Innovation Taking the Publishing Business Beyond Borders ...

By Edward Nawotka, Editor-in-Chief

One of the underlying principles of?Publishing Perspectives is that businesses is business no matter where you are in the world and there is a great deal to learn from another person?s experience, even if they speak another language and live and work in a different publishing culture. If anything translates easily to another culture, it?s the culture of business.

And, it appears, that non-US publishers agree: why else would so many of them be looking at entering the US market with their own business and productivity titles?

Today?s feature article looks at how Japanese publisher Discover 21 has had great success with a series of business, productivity and lifestyle books in their home market. They hope to find the same success in the US.

One of Europe?s top digital publishers,?Timo Boezeman of Holland?s?De Arbeiderspers/A.W. Bruna Uitgevers, has recently led the worldwide launch of?Earned Attention by author Klaas Weima in English in the US. The ?multi-platform title,? is a guide to brand building in the digital age with case studies of over 40 different companies, including KLM, Phillips and Miffy (the adorable Dutch bunny). Naturally, the title comes with a corresponding set of apps, blogs and social media threads and, as per 21st century publishing, will be regularly updated with fresh content.

It?s a bold move from a dominant publisher in a small market and it?s the type of thing we?ll be seeing more and more of each year.

In explaining why a company they decided to launch the book ?worldwide,? Boezeman writes: ?We all know the publishing world is changing. Books are becoming digital, and all the laws and rules we knew, are no longer certainties we can rely on. We decided not to wait on what will happen, but to go for the pro-active approach: trying out new initiatives, innovate and experiment.?

It?s not their first experiment: last year they were among the small group of large publishers to remove DRM from their titles (a risk that is mitigated by the fact that just 28 million or so people speak Dutch).

Earlier this month?Publishers Weekly published an article on the topic of international titles ?finding their way into the US,? noting several publishers who have been translating titles on their own for US distribution, including Stockholm Text (see our March coverage)?and LeFrench Book (see our September coverage). It came to them, as it does to some in the US market, as a novelty. But we know that this has been going on for quite awhile already.

The fact is that our publishing world is, indeed, flat. And while much of the world quavers at the thought of a future dominated by a handful of cash-rich, aggressive tech companies dominating the publishing sphere for years to come, it?s?important to remember that empires ?physical or digital ? don?t last forever. Europeans and Asians, which have cultures that go back millennia, know this better than anyone.

What?s going to make the difference? The fact that today everyone, everywhere has the ability to ?innovate and experiment.?

Just look at the Kenya?s Kwani literary magazine and publishing house (which we wrote about back in 2009). The relatively modest publisher has been working with a local cell phone provider to offer an app? for feature phones, not Android or iOS.

Cellphones are ?a huge component of how consumption is happening here,? Angela Wachuka, executive director of?Kenya?s Kwani Trust, told the Christian Science Monitor earlier this week.?Adding that ?she?s seen Kenyans devour hundreds of pages of text on their tiny screens, plowing through tell-all memoirs and other accounts of the country?s recent political turmoil.?

Everyone, everywhere has the ability to ?innovate and experiment.? And it should not come as a surprise if the ?next big thing? doesn?t come out of an office block in Silicon Valley or even an incubator in Bangalore, but in a garage in?well, spin the globe and just point.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Source: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/05/innovation-taking-the-publishing-business-beyond-borders/

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Can math models of gaming strategies be used to detect terrorism networks?

May 16, 2013 ? The answer is yes, according to a paper in the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics.

In a paper published in the journal last month, authors Anthony Bonato, Dieter Mitsche, and Pawel Pralat describe a mathematical model to disrupt flow of information in a complex real-world network, such as a terrorist organization, using minimal resources.

Terror networks are comparable in their structure to hierarchical organization in companies and certain online social networks, where information flows in one direction from a source, which produces the information or data, downwards to sinks, which consume it. Such networks are called hierarchical social networks.

