Confessions of a used-book salesman. – Slate Magazine
Confessions of a used-book salesman. – Slate Magazine.
Interesting read about a book reseller who buys books at thrift stores and used book shops then resells them on Amazon using a PDA and some nifty software.
Ion Audio Book Saver | Book Digitizer
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Creating Efficiency, books, data on January 1, 2012
“Ion Audio is using its digital conversion know-how to create a device that can scan a 200-page paper book and convert it into e-Reader format in 15 minutes.”
via $150 Book Saver turns a 200 page book into eReader format in 15 minutes.
This is another option to research in the quest for digitizing books.
More information is available on the Ion Audio website. It looks like it supports pdf, epub, and doc formats as well. Does not specify camera resolution. One minor downside is that it can only scan 8.5″ x 11.”
I also wonder if the included software will address difference document sizes so a novel wouldn’t the extra whitespace (filling the 8.5″ x 11″ frame).
Also, the software doesn’t appear to include OCR. Not a big deal but OCR is definitely a feature some will want, including me but this is easily worked around using Adobe Create PDF.
1DollarScan Scans And Digitizes Your Books For You “For A Dollar” | TechCrunch
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, books, data on January 1, 2012
“1DollarScan is the US equivalent of a service in Japan called Bookscan, which is the largest of its kind in that country and hit several millions of US dollars in revenue within a year.
1DollarScan works in the same way as Bookscan: after receiving physical books or other printed material from customers, the company scans the papers, and converts them into PDFs or DVDs. That’s what similar services do, too, but as 1DollarScan’s company name suggests, prices start at just $1 (for ten photos or 100 pages in a book, for example).
via 1DollarScan Scans And Digitizes Your Books For You “For A Dollar” | TechCrunch.”
Looks to be much more expensive than Book Scan US. They only charged $1 for a 300 page book. There are some interesting comments on TechCrunch, including something thinking once they digitize one book, they could use that copy for all future orders.
Hard to justify the $1/100 pages cost, if true. Will need to think more on that.
Digitizing Books
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Creating Efficiency, data, productivity on January 1, 2012
Ran across an interesting company today, Book Scan US, which will digitize your books. Options include using OCR, turning them into Word, formatting for popular eReaders, and even MP3s. Here is what they have to say:
Books are cut to sheets for the scan.
Scanned data are converted to PDF.
PDF files are sent to online storage for your retrieval.
Book remnants are sent to local recycle center.
(Book remnants can also be shipped back to you.)
via Welcome to Book Scan US – Home.
Could be a nice option to add to tools to help in personal data management and productivity.
The files could be stored in Evernote. Might have to try this out.
Testing out the “Press This” Bookmarklet to aid in personal data management
Posted by Dan Hall in Creating Efficiency, data on December 31, 2011
For the past couple of years, I have been on and off looking for tools that will help me quickly retrieve information that I have read on the web regardless of which device I was using at the time.
You know those greats conversations you are having with a friend or co-worker that goes something like this:
“I read this great article about X, I think it was on web site Y, the title was something like Z. I’ll have to find it and email it to you.”
Finding that article again can sometimes be a near impossible task. Multiply that by 1,000 and that is how much useful information that can’t be easily recalled and shared.
I am going to start using “Press This” by WordPress on this blog as a tool to help me store information. It is mostly a personal endeavor so if you are reading this, that will be the reason why I am posting random links.
Apparently this can be done using the iPhone as well as seen here:
WordPress 2.6 “Press This” Bookmarklet Works Great on iPhone | Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com.
DocuSign – a must for digital signatures
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Creating Efficiency, Startups, iPhone on November 13, 2010
Most services I sign up for nowadays barely meet the expectations that they say they are going to deliver. Even more rare is a service provider that delivers such value that it compels me to advocate its use to others. Seattle based startup DocuSign, a provider of digital signature services, is one of the few.
I find myself on a regular basis telling my friends and colleagues to use DocuSign. Why? Well, it is simple. I detest the process of receiving a document, reviewing it, sending back proposed changes, getting the final version, printing it, signing it, scanning it, reattaching the document to an email, sending, and have the other party do the same process until they finally send the executed document back.
