« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »
December 31, 2005
Celebrating with Australian style
Mark Danderson was one of our first advisory board members, and he gets credit for our most popular office tradition. Now you might think the fitness activities would be most popular, but somehow Friday afternoon wine and cheese still has the lead.
Mark worked for most of his career at the New England Journal of Medicine and we met at the Charleston Conference a couple of years ago. His marketing advice was invaluable in our transition to independent publishing, but it was his mentioning, on a weekend visit somewhere out on the Appalachian Trail, that the company he'd worked for in Australia used to have cheese and wine every week. Team building and all that, and very Australian casual. I said, "I wonder how our staff would feel about that?" Mark looked at me like I was mad, and said why didn't I try it.
We did try it, and the concept works especially well because there's a cheese shop just two blocks down Main Street--expensive, but with an astonishing array of great European cheeses--so we can sample in style.
Yesterday, Tom thought we should have champagne, or at least some good sparkling wine. A good way to end a tumultuous 2005, our year of transition, and to look to 2006, the year that will bring transformation.
Mark Danderson, by the way, is back in Australia, now as a partner in Medicine Today.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 7:33 AM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2005
If community came first
We're all juggling tasks like mad this week. One thing I have to do is write the description for the Community Building Handbook I'm going to edit next year, to follow the Homelessness Handbook that comes out in March. (The latter is edited by David, so you can see that I'm getting the upbeat subject in this pair!) In my online browsing, I came across an article by Howard Rheingold about the Amish and technology. Howard's a big promoter of technology but he's clever about its effects, too. Do read the article, which ends, "I came away from my journey with a question to contribute to these conversations: If we decided that community came first, how would we use our tools differently?"
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
Is it a revolution?
I've been putting together the second issue of our quarterly newsletter, the Berkshire Savant, and thinking about why we do things that don't pay (I should probably think about this more often). Sometimes we do things as public service, and sometimes it's part of what I claim is a marketing strategy (I am having increasing doubts about my skills as a marketer: everyone tells me I'm good at this, but I am certain that there are people who are much, much better, and I'm trying to hire one of them). But I have put together the new issue of the Savant with another goal: it seems important right now to pull together some ideas about the relationship between technology and knowledge. So this Savant is a kind of dinner party on paper: some stories, some history, and a lot of discussion.
The marketing part of this effort is that it includes extracts from a number of our encyclopedias. The encyclopedia articles take us back in time, to early libraries and all the way back to the development of human communication. And one considers the nature of knowledge. Other pieces--original writing by a variety of experts--bring us to the present with some thoughts about the communications renaissance created by blogs, wikis, RSS, and other collaborative technologies.
A terrific new book that ties into this discussion arrived recently from Dan Burstein. I've been reading Blog!, which Dan coauthored, and highly recommend it. Details at BlogRevolt.com. I was especially intrigued by the chapter on Publishers Marketplace, a bloggish website that is taking over, it seems, from the traditional publishing media.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2005
Springsteen Live!
Talked to Jonathan Daen today, our longtime friend and advisor, and found out that the 1975 Bruce Springsteen photos on the Grinnell College website came from a box in his attic. My son Tom just finished his first semester at Grinnell, and we'd read about this early Springsteen concert in the college magazine, but we had no idea that buttoned-down Jonathan, now a financial guy in Springfield, MA, was an avid concert goer, and ace photographer, in those days! Bruce Springsteen, performing at Darby Gym, Grinnell College, 1975. The photos are quite stunning and I told Jonathan how impressed I was. "It wasn't hard, there were only 500 people there. I was in the front row."
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:20 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2005
American cultural bias
I was planning to write about the moral imperatives of publishing (celebrating Christmas, even in our nonsecular way, led to a lot of conversation about this), but I'm so riled by a newspaper story, "A Sure Thing for Kazakhs: Horses Will Provide" in today's New York Times, that I need to say a few words about that instead.
There's nothing wrong with this detailed article about the role of the horse in Kazakh culture, except that it has no context. It is written to appeal to the most sentimental of American animal lovers (the vast majority of animal rights activists are older, white, female, and wealthy). What makes me angry is that it suggests that people elsewhere are violent, insensitive, and rather disgusting in their tastes. How about turning the tables and looking at what went on our tables yesterday, and how the animals most Americans tucked into were cared for, and slaughtered? I doubt that many of our turkeys, pigs, or cattle died after a prayer of thanks for the nourishment they would provide. There's a tone of cultural superiority here that makes me cringe.
We're planning to start an annual award for the best published article with a global perspective; I'm going to clip this article to show what we're trying to change.
