, a great example of how good speakers ask the question we’ve had all along without being aware of it.
She pointed to the changing use and design of space in the home, with more integrated and less specialized rooms. Downton Abbey staff and family would have been very puzzled by today’s lofts, not to mention the devices they would find there. “Homes have become relational spaces in which the main activities support the social cohesion of the household. The arrival of personal digital devices in this context is disturbing.”
So that’s what’s going on at home.
The mental twinning of urban space and books that behave like cities
Those of us trying to grasp or imagine the book of tomorrow that is part of the electronic world are offered a Thursday afternoon workshop that talks about “technology driven visions in the effervescent book industry”. This is an elegant description for an industry that is wildly turbulent, not always for the better, and which has authors and publishers scrambling to understand the impact of technology on content and its creation.
Frederic Kaplan and Laurent Bolli, from bookapp.com, the workshop leaders, leave chapter headings in their wake as they take us through a world where books have signage, dedicated neighbourhoods and urban services such as guides and tours.
Outside the conference: more conversations
Hugh Quennec, Geneva Servette Hockey Club
The scores of talks at the conference give speakers and people attending a chance to meet with other groups. I attended a workshop nearby on how to better use videos at work, offered by So Money, a local video production agency, and 23 Video, who have worked with Lift and who are in town from Denmark in part to kick off their new partnership with So Money.
On display was 23 Video‘s answer to what they call the “last orphan child of the web”, video – you can easily create and manage other online content through your own web sites and photos sites but affordable video sites that you can make your own are a new idea. The company offers a video management solution for a fixed monthly fee of $675 that gives unlimited uploads, downloads, user numbers, works with all platforms, distribution options through all channels and a rich set of analytics tools.
Hugh Quennec, part-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club and Olivier Riethauser, communications and community relations manager at the club, talked about their success in using video to create a sense of community that goes well beyond the hockey rink.
My own notes from the workshop included these tips to move beyond boring corporate videos: Know your target audience, offer a helping hand, get them to leave a trace. Content is not about selling: it’s about entertaining. That said, great content provides solutions to real-world problems and it must be worthy of attention and immediately useful to the audience. Don’t preach, though: content is about the conversation.
In fact, just about everything digital is about conversation, and Lift is about joining the talk.
Title: World book day
Location: Lake Geneva region, France
Description: Check your local library. Thousands of events are planned across Switzerland and France.
Date: 2010-04-23
GenevaLunch photo album of the Rolex Learning Center 52 images by Mr Kio and Peter Brodbeck (best viewed as a stream)
Rolex Learning Center reflects shift to group and project learning, digital sources
EPFL (photo ©2010 Mr Kio)
Update 30 March 21:45 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The bad old days of sitting in fusty dark and silent libraries pouring over books are definitely a thing of the past at EPFL‘s new Rolex Learning Center (RLC). The building itself is airy and light, with a multitude of open spaces where students gather in small groups or stretch out on bright beanbag chairs.
The architects of this extraordinary building were named the winners of the annual, highly coveted international architectural Pritzker Prize Monday 29 March for the body of their work. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in the Japanese architecture firm Sanaa, created the space for the RLC in response to changes that have come from students themselves, says the university.
EPFL (photo ©2010 Mr Kio)
EPFL (photo ©2010 Mr Kio)
“Our students are using our libraries more and more frequently, but less for the purpose of borrowing books and more to work, either individually or in groups,” the RLC blog before the library opened in February. “The Bologna reform and a general trend in education towards learning through projects and group work are having an impact on students today. They are looking for a mix: a place where they can either sit for several hours and work or where they can find information on paper and electronically, and where they can choose to work in silence or interact with their fellow students.”
Reprinted in GenevaLunch with permission from IP Watch. IP Watch is a Geneva-based newsletter covering intellectual property issues.
By William New, editor, IP Watch
The United States Department of Justice yesterday told the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that progress had been made on its concerns in the settlement allowing internet search giant Google to scan millions of books into a searchable database. But the government lawyers continue to have doubts on copyright, class certification and antitrust issues, they said.
Justice made its views known in a 31-page filing [pdf] filed with the court on 4 February. While it praised efforts so far, the department said, “the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation.”
In The Authors Guild Inc. et al. v. Google Inc. case, the district court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the proposed amended settlement agreement on 18 February.
Jacques Chessex (photo: ©2009 Ellen Wallace)
Yverdon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A man widely considered to be one of Switzerland’s greatest writers, the unassuming Jacques Chessex who was the first non-French winner of the prestigious Goncourt literary prize, died Friday night in Yverdon just after a public presentation in the town’s library, surrounded by the books that were his great love. He collapsed when his heart gave out and died shortly afterwards. Chessex, age 75, was the author of 31 books, most of them slim but incisive novels famous for their eloquent language. They often described the world around him, in French-speaking Switzerland, but captured the threads of human relations that run deeper than local stories: “Explorer of the human soul in all its complexity,” were the words Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz used to describe him.