"In such networks, the flow of information is often one way," explains author Pawel Pralat. "For example, a celebrity such as Justin Bieber sends out a tweet, which is sent to millions of his followers. These followers send out their own retweets, and so on. We may therefore view hierarchical social networks as directed networks without cycles, or directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)."

Here, there is no requirement for reciprocity (the celebrity does not necessarily follow his or her followers). Similarly, in a terrorist network, the leaders pass plans down to the foot soldiers, and usually only one messenger needs to receive the message for the plan to be executed.

Disruption of the flow of information would correspond to halting the spread of news in an online social network or intercepting messages in a terror network.

The authors propose a generalized stochastic model for the flow and disruption of information based on a two-player outdoor game called "Seepage," where players who depict agents attempt to block the movement of another player, an intruder, from a source node to a sink. "The game -- motivated by the 1973 eruption of the Eldfell volcano in Iceland -- displays some similarities to an approach used in mathematical counterterrorism, where special kinds of DAGs are used to model the disruption of terrorist cells," says Pralat.

The motivating eruption caused a major crisis at the time, as lava flow threatened to close off the harbor, the island's main source of income. In the game, inhabitants attempt to protect the harbor by pouring water on the volcanic lava to halt its progress. A mathematical model of the game pits two opponents against each other -- the sludge, or intruder, against the greens, or agents -- forming a directed acyclic graph, with one source (the top of the volcano) and many sinks representing the lake. The parameter, "seepage," represents the amount of contamination, and the "green number" corresponds to the number of agents required to halt it.

A previous study modeled terrorist cells as partially ordered sets (a special kind of DAG), which are often used in mathematics to analyze an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of distinct objects. In such a system, terrorist plans are formulated by nodes at the top of the hierarchy, which represent the leaders or maximal nodes of the set. The plans are transmitted down to the nodes at the bottom: these represent foot soldiers in a terror network or minimal nodes in the set who would be presumed to carry out these plans. The assumption is that one messenger is sufficient for reception and execution of the plan. Thus, if the partially ordered set represents a courier network for a terrorist organization, the intention would be to block all routes from the maximal node to the minimal nodes by capturing or killing a subset of agents.

In this paper, the authors utilize the similarities in the previous terrorist cell model to Seepage, where greens try to prevent the sludge from moving to the sinks by blocking nodes. A number of different winning strategies employed by both players are explored when played on a DAG. The seepage and green number for disrupting a given hierarchical social network are analyzed.

The primary difference from the previous study's model is that the Seepage model is dynamic: greens can move and choose new sets of nodes over time. The authors determine that Seepage is a more realistic model of counterterrorism, as the agents do not necessarily act all at once, but over time.

The analysis is made in two types of terrorist network structures, as Pralat explains, "We consider two extreme profiles: one where the network is regular, where every agent has about the same number of connections. The second profile is power law, where some agents have many connections, but most have very few." This is analyzed by considering the total degree distribution of nodes in the DAG. In regular DAGs, each level of the DAG would have nodes with about the same out-degree (number of outgoing edges emanating from a node), while power law DAGs would have many more low-degree nodes and a few with high degrees.

Mathematical analysis allows the authors to determine what point in a network would be most effective for disrupting messages. "Our mathematical results reinforce the view that intercepting the information or message in a hierarchical social network following a power law is more difficult close to levels near the source. For regular networks, it does not matter as much where the message is disrupted," says Pralat. "Future work could look at more complex profiles of networks, along with developing effective algorithms for disrupting the flow of information in a DAG using our game-theoretic approach."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/Adpbt4Zmc_4/130516142656.htm

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Burger King McRib? Watch out, McDonald?s.

Burger King?s new rib sandwich won?t be called the McRib, for obvious reasons. But with a national rollout of its own 'McRib' looming, Burger King is taking pointed aim at the McDonald?s cult favorite.?

By Schuyler Velasco,?Staff writer / May 15, 2013

The McDonald's McRib, shown here, will get a bit of competition this summer. Burger King is launching the BK Rib Sandwich as part of its summer menu next week.

