Harvard DigiPub Podcast

I had the opportunity to co-host and produce a podcast about the world of digital publishing in collaboration with the Harvard Digital Publishing Collaborative. Our goal was to provide engaging conversations that explore the spectrum between content and its audiences and communities. In the DigiPub podcast, we dug into themes that affect publishing professionals and those interested in media and content, first through interviews with groundbreaking folks in publishing and then through a deeper examination of the topics in panel discussions.

Our first season included interviews with: Adi Ignatius about the evolving future of Harvard Business Review; Joe Morone on the power of curation and audience expansion via services like Footnote; Liza Daly on machine learning and artificial intelligence for publishers; Geoff Wilson on Creative Commons licensing options for intellectual property; and Peter Suber on open access content distribution options.

The Harvard Digital Publishing Collaborative was a cross-functional collective of publishing and media professionals from the Boston community and beyond interested in the future of content experiences.

While the podcast is no longer being hosted on iTunes or other podcast providers, you can listen to the episodes below:

S208 -- Tim O’Reilly Published May 2018The Digital Frontier with Tim O’Reilly In this wide-ranging interview, Digi*Pub host Jack Cashman talks with Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media about how publishers should think strategically in the face of digital disruption and about the platform dynamic of publishing as a whole. The discussion touches on DRM, Open Source, subscription versus ad based models, and other publishing models on the Internet. Then they dive into some of the ideas that Tim writes about in his book, WTF: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us, and discuss how we have a collective choice on how we think about and how we use technology and what the next wave of innovation should look like. In the post-interview panel discussion, Jack is joined by Sue Brown, of Macmillan Learning, Laura Wind (Linnaeus), of Macmillan Learning, and Denis Saulnier, of Harvard Business Publishing; they talk about the idea of publishing as a platform and the need to create value for both the creator and consumer and wonder about what comes next

S207 -- Steffanie Ness Published May 2018Publisher Partnerships: B2B Solutions in Digital Transformation with Ixxus’ Steffanie Ness Mobile, web, print. Readers want to read in multiple modalities. Meeting readers where they want to experience content is one aspect of publishing’s “digital transformation.” Challenges such as cost control and speed to market lead publishers to digital transformation in operations. How can do content management solutions drive faster digital transformation, and set the stage for innovation? Why is reinventing workflow so important to digital transformation? How can publishers drive the most value from their service providers? In this episode, DigiPub host Sue Brown talks with Ixxus’ Steffanie Ness about specific steps publishers can take to achieve digital transformation -- and satisfy the need for product innovation while achieving operational savings. In the post-interview panel discussion, Sue is joined by Jack Cashman, of the Harvard Alumni Association, Laura Wind (Linnaeus), of Macmillan Learning, and Denis Saulnier, of Harvard Business Publishing; they talk about the learner audience and the influence technologies may have on the learning experience.

S206 Stefan Esposito Published May 2018From HarvardX to Harvard Business Analytics: Effective Online Learning with Stefan Esposito From academia to custom educational publishing to MOOCs to paid online programs, Stefan has seen it all. DigiPub host Laura Wind (Linnaeus) talks with Stefan Esposito, Program Director for the Harvard Business Analytics Program (HBAP) and former Fellow and Manager of Instructional Development for HarvardX, about effective learning, the price of an online education, retention, and the sea of data that encompasses it all. In the post-interview panel discussion, Laura is joined by Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing, Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association, and Sue Brown of Macmillan Learning who engage in a brief panel reaction to the interview, including how it resonated with their various endeavors in publishing.S205 Kyle Courtney Published May 2018Defining Fair Use with Kyle Courtney: What Is It and How Do We Use It? Fair use is a complicated topic for publishers, full of myths and misunderstandings, but it’s a crucial concept for publishers to understand in a fast-changing digital world. Digipub host Jack Cashman talks to Kyle Courtney, Copyright Advisor for Harvard University, who breaks down what exactly Fair Use is, how to define it, how to use it, and how to defend it. In the process, he busts a few Fair Use myths that won’t seem to die and reminds us that it’s safe to sing the Happy Birthday song again. In the post-interview panel discussion, Jack is joined by Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing, Laura Wind (Linnaeus) of Macmillan Learning, and Sue Brown of Macmillan Learning who engage in a brief panel reaction to the interview to discuss how they’ve managed fair use and copyright issues in the past.