Swiss Alps: a fine day ahead
Swiss sheep, canton Valais, May 2009, before a summer on top of the mountain
Update 09:00 Saturday 10 October Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The warmest October day since 1910 was a treat earlier this week, with temperatures staying above 10C even at night and rising to 30C (Meteoswiss explains why, in French).
Good weather ahead in the Lake Geneva region
A day of rain in the Lake Geneva area Thursday cooled things down and the leaves have begun to fall, but the weekend promises a good dose of fine weather, mixed with occasional showers. At 09:00 Saturday morning it is raining everywhere in Switzerland, it appears, but the forecasters are still promising it will mostly disappear and we’ll have sunshine: have faith!
It’s relatively warm, with temperatures rising to 18C, perfect for outdoor markets, planting new wild grasses, just reading a suspenseful novel in a sunny spot, cooking up a storm with seasonal foods, or hiking through the vineyards.
What’s on in Geneva and Lausanne, the rest of the region
Sunday is Expat Expo in Geneva, the second of the region’s two big fairs with exhibitors and more, for the English-speaking population. Head out of town, under two hours from Geneva, to watch the sheep come down from the high alps, in Champéry Saturday morning. Head for the circus Saturday night: the famous Swiss Knie circus has started its 2009 programme on the lakefront in Lausanne.
Be sure to check the GenevaLunch events pages for what’s on throughout the region (click on a date on the calendar to see full display).
Hilary Mantel’s fictionalized account of the life of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall, won the 2009 Man Booker prize for fiction, awarded in London 6 October. It has been the bookies’ favourite since a six-book shortlist was announced in July 2009. The book is a saga of the search for power in the court of Henry VIII. Mantel wins £50,000 in prize money plus a likely strong boost in sales. The prize group says that sales for all six short-listed books have been very strong since the longlist was announced earlier in the year, more than double what they were for the same period in 2008.
The shortlisted authors and books are:
- A S Byatt The Children’s Book (Random House, Chatto and Windus)
- J M Coetzee Summertime (Random House, Harvill Secker)
- Adam Foulds The Quickening Maze (Random House, Jonathan Cape)
- Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (HarperCollins, Fourth Estate)
- Simon Mawer The Glass Room (Little, Brown)
- Sarah Waters The Little Stranger (Little, Brown, Virago).
Title: The love of reading week
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: A week when Geneva is “crazy about books.” The fureur de lire is a week long festival with readings, book fairs and more.
Start Date: 23 Sep 2009
End Date: 27 Sep 2009
Statues of "peace" and "justice" flank the entrance to the WTO, Geneva: artist Luc Jaggi sculpted them in 1925
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - China reacted with disappointment Thursday 13 August to the report issued by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on its publications and audiovisual materials dispute with the US. The WTO ruled that China must open its market more to the import of US films, DVDs, books and music downloads to respect commitments made when it joined the WTO in 2001.
Title: The library to the street
Location: Geneva
Description: During two weeks, the Paquis library moves to the street. Books and games will be available to children of all ages from 14:00 to 17:00 Monday through Friday.
17 Rue du Mole
1201 Geneva
Tel: +41 (0) 22 900 05 82
Take bus #1 (Navigation), or trams 13 or 15 (Môle).
Start Date: 03 Aug 2009
End Date: 21 Aug 2009
Title: Lord Ashdown book signing
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The renowned diplomat and politician Lord Ashdown will be in the English bookshop, Off The Shelf to sign copies of his autobiography, A Fortunate Life.
Start Time: 17:30
Date: 01 Jul 2009
End Time: 18:15
Bern, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – The lower house of the Swiss parliament has voted to bring back fixed prices for books, but given that the Federal Council has said clearly it opposes the idea, the proposed legislation has an uneasy future. In practice, the Conseil national is insisting that the Federal Council review to see if it is working efficiently, every three years, a price-setting system.
The US book industry is seeing some important shifts in the wake of the economic crisis, with the number of new print-on-demand books overtaking traditionally printed books for the first time, reports Publishers Weekly. Print-on-demand is used largely by self-publishers and online book publishers. Three categories of books saw sharp drops: religion, fiction and travel, while business and education books increased. Overall, the number of new books grew 38 percent.
Swiss book and Swiss wine overlooking the Valais
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – In 2008, Swiss editors published fewer books in the three main national languages: German, French and Italian, than a year earlier. However, the number of new books published in English and in Romansh -a fourth national language spoken by a linguistic minority- increased.
Title: Library in English Autumn 2008 book sale
Location: Rue de Monthoux 3 1201 Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The Library in English big annual book sale, with 20,000 second-hand books, DVDs, CDs, and more, for children and adults.
Start Date: 07 Nov 2008
End Date: 09 Nov 2008
