"Теории и практике" на заметку

The success of TEDTalks has demonstrated that millions of people around the world are hungry to absorb new ideas. Many of the talks create a desire to go deeper – but not everyone has the time to read an entire book on a subject. TED Books fill that gap. While a traditional book is at least 60,000 words, TED Books, at less than 20,000, allow someone to see an idea fleshed out in a satisfying way – but without having to devote a week of reading time to it.

The mass adoption of new e-book technologies like Kindle and iPad has changed the rules of the game. We suspect the traditional length of books has been dictated as much by the constraints of the physical medium of print as by what a modern reader actually wants. (Publishing wisdom is that 20,000 words in print feel too small to sell, so authors may be encouraged to write much more expansively, even if the idea itself doesn’t require it.) But just as iTunes allowed people to build new listening habits around individual music tracks, instead of albums, so the new reading technologies allow instant distribution of books of any length – facilitating new, more focused reading habits.

With more demands than ever on people’s time, we think many will welcome the chance to absorb a TED Book on a single short plane flight or on a day’s commute.

Does this mean the dumbing down of reading? Actually, we suspect people reading TED Books will be trading up rather than down. They’ll be reading a short, compelling book instead of browsing a magazine or doing crossword puzzles. Our goal is to make ideas accessible in a way that matches modern attention spans.

via ted.com

TED Books — расширенные варианты лекций научно-популярной конференции-шоу TED. Именно расширенные — примерно до 2 авторских листов, — но не такие большие, как книги. Продаются через Amazon Singles по 3 бакса.

Отличная идея. Нашим Theory&Practice, может быть, тоже стоило бы поэкспериментировать?