The first ever publishing hackathon

If you haven't noticed by now, I get energized by all the innovation, change, and growth going on in publishing. It's a phoenix-period for all of us who love and work with books. The old is transforming into something new. We don't know what it is yet. Some are scared, others are excited. Most of us are equal parts confused and hopeful.

What a great environment for something like Publishing Hackathon.

Computer programmers have a long and proud tradition of getting together for long weekends and bringing new ideas to life. But now, Rick Joyce, CMO of Perseus Books, has created something similar to spur innovation in the publishing space. Here is how they describe it on the publishing hackathon page:

"Book discovery needs innovation.

It’s never been easier to get a book into a reader’s hands—just one click. But, with over 200,000 books published each year on every topic imaginable, how do people find out about them? There are fewer bookstores to help readers discover exciting new authors and ideas. There’s currently no digital experience that replicates the serendipity of browsing bookshelves.

Recommendation engines are fairly primitive – they know what you bought, but they don’t know why.

It’s a disruptive opportunity that hasn’t been explored."

Indeed. The first round happened on May 18, but the 6 ideas that were voted best are coming to BEA on May 31 for the final round. Those teams "will present their projects to leading VCs, top publishing executives, and tech experts at Book Expo America, the preeminent publishing event of 2013."

Publishing hackathon starts from an intriguing premise. How can we make the digital experience of browsing for books more like the offline one? How do we work in serendipity? Is it even possible? What would that look like?

I don't know the answers to any of those questions, but I can't wait to see what the people working on them through Publishing Hackathon come up with.

Image source: Publishing Hackathon