DP24003 A New Guillotine V01 210224

One objective of DMB Publishing is to digitise books heading to landfill, digitise them into a PDF and share them for free with those interested in the subject. In the case of a few books where the digitisation process becomes a lot more complicated the books are sold on Amazon. Always mindful of the copyright of the original authors or publishers their approval is always sought if they can be located. If this approval cannot be obtained the legal loss of the original authors copyright 70 years after their death is invoked or if this criteria has not been met it is shared based on a digitisers Creative Commons Licence . For the publishers copyright over the graphical arrangement of the printed works only lasts for 25 years from its original publication date. DMB Publishing further qualifies what it digitises and publishes based on it never intending to digitise any book that still has a commercial value potential to the original author or publishers. This is difficult to apply since there are exceptions like you could freely publish a Charles Dickens book where it can sell at a commercial value today. Essentially DMB Publishing is adopting the same approach as the major digitisers like Google Books, Harvard University, Project Gutenberg, Carnie Mellon University and so forth. We are all trying to keep books for the use of future generations otherwise this vital book technology with its content will be lost for ever. With keeping these books available being a not for profit activity requiring investment by the digitiser and no charge to the user.

 

To date DMB Publishing has focussed on Books and Booklets produced by the “home based publishers” but we are starting to move into the more established areas of commercial publishing. Inevitably the books are getting thicker so the need for a new more effective guillotine to slice off the book bindings has arisen. This is obviously the most brutal approach to digitising, producing loose sheets that can be run through my automated document reader capturing both sides simultaneously. For books I don’t want to destroy in the digitisation process the plan is to purchase a proper book digital reader with laser page flattening capabilities that remove the curvature in the book pages when they are being digitised. But this is a big investment.

So take a look at my current guillotine and the new one that arrived today (210224) that I have already used to destroy two books by slicing off neatly their bindings in readiness for the scanning process to begin. The new guillotine includes the  important wheel operated paper clamp to hold the book in place as the sharp blade is used to cut off the binding under the leverage of the extra long handle. One of these books is a Midland Red Bus Company Gazetteer of the Midlands with a supplement of Inland & Seaside Pleasure Resorts (Circa 1961). The other book is damp damaged with collapsed binding but 108 years old (Published March 1916) called the Warwickshire Water-Colours by Fred Whitehead (1853-1938) with perfect watercolour plates. 

New Guillotine

Original Guillotine (Being Kept)

DP24002 The Article Website V01 090124

If you look at the way the publishing industry is evolving the one thing that definitely applies is fragmentation. The internet has allowed for the creation of numerous platforms. These range from the original paper based publishers ranging from newspapers and magazines through to academic and business sites then finally through to societies and individuals. Social Media itself with the growth of specialist local groups has became a very popular information source. The problem is with this fragmentation the readership numbers have now been scattered across the internet. Many of the traditional publishing platforms are becoming economically none viable. Advertising revenue is shrinking whilst there is resistance to the paid subscription model. The so called pay walls. Whilst a limited number of personality influencers are attracting enormous followings running into many millions. The TikToc short video way of communicating has been fully embraced by the younger generation. With both stored and live streaming of video becoming most young (and old) users preference in terms of human engagement. 

In my case the written word still appeals to me particularly when it is created by a gifted thought provoking writer. In this respect a website called "The Article" is one of the platforms I enjoy using.

Try this thought provoking article below to appreciate where I am coming from in respect of these amazing writers. So let David Howell play inside your brain for the next 15 minutes. The content is very current being first published on Sunday 12th November 2023. Enjoy. Banno

 https://www.thearticle.com/the-need-for-roots-balance-and-a-new-enlightenment

      

DP24001 The Computer Creators 1992 - 1998

This is a DMB Publishing  created PDF produced under the Historic Books and Magazines Division whereby old documents, books, magazines and maps are digitised and saved for their use by future generations. They are given away free of charge under the Creative Commons Licensing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 License. 