(And I admit it: we had roast beef for Christmas dinner. My guilt about eating beef--occasionally--is more about environmental impact than animal welfare, though. It was a wonderful meal, with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, and the other English accoutrements. Homemade mince pies were avaiable but none of us had room for dessert!)
Posted by Karen Christensen at 2:52 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2005
The gift of yourself: be a global mentor
I always resolve to be well-prepared for Christmas, so instead of tension about gifts and decorations and cooking I can enjoy this special time with my family. But I still find myself winding up tighter and tighter about all the things left to do. (Embarrassingly, that's after considerable scaling back! I won't be sitting up on Christmas Eve putting the finishing touch on knitted gifts, the way I did when my kids were small.) But here's a way to change perspective by giving some personal to someone elsewhere in the world: your expertise. Make a gift to the future by signing up for Global Mentoring, a project of Lucy Hooberman's that I first heard about through the TED conference mailing list.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2005
Driving left and right
My daughter Rachel came across the world mapped by whether people drive on the left or right. Driving on the left does seem to be a British imperial legacy, though I remember hearing in England that it was based on ancient traditions. Swordsmen, my friends explained, would want to pass on the left in hostile circumstances, to keep their sword arm ready for defence. There's a huge amount of information about this on the web (some of it backing up the swordman explanation), and it is interesting to imagine the chaos of border crossings where the rules change.
It's one of the things that it really might make sense to standardize internationally. I'll campaign for that after the USA switches to the metric system, okay? I actually had someone tell me that they couldn't understand why America was so backwards--using pints and inches in this day and age. Let's start there. I'm longing to be able to use A4 paper.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2005
Typewriters reborn
Although I loathe the idea of “collecting,” there are a couple of things I seem to acquire more of than I really need or can use. The largest of them is typewriters. I have three manual machines,: one, the first thing I bought with the earnings from my first grown-up job, in San Jose, CA; second, an Olympia that turned up on my desk on April 1st one year; and third, a lovely 1940s Royal Quiet De Luxe portable.
The amazing thing is that it is now possible, easily, to buy ribbons and even jewellery made out of typewriter keys. My favorite site so far is MyTypewriter.com. Don’t be surprised if next time you see me I am wearing earrings made from A or Z or ?. After all, Christmas is coming.
I do plan to start using the Quiet De Luxe again: there’s nothing like a typewriter for getting a first draft done. It’s good for the hands, too.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 4:41 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2005
Reading Beautiful Ghosts
I've just finished a second detective story set in China. This latest, Beautiful Ghosts, by Eliot Pattison, takes place in Tibet for the most part, with some excursions to Beijing and Seattle. It's an exciting, convoluted story, with intriguing Chinese and Tibetan characters. Not surprisingly, it doesn't portray Chinese officials in a flattering way, and the story of the brutal Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1950 is important to the plot. What I like, though, is that although it certainly shows Tibetan Buddhism, and characters, in a sympathetic way, it isn't a predictable cowboys and Indians story, of bad Chinese and good Tibetans (and Americans).
Not only does Pattison present a religious tradition in rich detail, but he also shows how differently people from different cultures can see the same thing. When a Chinese character visits Seattle, he tells his American friend, "What you called the shopping center. You said you took me there so I could see America. When I first stepped inside I thought it was a church. Then I saw the people there. I don't know, I have no words. I made me sad somehow. I'm sorry."
It's hard, these days, for Americans to complain about the brutality and secrecy of other governments.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2005
Security services online
How fascinating, to be able to read FAQs about the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in English, Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, or Chinese. The FBI's site, on the other hand, is only available in American. Same goes for the CIA online.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2005
Arm-twisting with a smile
We're in the midst of putting together the first Berkshire catalogue--we finally have enough publications to make a catalogue!--and one of the things that entails is putting together editorial boards for the new publications we're announcing. David and I are the general editors of some of our publications, sometimes because of our expertise but more often, in my case anyhow, because I have the broad vision required. God knows I do not have the expertise that our subject editors and contributors do, but I have the sense to appreciate their work and a knack for what a contributor once called "arm-twisting with a smile."
I'm susceptible myself to certain kinds of arm-twisting--or in this case gentle persuasion. Jen McClure, the executive director of the
Society for New Communications Research, was so full of ideas and energy, and so interested in our effort to develop a new publishing business model, that when she asked if I would become a Research Fellow & Member of the Advisory Board I couldn't say no.
