This is going to get into the hands of many more people much more information, and this can't help but have consequences for the “global brain” and all kinds of social activism.
Soon You'll be Able to Go to CVS and Print a Book
Print-on-Demand Books Coming Soon to Thousands of Stores via Espresso Book Machine and Kodak Picture Kiosks
“On Demand Books, the company behind the Espresso Book Machine, and Kodak are partnering to add print-on-demand technology to Kodak Picture Kiosks. That means consumers will be able to print paperback photo books, self-published books and the seven million backlist and public domain titles in On Demand’s catalog from retail chains such as CVS…There are 105,000 Kodak Picture Kiosks globally; you can find them in chains like CVS as well as photography stores, pharmacies and other retail outlets. The partnership with On Demand launches in the U.S. this year and will expand internationally in 2013.”
Phi Beta Iota: Kinko's then FedExOffice experimented with PerfectBind, the same concept, but at the time, not cost effective. Since fiction dominates the book marketplace, rather than non-fiction, the existing client base for CVS and other retail stores is a better target for this offering. At the same time, we anticipate that social media will do a much better job of pointing readers toward worthy reads, displacing the advertising model of book publishers; and those who pay for localized printing will be incentivized to donate the books to their local library. Amazon continues to ignore the human / local factor. Local libraries and local reading clubs could make this take off — group buys of specific books followed by donation to the library.
See Also:
Kodak, On Demand Books and ReaderLink Join Forces for In-Store Book Printing at Retail