It is a repository of "The Computer Creator" articles written by Mike James for the Computer Shopper published by Dennis Publishing. Some articles are missing in the series and I am not sure when they ceased being published. But the first one was written in the Computer Shopper for the March 1992 edition. 

Be prepared for this link to ask you to click authorising a download and for it to take some time. Like up to 5 minutes depending on your local network speed. You are downloading from a Private Google Docs account.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kpMEBDm27pQulYXmC2S-pvWkZMJZFJ24/view?usp=sharing

  

DP23011 Vanity Publishing (Autobiographies)

So reader before you start reading about me I need to clarify some of my personal views on this subject of writing about yourself in an autobiographical book or blog and how my personal circumstances have recently changed my views on this subject.

I had always thought those that write about themselves were being somewhat vain so I always avoided doing so. Running DMB Publishing I got some interest from those wanting to publish their own autobiographies. But it never interested me since I could never envisage it having much in the way of potential sales unless they were famous or infamous. At the time I was not particularly interested in reading about normal people’s lives. This area of publishing is known as Vanity Publishing so I avoided becoming involved in respect of my own life and in publishing these type of autobiographies for other people. They can be a real money spinner for publishers, particularly in America, although when you add up the costs involved in getting it right for the customer with revisions and so forth as a publisher you can struggle to make it pay unless you charge £1000’s. In the UK, unlike America, customers are unlikely to be prepared to spend that amount on a published autobiography.

Then at a family gathering I did agree to publish an autobiography for a new family member, John Moverly OBE, because he had a higher media profile and I thought it might have some sales potential. It was called “From Parish Pump to Royal Appointment” and John had paid to have it Vanity Published but had now run out of printed copies. It proved a very interesting book to read and I learnt more about a new relative than could ever have been communicated at a family party. Although an enlightening book it never sold many copies no doubt due to a lack of marketing. It is available to purchase on Amazon using this link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09FH1K236

So what else has changed my view on autobiographical writing. I have lost two very dear friends. George Szubinski, my business partner in Zig Zag Digital Associates Limited, who suddenly died of Covid in April 2020 and Steven Wallsgrove, a Warwick Historian, whose books I was publishing who died just as suddenly in October 2021. In both cases I had asked them to write autobiographies that I would have freely published for them. Neither did so but George did make a start on one which you can read if you follow this link.

https://social.shorthand.com/zubo01/jC41NksYYu/dedicated-to-james-jerzy-szubinski. 

This is George’s dedication site for his son James who he lost in a terrible accident in the home in 2007. Click on “@zubo01”, then click on “Who do I think I am” and then scroll down to read the start of his autobiography. It’s a unique beginning to an autobiography that would have been well worth reading had he completed it.

In both cases I wrote “In Memory Blogs” for them on this blog site. 

George Szubinski 

(https://dmbpublishing.blogspot.com/2020/12/leaving-digital-legacy.html ) 

Steven Wallsgrove 

(https://dmbpublishing.blogspot.com/2023/01/23-02-steven-wallsgrove-xxxx-2021.html ) 

But in both their cases there was so much of their lives missing that I would have been interested to read about. But is that just me? Two lives ended with the detail of all their life experiences lost forever. Autobiographies could have easily been written by them and remained available for future generations.

In my own case a heart attack on the 30^thJanuary 2023 and open heart surgery on the 20^th February 2023 set me thinking it was time to both downsize my possessions and record some of my working life experiences. My attempts at an autobiography will only be work, project and employment focussed with me not being interested in sharing anything more personal about my life. Sorry I am not going into those areas.

My garage is full of paperwork relating to my previous employments and my own business activities. So I first tackled the records from my employment at JBA Software Limited (1990 – 2000) and this linked into my previous Halfords Limited employment (1975 – 1990) both IT based jobs. Whilst previously Avery Limited (1966 – 1973) and Triplex Safety Glass Limited (1973 – 1975) had been employment that was based upon my CEng in Mechanical Engineering graduate skills.

