by Hilary Franz

In the next week leading up to Earth Day we will be posting a list of ways that you can take action in your own life to reduce your carbon emissions footprint. These conservation technology changes if made in your life will have an impact on cutting carbon emissions. But as I stated in my last blog, what is also needed is bold leadership from Washington D.C. to drive the large scale changes needed to stave off the the catastrophic effects of global warming. To this end, we urge everyone to take the first step towards reaching Congress by participating in Step It Up 2007 this Saturday, April 14! Read the rest of this entry »

by Exbiblio

Come check out our new look for Exbiblio.com. We loved our old site, but we could not resist the opportunity to improve the accessibility, navigation, and let people know about our new focus. We plan to update it often, and have lots more in-store for later this year, so let us know what you think.

by Ruth Hoffman

In honor of Martin’s birthday, everyone in the office brought cans of coffee and sweets to the office to donate to the Downtown Foodbank at Pike Place Market. The foodbank serves from 700 to 1,100 clients each week.

Due to the downtown location of the food bank, they serve more individuals than families. Many of their clients live in the nearby low-income housing. Many live on $300 per month.
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by Hilary Franz

These days it is difficult to open a newspaper without finding some discussion about climate change. It appears that Congress is also finally waking up and taking notice. Right now there are a number of bills in Congress on the issue. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jeff Bowman

Over the past two weeks I have been trying to get my arms around our brand strategy and trademarks. Several aspects of our current approach concern me. First of these is the name and word treatment of the company name: Exbiblio. What the name implies is “formerly a library of books,” or “out of the book.” This is clever enough. Exbiblio, however, is a tongue twisting four syllables so it only works as a company name; not as a product or services brand name to be featured in our communications with consumers. More troubling are the font, color palette and logo as outlined in our style guide. THEY ALL SCREAM GOTHIC . In fact, our font choice is even called Gothic. Our tagline (The Paper Renaissance) doesn’t make any connection with the digital world. Amusingly, it is even more of a disconnect when you consider that the Renaissance included the decline of Gothic architecture.

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by Lauren Summers

As some readers know, just before Thanksgiving, Exbiblio was forced to take a step back and re-assess the project and plan for the company. To avoid crashing and burning financially, a number of great employees had to be let go and it was a hard time both for those leaving and the few staying. Uncertainty permeated the office, but there remained a belief in the product and hopefulness for its success.

Since the project was able to continue, a few key hires have joined Exbiblio.

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by Claes-Fredrik Mannby

A topic that has started migrating from research communities to widespread adoption is the notion of a Life Library.

In 1945, Vannevar Bush proposed a computer system he called the memex (“memory extender”). It involved electronically linking frames of microfilm. Ever since, and probably since long before then, people have had the notion of treating the world around them, in a sense, as an extended memory system.

When you collect souvenirs from the places you visit, and put them on your shelves or in your drawers, you stash away potent memory-evoking devices that you know you will run into, bringing back memories when you encounter them.

When you read books and add them to your library, you extend an index in your mind, and accrue wisdom. The books themselves, whether you keep them at home, or rely on other libraries, become reference material that you can use to elaborate on the memories as needed.

Digital media, as exemplified by movies, audio recordings, hypertext, photos and chat logs, open up a similar world of extended human mind.

Exbiblio sees incredible value in uniting the physical and digital worlds into a single extension for your mind, in this sense. By capturing video and audio recordings of physical parts of your “library,” we can connect them directly to the digital realm, which usually has counterparts to the physical library, and add value in various ways by helping you navigate both realms, continually learning from your individual usage and from aggregate usage.

It’s a very topical and interesting question, then, what aspects of such “Life Libraries” that have been proposed or exist, which have failed and which have been successful, and which will become commonplace, if any.

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by Claes-Fredrik Mannby

In starting up our external blogging activity again, I think it’s fitting to give a big, warm thanks to Hugh for finding such interesting related developments in the world to write about, and especially for the courage to implement Naked Conversations here at Exbiblio.

Our ambition is to be a truly open company in many ways, upholding truth, honesty, and transparency in every aspect of our business, be it corporate communications, reporting, software code or hardware layouts.

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by Mike Piraino, CEO

When I was first introduced to Exbiblio, I was somewhat awestruck by the breadth of the vision. I’ve found that this is not an uncommon response when people learn about what we’re doing and how we propose to do it. The creative genius behind the concept is undeniable and there are clear paths to revenue—not your usual great idea desperately searching for a business model. On top of that, the company (read Martin) was savvy enough to create an explicit, detailed, long-term view of just how this vision would be implemented and monetized over time and build an extensive patent portfolio to protect the world of opportunity this vision opened up.

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