Tools of Change Conference for publishers

The O'Reilly gang is putting on a new conference this year called Tools of Change for Publishers. The Civil Society Communications proejct that I run is, of course, very interested in "tools of change" -- although within the non-profit sector rather than in publishing. The incredible pace of change in the technology space means that we face unending difficulty in educating organizations in useful technology solutions; once you step outside the world of tech bloggers, Wired magazine, and conferences where no one will show up unless wifi is provided, you find that most people flinch when you cheerfully mention "web 2.0", or the seemingly more user-friendly "read-write web". I was struck, therefore, by O'Reilly's explanation for throwing the conference:

For publishers, these shifts are taking place so rapidly that it's challenging to keep current--let alone create new, profitable opportunities.

The first O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference is being launched to raise the level of technology knowledge and discourse in the publishing industry and to provide a meeting ground for those leading the charge into the future of publishing.

It's nice to know that confusion and frustration over integrating innovative technology solutions are not only limited to the sector I work in; on the other hand, once you extrapolate outwards from a single industry (publishing, or the non-profit world) to all industries, you get a lot of confused people. From there, cube that number to include everyone who isn't yet online, or is only online in the most rudimentary way. We've got a lot of work to do to make this stuff more useful and more understandable.