A lot of interesting stuff this past week!

Technology

There was a lot announced at Adobe Max this week, including Adobe Creative Cloud 2019 with upgrades to Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. Other highlights:

Adobe XD – Adobe’s free interactive design app gets an update, which now includes voice prototyping
Sensei technology – Adobe’s AI is built in to many apps. For example, to help with removing backgrounds in Photoshop or reposition images to highlight the best parts of a photo in InDesign (the user picks a feature called “Content-Aware Fit”).
Premiere Rush CC – New video editing app for quick turnaounds (geared towards YouTube creators)
Project Aero – An authoring tool for designers to build AR experiences without code
Project Gemini – Adobe’s live painting and drawing app primarily for iPad Pro
Adobe Fonts – TypeKit was renamed Adobe Fonts and per Adobehas “eliminated all limits on font use, and we’ve made all fonts available for both web and desktop use. The full library of approximately 15,000 fonts in the Adobe Fonts library is available with all paid Creative Cloud subscriptions.”

max.adobe.com • Share

How to Decide Which Data Science Projects to Pursue

HT @nycmedialab Hilary Mason has a practical Harvard Biz Review piece on what makes excellent data strategy (“strong in directional conviction, but flexible in the details”) and how to choose between data science projects (walks you through creating a scatterplot to help you decide!)

hbr.org • Share

Wi-Fi 6 Is Coming: Here’s Why You Should Care

Get ready for the next generation of wifi technology: Wi-fi 6 (for so it is named) is going to be appearing on devices from next year. But will you have to throw out your old router and get a new one? And is this going to make your Netflix run faster? Here’s everything you need to know about the new standard.

gizmodo.com • Share

Innovation

Amazon’s Echo May Be Able to Read Your Emotions

Amazon has patented technology that would allow its devices to read your emotional and physical state, and sell advertisements based on them. Are we entering the era of the mood-targeted ad?

www.theatlantic.com • Share

Business

Here Are 57 Casualties Of The Retail Apocalypse And Why They Failed

HT @AlexOsterwalder via @cbinsights Learn from failure. Is there life after bankruptcy? A compilation of major retail bankruptcies from 2015 to today.

www.cbinsights.com • Share

Did Facebook’s faulty data push news publishers to make terrible decisions on video?

From @laurahazardowen: Publishers’ “pivot to video” was driven largely by a belief that if Facebook was seeing users, in massive numbers, shift to video from text, the trend must be real.

www.niemanlab.org • Share

WeWork Is Getting Into Workplace Fashion With Rent the Runway

Renting office space at WeWork Cos.? Soon you’ll be able to rent clothes there too.

www.bloomberg.com • Share

How these brands won the subscription box wars

What’s the playbook for creating a successful subscription box startup? It’s complicated, but seems like it hinges on a biz model beyond making money on the box itself, and investing in content that makes the unboxing experience exciting every single time.

www.fastcompany.com • Share

The Constant Consumer

HT @faris Fascinating long read about Amazon and us: “But that is the fundamental problem: Amazon’s constant praise of the customer implies we are all already customers and nothing more — that we should understand ‘consumer’ as our core identity….If the customer is always right, then you’re never wrong when you’re consuming.“ Amazon’s mission is to make customer identity more primary than citizenship.

reallifemag.com • Share

Eleven SF bookstores get cash assistance from city

Interesting analysis on the extremely low margins of bookstores: There are 57 independent bookstores in San Francisco that together generate more than $9.8M in sales, create and retain more than 100 jobs, host more than 40 free community events each month, and have been in business for an average of 21 years. The analysis from @PassiveVoiceBlg says the annual sales of a single bookstore average $172K, which means $69K before rent, utilities, salaries, etc. The author concludes, “The Bookstore SF program is designed to allow them to continue in an economically unstable state for a few months or years more.”

www.thepassivevoice.com • Share

Events

Click on the image for more info about this exciting event!

The Color of Children’s Literature Conference — KWELI / Truth From the Diaspora’s Boldest Voices

The Color of Children’s Literature Conference

www.kwelijournal.org • Share

Hack It! Maximize Your Toolkit from Instagram to Book Displays

Not just for librarians! This three-week online course from Library Journal & School Library Journal looks amazing with instructors including Sree Sreenivasan (@sree) and Cicely Lewis (readwokelibrarian).

learn.libraryjournal.com • Share

Resources

FieldTrips | CreativeMornings

CreativeMornings are the best – if you don’t already know about them – they’re on a Friday every month around the world on a topic. I’ve been to their FieldTrips and they are now expanding them in NYC, SF, and Oakland. They are a new, generosity driven meet-up series. Imagine it as a peer-to-peer university! What are you good at? Teach it!

creativemornings.com • Share

Bronx Book Festival Open for Pitches

Authors: The Bronx Book Festival is accepting pitches for the June 8, 2019 event! Have your publicist pitch you or pitch yourself!

docs.google.com • Share

Diverse Voices Open Inbox – HarperCollins Children’s Books

Calling all #ownvoices writers! HarperCollins has launched a Diverse Voices Open Inbox for those interested in writing for the middle grade audience.

www.harpercollins.com • Share

Opportunities

Creative Director – BookPeople Camp Half-Blood

Attn PercyJackson fans: Sounds like fun – not work! RT @ShelfAwarenessBookPeople is seeking a full-time year-round Creative Director for its Camp Half-Blood day camp program.

www.shelf-awareness.com • Share

Verizon 5G EdTech Challenge

HT @nycmedialab Talented computer scientists, engineers and designers: Apply for the 5GEdTechChallenge, a nationwide initiative to improve learning outcomes in public middle schools. Offering a $100K award per team.

www.5gedtechchallenge.com • Share