IFRA Flashlight Reports

Flip on the Flashlight

We call IFRA’s newest group of research reports the Flashlight series because it lights the way on the very latest developments affecting news publishing. Flashlights appear in the IFRA Magazine as well as in this area as PDF downloads with additional material from the editors of IFRA Magazine, such as interviews. We are looking forward to your suggestions on future Flashlight topics. Just send us an e-mail to reader@ifra.com.

PRINTCASTING

October 2008. How would you like a means of exploring ultra local news and (very) niche publishing markets without having to invest significant time, resources, or money? What if you could then automate that process so that generating copy, aggregating content, publishing, and distribution all simply took care of themselves? If advertisers could be left to place their own ads and the content providers got an equitable share of the profits? All automatically. And what if the end result was either online or hard copy just as the target market wants? That’s the premise of Printcasting, a technology aimed at bridging the online/offline divide, exploring new publishing sectors, and turning an honest buck in the process.

Interview:
Inputs from Dan Pacheco of Bakersfield, California, the creator of Printcasting

Free report download available below.

MOBILE WEB

September 2008. What we love about the web is its vastness. What we love about mobile devices is their smallness. That in essence is the problem faced by web designers and content providers when it comes to reaching an audience on the go. The evolution of mobile phones has seen them go from simple communication devices to must-have personal assistants and entertainment centres. Putting the web in your pocket has been the dream for more than a decade, yet it is only now we are seeing an explosion in mobile web use.

Interview:
Interview with Morten Holst, head of Mobile, Verdens Gang and Sharon Knitter, senior director of Consumer Products, Cars.com.

Free report download available below.

WEB 3.0

July 2008. In 2004, Web 2.0 stood for a period of major innovation after the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000. The goal was to return to the roots of the Internet: restore a space where everyone can participate. At the end of 2006, the term Web 3.0 appeared to describe the emergence of another important space that meets the requirements of knowledge organisation, groups and communities on the web. In parallel, this term is used to describe the acceleration of the impact of web technologies on the computer industry.

Interviews:
Interview with Nova Spivack, Web 3.0 guru
Interview with Barney Pell, CEO of Powerset.com
Interview with Dr. Christian F. Hempelmann, chief scientific officer, hakia.com

SAFEGUARDING ONLINE CONTENT

June 2008. Don’t be put off by the jargon or fooled into thinking the Robots.txt/ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) debate is another tiresome squabble amongst programmers. It’s true that when you boil it down the whole issue revolves around nothing more than a line of instructions hidden away in a web page, but the implications go right to the heart of the publishing business and its fight for the future.

Interviews:
Q&A with Bharat Krishna, principal scientist and founder, Google News
Q&A with Timothy Balding, Chief Executive Officer, World Association of Newspapers
Q&A with Valtteri Niiranen, director, European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Brussels, Belgium
Q&A with Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chairman, European Publishers Council; CEO Impresa

Links:
ACAP - Automated Content Access Protocol
The Web Robots Pages
EU Online Copyright Bill Coming; Publishers Debate DRMs
Google rejects adoption of ACAP standard

Free report download available below.

PRINTED ELECTRONICS

May 2008. Electronics sprayed onto paper as part of a normal print run might sound more like science fiction than real world reality, but the pace of progress is blurring the gap. The limiting factor is less likely to be the technology but rather the familiar problem of translating that potential into profitable application.

Interviews:
Q&A with Dr. Rajendrakumar Anayath, Print Media Academy
Q&A with Klaus Schmidt, KBA
"What they say" with Klaus Hecker and Dr. Wolfgang Clemens

Links:
Breakthrough in printed electronics
Printed Electronics – the giants get involved
Printed Electronics: Where, why and what next
Print meets electronic media
Organic Electronics Association (OE-A) Competence Brochure 2007

Free report download available below.

PRINTCASTING (FLR_6_all_languages.zip, 1810 kb)

MOBILE WEB (FLR_5_all_languages.zip, 1250 kb)

WEB 3.0 HARNESSING DATA INTELLIGENCE (FLR_4_all_languages.zip, 603 kb)

SAFEGUARDING ONLINE CONTENT (FLR_3_all_languages.zip, 973 kb)

PRINTED ELECTRONICS (FLR_2_all_languages.zip, 1703 kb)