Ecosystems and Early Adopters

One of the big buzzwords at the moment surrounding mobile devices is the ecosystem. Simply put, an ecosystem (as far as a specific technology is concerned) refers to an interconnected collection of users, devices, software and applications. Ecosystems can spring up around a particular device (e.g. the iPhone, with its apps, evangelical users, plug-in devices and accessories) or around a specific platform (e.g. Android, running on various 3rd party device manufacturers, PCs, etc.). Last week, Nokia - having taken a kicking in recent months from Apple and Google - announced a strategic tie-up with Microsoft, citing ecosystems and the failure of their own Symbian operating system to compete against others.

None of this is new of course. Go back 20 years and the 'ecosystem' was all based around Microsoft Windows...only in those days it was characterised in terms of gatekeepers, and when the Web came along, Microsoft fought off Netscape brilliantly to become the 'gatekeeper' of web content through their browsers.

Anyone trading on the high street of course will know - intuitively - about ecosystems, because a town centre can be seen in these terms. The health (or otherwise) of the high street is really a function of how many people are using their town centres, and whether that number is increasing or (as seems the case) slowly declining. But unlike vicariously spectating on big corporations duking it out over platforms and devices, the health of our town centres is something we should all be more concerned with. It has a big impact on very real aspects of our communities: crime rates, property prices, social cohesion and our community wealth. Wealth created amongst small shops on the high street tends to stay in the community. Wealth created through the supermarkets is repatriated to distant shareholders - or shovelled into tax havens.

The book trade can also be seen in terms of an ecosystem of course: before Christmas, Mostly Books did an event with Atlantic Books CEO Toby Mundy, and he made the point that independent booksellers tend to deliver more value into the book chain, avoiding discounting in favour of careful choice and recommendation.
This is the argument that independents 'nourish the supply chain', delivering more value which allows the production of better books (something I've also blogged about before).

In doing a lot of research into this over the past few weeks, I'm coming to the opinion that whoever will win the format war with eBooks is going to have to develop an effective ecosystem, both on and off-line. I've been tracking some case studies of independents who have become early adopters in supporting and delivering eBooks through their shops (see this article featuring Oblong Books in the US, and the recent UK indie delegation to the US). Google eBooks looms large in these reports, and Gogle understands about being as inclusive as possible to ensure the dominance of a particular platform or technology.

At the moment, I have no opportunity to work with Amazon and its Kindle device - it's a closed shop. And Apple seems to be flexing its muscles in terms of how content is sold on its devices. Both these organisations are in danger of hacking of the very people who might work hard to ensure widespread adoption. At the moment, I may wait and see what Google do in the UK...

The clock is ticking...

At the time of writing (2011) Mostly Books - our independent bookshop - will be five years old. A lot has changed since we opened, and the pace of change seems to be increasing.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that, if you are an independent bookseller, your days are numbered. High street and town centre 'die-off', the voraciousness of the supermarkets and the unstoppable march of the Internet are bad enough. But throw in the coming of the eBook, and the future looks grim indeed.

Except...I don't think so.

When Nicki and I started Mostly Books, we really had no idea what we were doing (correction, we had little idea of what we were doing, we knew we wanted to open a bookshop, and we believed we knew what people might want from one). But we started blogging about it, and in a very short space of time, a whole army of people - from readers, authors, booksellers and booktrade professionals - offered us support and practical advice. It's no exaggeration that without that help in the early days, we probably wouldn't have survived.

The future is uncertain, and I believe that change is unavoidable, but our core belief remains the same. There is room on the high street for small, passionate booksellers who work hard to give readers a great experience and focus on selecting and recommending great books. But can this proposition work in the digital domain?

So Mostly Books is going to start to make some changes to try and find out. And - as before - we're starting from a position of belief + ignorance, we'll try to share with you the things that work and don't work, and hopefully pioneer an approach which will benefit and inspire other booksellers - or at the very least, serve as a warning about what not to do...