PRNewsFoto/McDonald's/File

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McDonald?s has been the sole, dominant player in the boneless fast food rib sandwich game for decades now. But Burger King is looking to change that.

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The Miami-based burger chain is taking on the storied McRib with its own limited edition rib sandwich, the BK Rib Sandwich, which will be available nationwide starting May 21 as part of Burger King?s new summer menu. Burger King will announce the official details of the new menu Thursday, May 16.

Per USA Today, BK?s summer offerings conjure up images of a Southern barbecue, and will also include a return of the Memphis Pulled Pork Sandwich, a line of Carolina BBQ sandwiches, sweet potato fries, a BBQ chicken salad, and Oreo-based desserts.?

The BK Rib Sandwich, meanwhile, is a dead ringer for the McRib, according to its description, though we haven?t tasted it: a boneless slab of ribs, doused in a ?tangy? sauce, topped with pickles. It?s also equally elusive: along with the rest of the summer menu, it will only be available through August.

Burger King?s latest pork-heavy menu rollout is the product of two things: commodity prices and an effort to cater to the ever-important Millennial market.? Spurred on by last summer?s drought and the recent harsh winter, beef prices hit an all-time high last week, with the wholesale price of a USDA cut of choice beef hitting $201.68 per 100 pounds. Pork prices, conversely, are falling, as demand slackens in the Chinese market (pork prices there dropped 6.5 percent in April).

The other reason: Young customers have broad tastes, according to Eric Hirschborn, Burger King?s vice president of Global Innovation.

?Our guests have grown to look for a variety of options," he told USA Today. "It's not just about beef anymore, but other proteins like chicken and turkey and pork."

McDonald?s doesn?t seem especially worried. "We know our customers love McRib and we won't disappoint them," spokeswoman Danya Proud told USA Today. "It will be returning."

That confidence is probably warranted. The McRib has been the only game in town for years, and its limited, shadowy availability has lent it a mythical status atypical of most fast foods. Its fans constantly lobby for it to return to the McDonald?s menu on a permanent basis. One Twitter account, @McRibWatch, is devoted to tracking the sandwich?s whereabouts across the country. It?s been parodied on ?The Simpson,? ?Chapelle?s Show,? and others. According on one urban legend, the boneless rib patty is made from kangaroo meat.

That?s a big pedigree to go up against, but the BK Rib Sandwich may have a key advantage: It will be grilled over an open flame, in keeping with the Burger King tradition. Will this give it an edge, taste-wise? We?ll find out next week.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/4xOsMhcfk8Q/Burger-King-McRib-Watch-out-McDonald-s.

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Myanmar minority resist Cyclone Mahasen evacuation

A Bangladeshi fisherman uses an anchored ropes of his boat to come on the banks of the river Kornofuli, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Cyclone Mahasen is expected to make landfall early Friday. The storm was heading toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could shift east and deliver a more direct hit on Rakhine state in Myanmar. (AP Photo/ A.M.Ahad)

A Bangladeshi fisherman uses an anchored ropes of his boat to come on the banks of the river Kornofuli, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Cyclone Mahasen is expected to make landfall early Friday. The storm was heading toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could shift east and deliver a more direct hit on Rakhine state in Myanmar. (AP Photo/ A.M.Ahad)

An internally displaced Rohingya boy wraps himself with a sarong as he walks in rain at a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said the cyclone, expected later this week, could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

This image provided by the Naval Research Lab shows tropical cyclone Mahasen taken Wednesday May 15, 2013 at 0600 GMT. Cyclone Mahasen is forecast to reach land early Friday and has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday. The U.N. says although the cyclone churning through the Indian Ocean appears to have weakened it could still bring "life-threatening" conditions to 8.2 million people along the coasts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. (AP Photo/

Internally displaced Rohingya girl walks with a sibling in rain at a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said the cyclone, expected later this week, could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Internally displaced Rohingya boys shiver in rain in a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen expected later this week, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said they cyclone could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) ? A massive evacuation to clear low-lying camps ahead of a cyclone has run into a potentially deadly snag: Many members of the displaced Rohingya minority living there have refused to leave because they don't trust Myanmar authorities.

