Tools of Change: Bill Burger

In his Tools of Change keynote address, Copyright Clearance Center VP Bill Burger discussed how technological shifts have realigned the relationships between readers and content, beginning with a stark example from Encyclopedia Britannica, which earned $650 million in revenue back in 1989 but, in the post-Encarta, Wikipedia-ruled world of 2007, made only (an estimated) $50 million. The wiki model of information distribution came up again and again; he was particularly keen on a recent development called WikiTravel Press that’s already producing user-generated guidebooks to Chicago and Singapore, updated monthly and printed on demand. Pretty soon, you’ll even be able to compile a travel guide tailored to your exact itinerary. Such collaborative publishing models will grow increasingly common, Burger summed up, and “people will value the tools as much as the content.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.