These engineering skills and experience related to design, manufacturing processes and factory management. At Avery it covered Dynamic Balancing Machines for jet engines, missiles and dentist drills in their Testing Machine Division in Smethwick, Birmingham and their Research Centre in Tamebridge, Walsall north of Birmingham.

Whilst at Triplex I managed a factory producing toughened glass for cars and then in their Aircraft Division I was technically responsible for Concorde, Boeing 747 and Spitfire windscreen manufacture. I remember having to have responsibility for a handgun !!!!. Civil airliner windscreens not only have to withstand a frozen chicken impact outside but they have to contain a bullet fired from inside of the cockpit. From the days of high jackers getting into the cockpit. After firing the gun you could see the bullet lodged within the acrylic layer. From memory a 747 windscreen has seven layers of toughened glass alternating with acrylic layers with the inner and outer layers obviously made of glass. The finished product had to be optically perfect. In the repair area returned hail damaged 747 windscreens from tropical storms over the Pacific could have up to five of these layers damaged by hitting 6-inch hail stones. The windscreens frames were re-glazed and then sent back for reinstallation on the 747.

So the area I am going to start with in respect of being autobiographical relates to my Halfords to JBA career move in 1990. This was a significant career move which coincided with me selling my “Cake and Bake” bakery business which we had owned for 10 years along with shutting down my garage based printing business. This used both letterpress and lithographic printing technologies which I had taught myself. The development of my book printing package continued using PC based DataEase. Busy times. It had always been a Bannister trait of my Grand Father and Father to have multiple home and business projects on the go at any one time. This applies to me these days in retirement with my DMB Publishing business. What applied to me, my Grand Father and Father, was if we didn’t keep creative and active depression could soon take hold. The essence of life and to avoid depression is to always keep busy preferably with something of a creative nature. Both my Grandfather and Father were water colour artists whilst my Grandfather made things in metal and my Father made things in wood. 

DP23010 - DMB Publishing Process Changes - Heart Attack

 On the 30^th January 2023 I had a heart attack and on the 20^th February 2023 Open Heart Surgery to change a faulty aorta valve. Whilst recovering I realised if I died all my life’s stored documentation would have been placed in a skip and sent to landfill. This documentation means nothing to my family and it would be impossible for them to collate it and store it. So like all good process engineers this has caused me to review and then change my approach to documentation. The essence of this change is to go digital since this removes the storage issues and allows for a more structured way to store it possibly improving access to those choosing to want to read it. Essentially it is creating my digital legacy now essentially by placing my work into a structured set of blogs that anybody can access. In fact allowing it to be easily accessed after my death is important to me. Oddly enough it is inclusive of this blog  where you get to share my consciousness on a Sunday morning the 9^th April 2023 at 6.00 am. What I am not going to do in this blog is detail all the decision making that I have made about the way it will be stored and where it will be stored. That is the subject of a future blog. This blog is going to look at how I operated prior to my heart attack and the way I have started to operate now in a specific area of document storage.

I have always been a big reader and a hoarder. For some reason I store things for future use often without knowing what will be that future use. This applies to all the screws, nails, tools and so forth stored in my garage so it applies to physical things. There is little order to these physical things with this working against me in that I cannot locate the stored “hardware” when a need arises whilst in the case of things like drill bits I keep blunt ones along with the sharp ones. Following from my father’s (Bill) habit I have always kept a small wood store. But this blog is not about these type of physical things but about the storage of documentation, which is currently physical being paper based, but has the scope to become digital thereby none physical. So let us look at an example of how I operate in terms of information storage in support of its future use in my writings.

