Abstract

We currently have this idea of an article as a content primitive on the web. This was pretty much re-purposed directly from print. We have articles, which are mostly connected by topics or tags – an adaptation of newspaper sections. And books on the web follow this same pattern – we took our existing notion of the book in its print form, wrote up an EPUB spec that reflects this idea, and called them ebooks.

What if we never had Gutenberg’s printing press? How would we define publishing on the web without the legacy of written text?

The web is a vast collection of linked documents, and the way we approach content on the web needs to stay flexible. In our world of overwhelming, endless streams of information, curation plays an increasingly important role because it gives readers a finite constraint on what you’re trying to consume.

Let’s explore the idea of mixtapes in publishing. Intentional selection and ordering of existing content can create something that is greater than the sum of its individual articles. If we take the mixtape metaphor as a new type of content primitive on the web, that opens up exciting new possibilities for publishers to link content together in a cohesive package, while adding a layer of editorial voice or compiler commentary on top.

Assembling a mixtape also provides a clear consumption path for a reader. Printed books had their paths encoded in the table of contents, but imagine if you could assemble a mixtape of various book chapters on a given subject, and provide some insight on why you’re including each chapter.

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