S204 Vanessa Golembewski Published May 2018The Traverse between Digital Media and Publishing with Vanessa Golembewski Are digital media companies publishing companies? Why do some companies shy away from the terms? How useful is a degree in publishing anyways? To find out, DigiPub host Laura Wind (Linnaeus) talks with Vanessa Golembewski, Writer/Producer at NBCUniversal, comedian, and Moth storyteller. Vanessa takes us on the journey through her career from textbook editorial assistant to video producer to comedy writer. She tells us about what it was like to serve as the face of her brand at Refinery29, how she ended up starring in some surprising places, how gender proportions affected her career, and how some surprising content went viral. In the post-interview panel discussion, Laura is joined by Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing, Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association, and Sue Brown of Macmillan Learning who engage in a brief panel reaction to the interview, including how it resonated with their various endeavors in publishingS203 Andrew Savikas Published May 2018Leveraging Software Industry Tools for Authors and Publishers with Andrew Savikas What can publishing production and editorial teams learn from how software developers work? Software engineers work all day with text, and often collaborate in ways that require intuitive yet powerful methods of collaboration and version control -- all traits they share in common with many aspects of the traditional publishing content workflow. DigiPub host Denis Saulnier gets insights on this from Andrew Savikas, former CEO of Safari and former O’Reilly executive who ran the Tools of Change for Publishing conferences. Andrew gives an overview of how these tools work and the value they bring to the publishing process, and also gives specific tool recommendations for publishing professionals interested in experimenting with them. In the post-interview panel discussion, Denis is joined by Sue Brown of Macmillan Learning, Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association, and Laura Wind (Linnaeus) of Macmillan Learning, who engage in a brief panel reaction to the interview, including how it resonated with their various endeavors in publishing.

S202 LearnLaunch Published April 2018Conversations from LearnLaunch 2018: Instructional Design with the Online Learning Consortium and Entangled Solution’s Michael Horn Designing online courses to accommodate personalized learning pathways is more possible using educational technologies. But how do publishers and instructors ensure these learning experiences are engaging and accessible? How does technology’s much-needed disruption to education balance against practical concerns of ensuring strong learner outcomes? What contributions do instructional designers and learning scientists make when implementing digital tools into the learning experience? DigiPub host Sue Brown had the opportunity to consider these questions while at LearnLaunch’s 2018 Across Boundaries Conference. This episode brings you two of those conversations with learning design practitioners as well as education visionaries. First, Jennifer Rafferty and Elisabeth Stuckland, of the Online Learning Consortium discuss instructional design, the OSCQR rubric, and the OLC’s Workshops. In the second part of this episode, Michael Horn shares his perspectives among many things, the importance of quality content to support learner-centered educational experiences. In the post-interview panel discussion, Sue is joined by Jack Cashman, of the Harvard Alumni Association, Laura Wind (Linnaeus), of Macmillan Learning, and Denis Saulnier, of Harvard Business Publishing; they talk about the learner audience and the influence technologies may have on the learning experience.S201 LearnLaunch Published April 2018Conversations from LearnLaunch 2018: edTech Start-ups AdmitHub, Authess, and Choosito Pressures to bring affordability and relevance to education are driving fascinating innovation within educational publishing. Open education resources promise affordability. Personalized learning experiences promise relevance. Authentic assessments promise an accurate measure of competence. These trends are made possible by developments in AI. How exactly does this technology underpin these important developments in education? Does AI technology improve the content curation, educator, and learner experiences? What is the interplay between content and AI? DigiPub host Sue Brown of Macmillan Learning met with several edTech innovators at LearnLaunch’s 2018 Across Boundaries Conference to turn over these questions. This episode features conversations with Paul Crockett, of Authess, Andrew Magliozzi, of AdmitHub, and Dr. Eleni Miltsakaki, of Choosito. In the post-interview panel discussion, Sue is joined by Jack Cashman, of the Harvard Alumni Association, Laura Wind (Linnaeus), of Macmillan Learning, and Denis Saulnier, of Harvard Business Publishing; they talk about the learner audience and the influence technologies may have on the learning experience.

