This work derives from a simple question we asked long ago: “How can computer documents– shown interactively on screens, stored on disk, transmitted electronically– improve on paper?” Our answer was: “Keep every quotation connected to its original source.” We are still fighting for this idea, and the great powers it will give authors and readers. (Others would later ask a very different question: “How can computers SIMULATE paper?”– the wrong question, we believe, whose mistaken pursuit has brought us to the present grim document world.)

One part of this project is available already: The Xanadu® Transquoter™, which does indeed keep quotes connected to their origins.

via Transliterature, A Humanist Design.

I’ve been sighted on this niche for many, many years.

“Advertisers are increasingly looking for targeted ad programs that reach specific groups, and the reality is that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and web-native publishers are seen as better places to achieve that.”

I think something in that picture is very attractive. But there’s a down-side:

“This is the flip-side of the transformation that some newspapers like the NYT have already undergone, where the revenue provided by readers now exceeds the revenue provided by advertising. While that may seem like it would provide great freedom to pursue quality, it also means the the paper is even more beholden to a small group of readers, as Clay Shirky has argued.”

I agree. It’s a niche. And even a viable niche can be seriously limiting.

via Is Mark Thompson what the NYT really needs right now? — Tech News and Analysis.