Around 140,000 people ? mostly Rohingya ? have been living in cramped tents and makeshift shelters in Rakhine state since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rahkine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes. Nearly half those displaced are in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding from Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall early Friday.

Outside the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday, one community of several hundred Rohingya refused to budge, despite coaxing from soldiers.

"When we told them the storm was coming, they didn't believe us," said army Lt. Lin Lin. "They're still refusing to move."

Inside the camp, cycle rickshaw driver U Kyaung Wa said his people were tired of being ordered around by Myanmar authorities. First, he said, they were moved into the camps because their houses were destroyed after last year's violence.

"Now they say, 'You have to move because of the storm,'" he said. "We keep refusing to go. ... If they point guns at us, only then will we move."

The cyclone churning through the Indian Ocean appears to have weakened but could still bring "life-threatening" conditions to more than 8 million people in coastal parts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Mahasen has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, said the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week, said Sarath Lal Kumara, spokesman for Sri Lanka's disaster management center.

The brunt of the cyclone was barreling toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could, "depending on its final trajectory, bring life-threatening conditions for 8.2 million people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar," the U.N. office said in a storm update issued Friday.

In Myanmar at least eight people fleeing the cyclone, and possibly many more, were killed when overcrowded boats carrying more than 100 Rohingya capsized. Only 42 people had been rescued as of Wednesday, and the search continued for more than 50 Rohingya still missing, said Deputy Information Minister Ye Htut.

Much attention was focused on western Myanmar because of fears that heavy rains will swamp low-lying Rohingya camps.

Myanmar's government had planned to relocate 38,000 people within Rakhine state by Tuesday but "it is unclear how many people have been relocated," the U.N. office said, adding that Muslim leaders in the country have called on people to cooperate with the government's evacuation.

The issue has been complicated by widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Rakine. Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination in largely Buddhist Myanmar, which does not consider them citizens.

Tensions are still running high in Rakhine state nearly a year after unrest that killed at least 192 people and left hundreds of Rohingya homes in ruins. The violence has largely segregated Rakhine state along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists ? including monks ? urging people to boycott Muslim businesses.

International rights and aid agencies urged that the evacuations be stepped up.

"If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that results will not be natural, but man-made," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Weather experts have warned that the storm could shift and change in intensity before hitting land.

Myanmar's southern delta was devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Two days before hitting Myanmar, Nargis weakened to a Category 1 cyclone before strengthening to a Category 4 storm.

___

AP writers Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok and Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-15-Asia-Cyclone/id-4b12a74d2a8d420eaf56afb61faea837

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Nikon unveils 1 Nikkor 32mm lens with extra-fast f/1.2 aperture, manual focus

Mirrorless camera fans who've gone the Nikon 1 route have had a fair selection of official lenses to choose from, but not the Holy Grail of a truly fast telephoto lens. Nikon may have just produced that ideal glass today in its new 1 Nikkor 32mm lens. It shoots at a reasonably 86mm equivalent distance, but with an extremely bright and quick f/1.2 aperture -- theoretically, making it one of the better 1 Nikkor lenses for low-light shooting, action and portraits with soft backgrounds. The 32mm could also be the perfect fit for control junkies, as it's the first Nikon-made mirrorless lens with a manual focus ring. While this premium photography will carry a suitably elevated $900 price when the 32mm lens ships in June, the cost might be worthwhile for those who want speedy optics in a very small size.

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Nations pledge billions to rebuild Mali

BRUSSELS (AP) ? A plan to turn Mali into a stable democracy rather than a terrorist haven drew massive support Wednesday as various nations and international organizations pledged 3.25 billion euros ($4.22 billion) to help reconstruct the conflict-ridden West African nation.