A common daily practice for me is to read a daily newspaper which is normally “The Times” and to cut out any articles I believe may be of use in my future writings. I would say some 10 years ago I appreciated that this needed some structure so I created my own DMB Publishing Knowledge Base Taxonomy. Taxonomy is the science and practice of classification. Just to be really boring and pedantic I also use topography which links things to their geographical location. This is important to me since the importance of mapping, as distinct to writing, as a technique of communication has for some unknown reason been thought of differently within my thought processes. I like to sit and read maps in a similar manner to the way I would read a book. In many information transformation tasks then a map is more effective than using words. Thus my obsession with not just geographical maps but with business process maps. Just as an aside when I wrote my book on the Domesday Book (1086) allocating land to individuals it was made almost impossible because mapping as a technique of communication did not exist. Imagine the work of the current Government Land Registry without having access to a map.

So back to the DMB Publishing Knowledge Base Taxonomy. To create it I listed my areas of interest in a table that I kept on the study wall. Each area was allocated a number from 01 to 10 for starters with the opportunity to add others over time if necessary. The key thing was for this to be kept simple so originally my idea was that it should be only 10 subject areas but it almost immediately extended to be 11. It should be noted as of 09/04/23 it has extended to 14 with it starting to align itself with books I am currently writing from 12 to 14.

The one theme running through all the subjects is a focus upon digitisation. As a writer it is the impact of digitisation that drives my thought and creative processes. It forms the bedrock upon which all my thinking is based although increasingly the digital is within a biological context both in terms of the world, and universe, but increasingly things within my own consciousness. The digital thinking has to acknowledge that the biological has taken the subject of digitisation to its most effective and complex implementation. This has evolved into the “Biology of Machines” and “Unity of Knowledge” taxonomy entries at references 12 and 13.

 

These are listed below so you get the idea.

Ref	Subject Name	Description
01	DMB Publishing	Generic covering everything about publishing.
02	Digital Human	The digitisation of the human and health.
03	Digital Investor	Investing based upon the digital revolution.
04	Digital Disrupter	Where going digital disrupts markets.
05	Digital Thought	Just any thoughts I have on anything.
06	Digital Vision	Visions out into the future.
07	Digital Creative Thinking	How creativity works.
08	Digital Documents	In the broadest context everything going digital.
09	Digital History	Anything historical.
10	Digital Geographical	Anything geographical.
11	Digital Artist	Anything artistic.
12	Biology of Machines	Book Specific – Kevin Kelly – Out of Control
13	Unity of Knowledge	Book Specific – Edward O. Wilson - Consilience
14	Devon Estuaries	Book Specific – Devon Estuaries and Goole Maps

 

Now my filing system consisted of Cardboard Document Wallets (Envelope Files) each labelled with the taxonomy reference (eg 09) and subject name. (eg Digital History) . Many wallets could exist for a reference. I had started to sub-categorise these on the labels where necessary but this was never formally recorded.

 

 

So let us now look at how I have now digitised my own working practices. Back on the 19^th May 2021 I was very impressed by James Marriott’s article on Nostalgia. I cut out the article wrote on it the date of publication. Then I decided where it should be stored in terms of my taxonomy. I decided it should go in “05 Digital Thought” because this was the one classification where other writers work could be stored since they had transferred a thought to me with it becoming one of my thoughts. So the cut out article was placed in the correct envelope. So for now that was the end of the process. This is where things really break down in terms of the effectiveness of this approach.

Now periodically I would decide to go back and read the contents of an envelope. This was sometimes triggered by the gathering of evidence to support a piece of writing I intended to do or just a case of wanting to re-read things that had triggered my imagination in the past. It was a messy process with bits of cuttings falling all over the place. Often articles had to be sellotaped together to make sense so this became an untidy way of reading material. The biggest problem was if I wanted to use any of this material and rightly give copyright credit to the original author it was a re-typing exercise. So what was the new process?

So let us look what I have done to James Marriott’s article which has been in the envelope for over 2 years unread. The first major step is I now have access to “The Times” digitally via a subscription so I can now link to or cut and paste articles. The subscription allows me to search the Times archived copies of their newspapers. So I have searched and found this article. My way of working is then to firstly post to my email account the link to it.