Exciting things happening in this area, and I know that involvement with SNCR will provide lots of new ideas and connections and maybe even some publishing projects. It's all about networks, after all, and guanxi.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 2:48 PM | Comments (1)
December 13, 2005
Transformational connections across the continent
When we were working on the Encyclopedia of Leadership, I heard a lot about transformation. James MacGregor Burns, our senior editor, is renowned for the idea of transformational leadership. That is, transformational rather than plain old transactional leadership. Transactional leadership is run-of-the-mill stuff, that at its best gets business done and keeps the show on the road. But transformational leadership is something entirely different: it changes people and situations, it sets new directions and provides a sense of meaning and purpose.
At Berkshire, we want to be transformational publishers. We are striving to create better, deeper, richer, and more useful publications for our beloved library reference world. We are also looking for new ways to share the work of scholars with wider audiences. To do this, we need a new business model. I was talking yesterday to Jennifer McClure, who has recently founded the Society for New Communications Research. Our friend and advisor Alex Pang, Chief Blogger at the Institute for the Future, is also on her board and thought we should meet, and after talking to Jen I could see why. The technologies she's interested in, and the social changes they represent, are exactly the things we're trying to figure out how to use in a global knowledge company. It's a pleasure--and a relief!--to find that there are amazing and brilliant people tackling the same questions, and although none of us know just how things are going to look even a year from now, it's certainly much easier to face the challenges of transformation with comrades like these.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 5:14 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2005
Recruiting in the country
Carrie Owens and I were in New York last week, right after I got back from Rome and London, for the American Book Producers Association (ABPA) holiday lunch. It was fun going to New York with Carrie because she's from California--as I am, in a way--and is just so thrilled by the city. And the ABPA is a great organization to be part of as we launch a program of popular titles.
It struck me afresh that New Yorkers can't really imagine what it's like to run a business in a country town. Publishing in Great Barrington looks, I admit, picture-perfect and I can't count the times people have said how easy it must be to recruit here: "Everyone wants to move to the Berkshires!" But the population of the entire county is only 140,000; that's a tiny pool to recruit from, but because this is a tourist and secondhand area there are few businesses like ours, which makes it a tough step for anyone to relocate here (not to mention, and in fairness I have to, that we don't pay city salaries!).
That's one reason I'm working hard to build our business in some new areas: to inspire other companies to move here and grow with us. We'd welcome other media and intellectual property businesses and I'm always glad to talk to anyone curious about business development in the southern Berkshires.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)
December 7, 2005
USA faces the world over global warming
Rachel Carson, a US biologist, is credited, internationally, for launching the modern environmental movement. US environmentalists and organizations are widely admired, and when I wrote my first book, Home Ecology, people in the UK were always praising the USA for its recycling programs and general awareness.
Today, the US doesn't have the same Green credibility, and in fact its position on global climate change is costing us friends, both politically and on the local level. It's a topic people bring up in conversation quite often. Here's what's going on right now: "U.S. rejects bid for post-Kyoto talks."
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 5, 2005
Home to western Massachusetts
I'm still en route home, after almost 24 hours (which allowed time for a meeting in London and, most important, a trip to Neal's Yard for cheese and Monmouth Street for coffee beans). Checking mail at Grand Central--I admit it, I love Starbucks--I found an email about a new program: Shop Western Mass--Local Products from Western Massachusetts--Think Outside the Box Store!. Interesting to see this endeavor to get people to shop locally, all to the good. But I don't see Great Barrington!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)
December 4, 2005
Italian review of Berkshire's World Sport, in English
Here’s the review, translated by Gherardo Bonini:
“Looking back over the years, there have been few good encyclopedias of sport. The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport, issued this year in Massachusetts by Berkshire Publishing Group, is the enlarged and updated version of a work published in 1996. It deserves particular attention because it was conceived with a new philosophy. That is, because it is not a alphabetic list of athletes but is instead a survey of topics including: the origins, evolution, and contemporary status of the sporting phenomenon in all countries; economic, social and political views; and sports in individual lives. It is possible to expand topics that have often been neglected through this the contemporary multifaceted approach.
“The main authors of the work (four volumes, 1,816 pages) are David Levinson and Karen Christensen, for whom the relationship between sports and culture is very consistent. They were helped by a team of experts from many countries: the article on Italy was masterfully written by Gherardo Bonini, the enthusiastic sport historian who works at the Historical Archives of the European Union of Florence.
“Here is a short list of topics covered: men and women in the sport; big international events; famous sporting facilities; teams and societies; the sports industry; early and modern sports media; training systems; the evolution and questions of sports medicine; and the relationship between sports and health. Among the sacred venues, for instance, are the Coliseum and Foro Italico, Ascot and Holmenkollen, Madison Square Garden and the Maracanà. Among the events, beside the Olympic Games, we find Wimbledon and Indianapolis. The historical honours of each of the countries are duly covered.