The objective of the donors' conference in Brussels had been to raise 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) to support an ambitious 4.3 billion euro ($5.6 billion) plan drafted by Malian officials aimed at helping what many observers now view as a failed state re-emerge as a stable and secure democracy.

By Wednesday evening, the pledges made far exceeded that goal.

"This conference was a total success," Mali's interim president, Dioncounda Traore, said, as he expressed unreserved thanks to the international community.

While the goal had been to raise 2 billion euros, he admitted he would have been pleased with 1.6 billion. The fact that the conference raised twice that much showed just how serious a threat the international community sees in an ungoverned Mali.

A list of the pledges was not immediately released. But French President Francois Hollande said his country would contribute 280 million euros ($363.3 million). Germany committed 100 million euros to the project, to be paid out through 2014 provided Mali's planned elections take place.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the Obama administration would ask Congress for $180 million in funding for Mali in 2014, after the elections.

And a British official said the U.K. would pledge 128 million pounds ($195 million) to help make Mali and the broader Sahel region more secure ? but it was unclear how much of that was specifically for Mali.

The day before the conference, the European Union had announced it would give 520 million euros ($674.8 million ) over the next two years ? more than one-quarter of the amount sought.

Mali fell into crisis in 2012 as disparate rebel groups took over the north and a military coup ousted the government, which is based in the south. Many international officials feared that Mali's vast ungoverned northern area was giving terrorist groups free reign to hatch plots targeting other nations.

In January, France, Mali's former colonial master ? acting on the request of the Malian government ? sent troops to retake control of the northern region. They were ultimately assisted by troops from other African countries and the effort has largely been a success.

But the question is what comes next.

"The war is being won," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Wednesday. "We must now win the peace."

As the conference opened Wednesday, Mali's finance minister, Tiena Coulibaly, said the country's crisis had had grave consequences for Malians, as hotels stood empty and trade and the economy collapsed.

"This has led to poverty ? extreme poverty ? to unemployment and the occurrence of disease," Coulibaly said.

Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Program, also described a dire situation for Malians.

"We still have 300,000 people who are internally displaced from northern Mali living in southern Mali, and another 175,000 people who are in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania," Cousin told The Associated Press. "The government is now estimating that over 660,000 children under the age of five are in danger of being chronically malnourished."

Beyond that, she said, more than 700,000 adults "are in need of immediate food assistance."

She said the country could not recover as a functioning state without international assistance.

EU officials, saying that elements of the Malian army were unpaid, unmotivated and untrained, sent a mission earlier this year to train several battalions so that in the future they could keep control of the country's territory without foreign help.

International officials have insisted that, in exchange for assistance, Mali return to democracy. Traore said Tuesday that presidential elections would begin July 28 and that neither he nor members of his government would be candidates.

Mali's needs are enormous, according to EU officials. Roads and schools and infrastructure need to be rebuilt, as well as the economy, so that people ? soldiers included ? actually get paid when they show up for work. Talks with different ethnic groups ? including the Tuaregs in the north, who have rebelled periodically for years ? must be held, and a measure of decentralization agreed upon while the country's territorial integrity is preserved

Wednesday's conference was organized by France, the European Union and Mali. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said a new page had been opened in Mali's history. Traore said "a new step in the battle against terrorism" had been taken.

But humanitarian organizations warned that Wednesday's conference needed to be seen as only the beginning.

"These generous pledges to help Mali are very welcome," said Marietou Diaby, Oxfam's country director in Mali. "But they need to be seen as a down payment, not a one-off check. ... As we have seen in Afghanistan and Somalia, long-term peace cannot be achieved without a sustained commitment both within the country and within the international community."

___

Associated Press writers Cassandra Vinograd in London and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Don Melvin can be reached at https://twitter.com/Don_Melvin

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nations-pledge-billions-rebuild-mali-182252157.html

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