In my own time using the link captured in the email I bring it up and copy and paste it into a Word Document stored in a folder on my PC named according to my DMB Publishing Knowledge Base Taxonomy. It is named suitably and must incorporate a time stamp in the file name having a format “V99 ddmmyy”. (eg V01 08023).

Now it is important to appreciate that on my PC is a master blog directory containing all my individual blog directories named according to the taxonomy. Within the individual blog directories is a Word copy of each blog being a copy of exactly will be posted to the internet blog. Each blog post has a unique blog reference for example DP23010 representing blog name (DP),year (23) and serially posted number within year (010). There are many lessons to be learnt about the insecurity of the internet which will be discussed in detail in a future blog but some pointers for now.

Never keep your only source of something you store on the internet on the internet. Whatever it is text, narrative, pictures, movie or sound must have an original copy stored on your own PC with its own defined backup plan. Be prepared for what you have on the internet to disappear overnight. Commercial organisations are storing your work and they can easily go bust.

Be prepared for paywalls to be suddenly be put in place denying you access to your materials or their materials you are using without you being required to pay a subscription. Always look to copy the materials you are using onto your own PC so you retain your own copy. On a number of occasion’s materials I thought I had free access to have been suddenly been placed behind a paywall and with me not being prepared to pay the subscription access has been lost.

If you are trying to extract materials to bring down to your own PC be prepared for the owner of the sites to prevent you from doing this by putting in place a number of denial strategies. Most can be got around but you may need to be an expert or seek expert advice. This is why the movement called Open Systems and the Creative Commons Licencing initiatives are so important at guaranteeing freedom of access to internet materials but these being subject to specific defined criteria. You need to know these rules. Essentially they make your use free but look to preventing you re-selling the material in its original format or your reworked format without the Copyright Owners permission. Although there are an increasing number of sites offering completely free and unrestricted use of their materials.

 

So now go and look at the blog where my new digitised principles have been applied.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/3005846826155496721/6355759670567118338

DP23009 Bloggers moving to Newsletters

So Social Media has led to the demise of the so called Blogosphere with the loss in popularity of the terms Blogger, Blogging and Blogs. The name blog, being a shortening of the term “web log”, was never particularly attractive and certainly not a marketable brand. It dates from the mid-1990’s although it was its launch in 1999, with the online service Blogger, that made it popular with those looking to communicate over the internet with a readership. It was developed by Pyra Labs before being acquired by Google in 2003. But whilst blogs became less popular the micro-blogging service Twitter launched in 2006 flourished. So evolved the “twittershere” or another term used in parallel called it the “twitterverse”. The short sharp nature of Twitter, maximum of 280 characters per Tweet, survived whereas the often more wordy Blogger lost its popularity. Twitter being popular with celebrities, politicians, business people and media savvy individuals attracted large followings which served to grow traffic volumes on the platform.

But what should be acknowledged is the concept of a “blog” has actually infiltrated into both the native websites and the Content Management Platforms like Wordpress where the option exists to have a blog installed on the website. These blogs allow for the site authors to include into the site a running news cycle relevant to the subject they covered by the site. So blogging has just moved into being more specific to a website’s content and located usually as a menu option on the website.

In my case I used Google Blogger as a very easy to use way of storing my personal DMB Publishing Knowledge Base in the Cloud for free whilst not actively looking for any readership or income streams. It’s in built time stamping capability ensured all my posts were accurately time stamped and stored in an orderly manner. It was also built with a very simple easy to use User Interface (AX) and being Google hosted it was extremely fast to use. It was also very reassuring to have Google looking after the data security (ie potential data loss) and data protection (ie potential hacking corruption) aspects. With Google, as the owner of Blogger, you were probably storing your data on the safest available internet platform whilst having all these services for free along with seamless software upgrades and almost limitless data storage capacity. What is not to like? It is difficult to believe that I cannot be the only one that has spotted this excellent use of free cloud space. The fact that it is functionally engineered as a blog is irrelevant whilst in fact the automatic blog post time stamping is a bonus whilst each blog post having its own unique URL make it the perfect data repository. Throughout my IT career I have been amazed how you can use software intended for one purpose for a completely different purpose and often it can be more effective than the original dedicated software. Not enough has been made of creating “generic” multi-purpose software. Like Accounts Systems built in Excel and Asset Management systems built in Word. Microsoft to their credit built the first truly generic set of software with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher along with others like Paint, Media Player etc allowing for lots of software application creation as well as creating the original intended file types. So let’s move on.

