eBook and digital discovery is one of the most hot button issues facing the digital publishing industry. Many existing publishers and small start-up companies, such as BookLikes, NetGallery, Slice and many others, are throwing themselves into the fray. To stimulate growth and awareness in a burgeoning sector, a group of major media industry participants led by The Perseus Books Group, Librify, BookExpo, The AlleyNYC, and William Morris Endeavor will organize the industry’s first ever hackathon, an ambitious collaborative digital programming event.
The Publishing Hackathon at Book Expo America is inviting digital designers, engineers, programmers, and entrepreneurs to spend 36 hours together in teams to develop new approaches to digital book discovery. The Publishing Hackathon will take place on May 18th and 19th at The Alley NYC, the leading digital co-working space in New York. The participants will be briefed by a cross-section of book publishing leaders, and then will form teams to create apps, websites, programming, or businesses that can address the issue of book discovery in this rapidly evolving landscape. At the end of the weekend, a team of judges from publishing, technology, media, and venture capital will identify the 3 to 5 most promising finalists from dozens of teams participating.
These finalists will have the opportunity to present at BookExpo on Friday May 31st at 3PM. BookExpo is the largest and most prestigious book publishing event in the U.S. with over 1,000 exhibitors from around the world and over 20,000 attendees from all facets of the industry. The finalists will take the stage and pitch their solutions to a distinguished panel of judges that includes Jennifer Rudolph Walsh (head of the Literary Department at William Morris Endeavor), David Steinberger (CEO of The Perseus Books Group and Chairman of the National Book Foundation), Stephen Evans (Director SilverLake Capital), and others.The winning project will receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to pitch their idea at a breakfast meeting with Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor.
Seems like a solid event if you want to check out what the bright young minds can conjure. Of course, Good e-Reader will be live at this event and bring you some exclusives with the new Hackathon.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.