S105 Peter Suber Published November 2017The Case for Open Access Research with Peter Suber from the Harvard Open Access Project Today, 45 percent of scholarly research is published in some kind of Open Access format. Why is so much research being published in this format? What exactly is Open Access research and why is it important to research institutions and researchers? How have traditional journal publishers responded to Open Access? What are universities and other research institutions doing to curate and collect Open Access research? Can we rely on for-profit Open Access publishers to preserve research when their profit motives change? Peter Suber sits down with Digi*Pub host Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association to talk through these questions in light of the Harvard Open Access Project’s goal to encourage the growth of open access to research at Harvard and beyond. In the post-interview panel discussion, Jack is joined by Laura Wind (Linnaeus) and Sue Brown, both of Macmillan Learning, to talk about the benefits of openly available research, the opportunities for publishers to use careful curation of Open Access content as a means of revenue, and how Open Access research in specific fields can supercharge innovation and growth.S104 Geoff Wilson Published November 2017What’s Your Flavor? The Flexibility of Creative Commons Licensing Content licensing and permissions: two topics that can strike terror into the hearts of publishers and spawn nightmare visions of labyrinthine contracts, endless hours of administrative toil, and exorbitant usage fees. But can Creative Commons licensing serve as the thread to help publishers navigate their way out of the permissions maze? Digi*Pub host Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association talks with Geoff Wilson, Intellectual Property Coordinator at MIT Office of Digital Learning, about how the different flavors of Creative Commons licensing allows publishers and content creators the flexibility to duplicate, reuse, and remix content, while still retaining the rights they want to protect. Following the interview, Jack joins a panel discussion with Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing, and Laura Wind (Linnaeus) and Sue Brown, both of Macmillan Learning. They talk about Creative Commons as an adaption of traditional copyright to the speed of digital publishing world, how rightsholders can use Creative Commons as a brand builder, and how traditional publishers can utilize creative commons as an opportunity to escape from mountains of permissions contracts.

S103 Liza Daly Published November 2017Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Publishers: A Primer

What is the difference between machine learning and artificial intelligence, and what does it mean for publishers and publishing? Publishing vet and software engineer Liza Daly arms us with definitions and takes us on a tour, showing us why this brave new world matters for publishers. Digi*Pub host Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing leads the interview and then joins a post-interview panel discussion with Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association and John Corkery of iContent Consulting.

S102 Joe Morone Published November 2017The Power of Curation and Audience Expansion: A Conversation with Footnote Academics explore some of the most engaging, relevant topics of our time. But most of their synthesis never reaches beyond traditional scholarly publishing, and even most of that content is barely consumed. Footnote curates and translates this research into actionable thought leadership that reaches a much wider, relevant audience. Digi*Pub host Denis Saulnier of Harvard Business Publishing speaks with Joe Morone, CEO and Co-Founder of Footnote, about their work interpreting, re-packaging, and promoting content. Then we follow up with a post-interview discussion on the topic, including panelists Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association and Sue Brown and Laura Wind (Linnaeus) of Macmillan Learning.

S101 Adi Ignatius Published November 2017Rethinking Digital Content with Adi Ignatius of Harvard Business Review How have traditionally print-focused publishers transitioned to the digital world? How does a publisher unify different content types into one digital product? How viable or useful are paywalls, subscriptions, and advertising revenue in a digital world dominated by Facebook and Google? What emerging trends will publishers be grappling with in the near future? Digi*Pub host Jack Cashman of the Harvard Alumni Association sits down with Adi Ignatius, Editor-in-Chief of Harvard Business Review, to consider some of these questions by examining what Harvard Business Review has done to adapt to a digital world. Then, in the post-interview panel discussion, Jack is joined by Sue Brown and Laura Wind (Linnaeus), both of Macmillan Learning, to talk about experimenting in the digital space, how content differs by medium, and how long it will take before we all stop adding the word “digital” in front of everything.

S100 Series Intro Published November 2017Welcome to a new podcast about the world of digital publishing. We’re calling it DigiPub--the podcast of the Harvard Digital Publishing Collaborative--and our goal is to bring you conversations that explore the spectrum between content and its audiences and communities. In the Digi*Pub podcast, we dig into themes that affect publishing professionals, first through interviews with groundbreaking folks in publishing and then through a deeper examination of the topics in panel discussions.