In terms of gaining and maintaining a readership the problem with Google Blogger was you were dependant on the readers finding you and continuing to visit you on a regular basis. The truth Google Blogger has carried on being very actively used by many authors and readers without the hype. But at the same time many migrated to the Social Media Platforms (eg Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIN etc) because the readership was more guaranteed since a larger and more topical range of subject matter guaranteed more readers on the platform that were more likely to find and read your content. Whilst others, often the true bloggers, migrated to the more sophisticated Content Management Platforms (eg Wordpress, Drupal etc) since these sites lost the overriding time logging functionality common in Google Blogger and they could be made to operate exactly the same as a native websites with menus and other common capabilities.

Now what is significant is that whilst the original bloggers stayed on Google Blogger (or other blogs) or moved to the Social Media Platforms or moved to the Content Management Platforms some wanted a different more pro-active approach. So was born a new market for using newsletters. Oddly enough newsletters had preceded blogging on the internet being one of the earliest ways of distributing narrative and pictures when the internet was first established. But this time around it was the automated distribution processes, including paid for subscriptions, that could be better engineered rather than just the newsletter content.

So why read a newsletter rather than read a website? For starters it requires less work on your part with it just arriving neatly in your inbox. It also offers a finite quality in that it is short and sharp so quite easily consumed by you the reader in a world offering continual data overload. It is also a subject you have choose to subscribe to either for free or paying a subscription. From the authors view point by managing a free part leading to a paid part it does lend itself perfectly to being a potential income generator.

Newsletters properly managed over a subscribing free or paid for readership could be a saviour to those wanting an income out of publishing their work. With Newspapers now moving over to the digital subscription model with Magazines looking to follow this Newsletter option is ideal for self-employed or hobby publishers. Newsletters combined with some eCommerce trading in products associated with the theme of the newsletter is another way of earning an income from your writings. In fact very often the income from products sold can soon exceed that from your written materials.

Substack is the leading newsletter platform capitalising on this new market. They advertise that anyone can start a publication that combines a personal website, blog and email newsletter or podcast. Substack lets independent writers and podcasters publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions. You can choose to offer some free and some behind a paywall. You always own your intellectual property, mailing list and subscriber payments without being blocked by gatekeepers always being responsible for your own full editorial control. Best to go to the Substack website to see many examples but a few examples below to allow you to get a flavour for this new approach.

An original Times Newspaper article on Substack from June 2021

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/86ad97d4-d74a-11eb-8f14-0bb645f59db0?shareToken=5f9f811152d95b497a0e2decfdc5f7cb

The main Substack Website

http://www.substack.com

Buy, Bitch is a humorous and strangely addictive shopping newsletter from Vice journalist Veronica de Souza.

http://buybitch.substack.com

Crème de la Crème is anything that delights or infuriates the writer and podcaster Aminatou Sow. Her commentary covers everything from capitalism to skincare.

http://aminatou.substack.com

Agony aunt Heather Havrilesky describes it as “bridging the gaps between wisdom and dread” Both compassionate and confrontational.

http://askpolly.substack.com

 

But you don’t have to use Substack there are independent providers who offer a variety of Digital Marketing Services including newsletters. With my interest in United Kingdom Maps I have a monthly email from Alan Godfey Maps which combines narrative and pictures of their current projects as well as advertising their maps for sale via their eCommerce site. It is a very effective way of keeping my interest up in what their business has to offer. They use an international Digital Marketing business, Constant Contact, to provide their newsletter distribution service.