“The text, in English, is enriched by sidebars. The work costs $475 and can be ordered from Berkshire Publishing Group, 314 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230, USA, cservice@berkshirepublishing.com.”
One of our contributors from the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, Gerry Sperling, is a also a filmmaker and here in Rome for the Congress. This, like the Italian review, is astonishing serendipity, especially since Gerry's academic expertise extends to a topic I happen to need an article just now. Now, if only the weather will be similarly cooperative as I set out to see a little of Rome before flying home early tomorrow.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)
December 2, 2005
Blogging from the World Congress of History Producers
I repent. I have been too wedded to print, to text.
“It’s about content, stupid,” says the sign above my desk at home. Now, after spending less than 24 hours with history filmmakers, I have been shaken awake: content isn’t only in print, or on a website. Television documentaries are content, too, rich and inspiring and moving. And they reach audiences in the millions.
Maybe this isn’t repentance, but a kind of road to Damascus experience, of my eyes being opened. The last session today (www.history2005.org) was a showing of dozens of clips from films submitted for a “best of the best” review by Alliance Atlantis in Canada. There was terrorism, a psychological comparison of Stalin and Hitler (an idle dreamer), the “Naked Anthropologist,” and reenactments of scenes from the Battle of Trafalgar. All events or topics we’ve covered in print, and that I’ve never seen on screen. That is, I have never seem them because I almost never watch television. (How appropriate, in Rome, a confession.)
This is a business in which ratings and demographics are counted and analyzed and made use of, something we ought to be doing in the publishing sector. Men watch more history programs, for example, while women watch biography and programs about unsolved crimes (whodunits). And it’s not all bad news for publishers. Programmers worry about how to reach younger audiences, just as we do, and documentary makes are nearly as an inept, or lacking in creativity, as we are about this. They think kids will grow into old-style archival/talking head documentaries when they hit 35, or that everything should be docudrama or a version of reality TV.
There are a number of hot debates, over accuracy vs. truth and whether predicted events based on peer-reviewed scientific research are science or science fiction (there was quite a battle over a program called “Supervolcano”). And a number of people warned me away from documentary making because it’s so hard to raise the money to do quality shows. “I’m in reference publishing,” I said, “that would hardly be a new experience.”
This is the friendliest conference I’ve ever been to, and I feel guilty about skipping tonight’s social event to catch up on work—tomorrow night, though, is to Cerveteri and the Etruscan Museum. I’m determined not to miss that, so I’m working this evening.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)
World Sport on the Italian newsstand
Talk about timing: a great review of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport appeared today in Italy’s main sports newspaper. David called with the news, sent by our wonderful long-time contributor Gherardo Bonini, and I was able to go to the newsstand and buy a copy! I’ll post a translation soon, with some help, but the gist of what I read is that this work provides a new approach, a new perspective, on sports. In world history, of course, which makes it entirely appropriate to the conference I’m here for!
Posted by Karen Christensen at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
December 1, 2005
Family time in an English village
I had planned to go to the Online meeting in London this week, and to do my usual racing around London to talk up new projects, but in the end I spent the whole time in the country with what I can only describe as my English family, the family of my oldest friend from early days in London, just after college. Many things have happened since the summer day when she took me to meet her family at her younger brother’s school sports day. The boys’ regular uniform consisted of black coats with long tails worn over knickerbockers and bright gold knee socks: a guild school tradition from god knows how many centuries before, and I was enchanted.
This visit came fortuitously after a sudden bereavement, and I was glad to be able to be there to help out a little. When my kids realize that I cooked a meal every night, they may become more demanding at home. Especially when they hear that I was producing things like game pie and toad-in-the-hole. Somehow, in spite of all the sadness and trauma, I feel quite restored by the chance to do something completely different from my usual round, and also to connect again with what, strange though it sounds, I can only call my English roots.
Coincidentally, only this week have David and I finished plans for an Berkshire Encyclopedia of Intimate Relationships, to follow from our previous Encyclopedia of Community and Encyclopedia of Leadership. This new work will explore the extensive research and complex current issues in all the human connections that are emotionally or physically intimate: parents and children, lovers, friends. Intimate relationships is a huge field of study, and a subject that touches, changes, and challenges every one of us. I feel a little as if I’ve been doing cross-cultural field work this week!
Now I’m in Rome for the World Congress of History Producers, my chance to learn about making documentary history series and to meet producers and television people from around the globe.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)