DocuSign streamlines this whole process. Their console is easy to use and is intuitive. I love services where I don’t have to muck around trying to figure how to use them. I have used DocuSign for dozens of contracts and agreements. It literally has saved me hours of time each month – which I appreciate as a Startup CEO. And best of all, they are mobile friendly. I have signed some very important documents on my iPhone (no app required) while on the move. DocuSign is well worth the monthly cost – go and check them out if you also detest the manual paper signing / scanning process.
Joe Heitzeberg and MediaPiston
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Creating Efficiency, Startups on October 20, 2010
Joe is a super smart technologist (and a fellow Seattle Startup Founder), he also has a great business model and is focused on customer service. Joe Heitzeberg’s company, MediaPiston, allowed me to launch my website, GunUp.com by filling hundreds of article requests in a matter of weeks. Without his company, our launch would have been delayed by months. Joe was highly responsive to feedback and is improving his UI and UX on a weekly basis. The bottom line is this: if you need content that is unique and of good quality for an extremely reasonable price – check out MediaPiston. They rock.
Quick Reviews: BunchBall and BigDoor, social gamification service providers
I had the opportunity to evaluate BunchBall and BigDoor, two of the leading social gaming service providers, aka gamification. Here’s a quick low down:
BunchBall – Great demo by Kevin Spier, Director of Sales. Bunchball has a mature tool set and has been around since 2005. They have many well known clients such as Comcast, Victoria’s Secret, and NBC. I was quite impressed by their capabilities and analytics. It’s rare that service providers surpass my expectations but BunchBall did. BunchBall is backed by Granite Ventures and Adobe Systems Incorporated. The downside is that their current pricing model reflects their targeted clientele. Bunchball has a set pricing model in the mid 4 figures per month for up to 1MM unique visitors. All in all, a great value for established customers who have the budget to drive traffic to their site in a meaningful way – because let’s face it, gamification works if properly implemented. Kevin was quite helpful and introduced me to several of his connections who are interested in the space of my new venture.
BigDoor – Good demo by Keith Smith, CEO of BigDoor. BigDoor recently scored a $5MM venture round led by the Foundry Group, so they are playing catch up in some ways to the more established BunchBall. They have a toolset that will be able to get me the gamification features I desire, albeit with more massaging from my own development team than BunchBall. One plus about this is that BigDoor provides their technology more like an open source library so I can customize the features to fit my needs. Keith also has been quite helpful and BigDoor has a huge advantage for two reasons: First, I, too, am a Seattle based startup CEO, so I am biased towards supporting local businesses and startups and Second, their pricing model, while based on API calls, scales with my business. This is an almost unarguable advantage for a cash-strapped startup and ultimately led towards our choice to go with BigDoor.
Do yourself a favor if you need to drive traffic and participation to your site and check out these two Companies, both offer superior value-added services.
Quorus – helping sites connect with their users
Posted by Dan Hall in Adding Value, Startups, social media on June 18, 2010
Had a great meeting last at Caffe Umbria with Michael Dougherty, the CEO and Co-Founder of Quorus. They are doing some very cool stuff helping sites connect with their users including a couple of tools that allow real time chat between users viewing the same page (very helpful in allowing users to discuss products in real time) and simplified member sign ups. It is a great way to add value to your site. Get in touch with them to help drive engagement and conversion especially if you are in the e-commerce space.
Sourcing Seattle – a Shift in Focus and Topic
Since March of 2008, I have been posting on and off again on Sourcing Seattle mostly about human resources and organizational dynamics. In May, I made the transition from the government sector back to the Seattle startup space, and I am quite excited to be back. The Seattle startup space is full of interesting, passionate individuals working on a number of very cool ideas. To mirror my professional transition, Sourcing Seattle will now be focused on these same topics.
Stay tuned to hear about my journey in the Seattle startup space and the interesting people and companies I meet.
Dan Hall