 

Alan Godrey Maps

http://www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk

 

Constant Contact are the provider of the newsletter service to Alan Godrey Maps

http://www.constantcontact.com

 

 

For those prepared to go further in reducing the content provided to the reader than rather than having an email with an attached Newsletter you can include all the content directly within the email. This can be made to look like a newsletter displayed within the email itself. There are many businesses prepared to provide this type of service. They cover the inclusion of your graphical content in an email and then its distribution to defined email lists or they will do a discovery process for you locating potential readers for your content type. One big provider is “mailchimp” and I am sure you will have a received an email from them with their distinctive monkey wearing a cap logo at the bottom of the email.

 

Mailchimp provides a number of services with free startup options. But it becomes too expensive to use for larger volumes for the home or hobby author.

http://www.mailchimp.com

 

The End.

23 - 008 Marketing DMB Publishing - Shorthand

For some time I have realised that I am failing to market DMB Publishing effectively. But in truth I don’t want to spend any money or time on doing this marketing. I would much prefer spending that time on researching and writing new books and blogs.

Then it suddenly came to me. When I was running ZigZag Digital Associates (2018) with George Szubinski (Deceased April 2020 – Covid 19) he was always experimenting with different new website generators. I had been nagging him to write his own autobiography because from the stories, many over a pint or Indian meal, he had told me he had an amazing childhood and the mystery of never knowing any details of his real father. In fact he was sure that his surname name,Szubinski, was invented by his mother to gain entry to the United Kingdom as a refuge of the holocaust in Poland. Anyway. As usual George could not write it in Microsoft Word like anyone else would but he decided to use a new website generator called Shorthand. At the same time he wrote a memorial site in Shorthand to his son James who had died in a terrible home accident in 2007. Something which haunted George for the rest of his life where to tried to manage his grief by looking to keep all the digital memories of James active on the internet for friends and family to access.

With George so gifted as a fast learning programmer he soon produced two excellent “stories” using Shorthand. When first shown to me I could not help but be impressed by the output from Shorthand whilst accepting that his autobiography only amounted to a few pages. It was after George’s death in 2020 when I was trying to draw together all his digital work that I realised that Shorthand had ceased trading and the site although maintained “frozen” could no longer be updated.

So today (20/03/23) I decided to see what had happened to Shorthand. To my surprise although the original site was still frozen they had undergone a reincarnation with a new site and business model. Essentially you are now allowed three stories for free on their Shorthand site under the so called “freemium” pricing strategy approach used these days as a way of getting software established in the marketplace.

See off we go on some DMB Publishing free marketing. Whilst it is taking me some time to learn how to generate my own “story” site, mainly due to the unfamiliar AX (User Iinterface), after about 4 hours I have a basic crude prototype published and running on the internet. To me this is indicative of Shorthand being a good solution. Sometimes, particularly with some of the so called open system applications, I can have achieved nothing in the way of a deliverable after many days experimenting.

So the task is now to work it up progressively to be something exciting to market DMB Publishing.

Background to Shorthand.

Shorthand was created in Brisbane, Australia but it is now truly global. It has offices in Brisbane, London, New York, Seattle, Fukuoka, Sydney and others. With amazing set of customers many major world organisations as well as significant brands. From BBC, Dow Jones, Tripadvisor, UK Parliament, Save the Children, unicef, Honda, Penguin  etc etc   

Some useful links below :- 

 

The sales site for Shorthand

www.shorthand.com

The brilliant Honda use of Shorthand

https://www.honda.co.uk/engineroom/cars/civic-the-iconic-hatchback/

DMB Publishing use of Shorthand (under development)

https://preview.shorthand.com/1wS5wLPjYe3Dekxh

To access my Dashboard Control

app.shorthand.com