A World of Ideas. Thanks to Reading & Listening

Enlightenment thrives on ideas. Ideas well formulated, articulated and put into action. That is essentially what moves the world.
You can then imagine how pleased I get when I gain unfettered access to some of these ideas. In fact, I invariably remain indebted to those who come up with, and those who acknowledge, ideas worth sharing.

That said, I have lately been taking time to feed my inquisitive and ever curious mind with great ideas. Today, I'll share three of my best idea lounges.

Project Syndicate

This is my newest discovery, where you find original op-ed commentaries by leading opinion makers in politics, business, economics, science, art  and culture. It is in essence a world of ideas.

Think about the op-ed articles you've come to love from The New York Times, The Independent, The Guardian and other newspapers of note. Well, you find this kind of beautiful thinking and well articulated writing on this site. Check out Project Syndicate now, I bet you'll find it every bit worth your while.

Comment is free 

Published by the Guardian, Comment is free is a great hangout for me where I get to read great articles touching on current global issues. Over and beyond this, the well moderated, and often witty comments that follow each article make Comment is free a great online community.

Take time and visit Comment is free. There, you'll find articles and commentary on politics, global agenda, human rights, religion, philosophy, health and all manner of debate that affects human beings across the world. You'll love the reader feedback that informs the topical discourse we've come to love on Comment is free.

International Radio: BBC World Service, VOA News, et al

Thanks to predominantly wanting broadcasts [both music and content] in most local radio stations, I decided to explore the International radio stations available in my area via FM, and globally on the Internet. The BBC World Service comes out tops with up to the minute news updates, detailed news analysis, documentaries, science programs and much more.

The Voice of America radio also has in-depth news and current affairs programs, and a variety of music shows across various genres and from different parts of the world. In addition, more of the VOA programming is available online for live streaming or as free-to-download podcasts.

Speaking of podcasting and online streaming, there are other stations such as Deustch Welle radio, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, China Radio International that offer great content on their respective web sites.

Listening to informative and edifying programming on radio is a great way of gathering ideas and embracing enlightenment.

As Listen to the Radio by Don Williams plays in the background, I now get back to reading The Perils of 2012, a great piece by Joseph E. Stiglitz on Project Syndicate.

Have a great day full of ideas, good people.

Interactive eBooks - The Future of Publishing

NOTE: This post has been cross posted from the Connect eMagazine blog.

Following yesterday's post on Pete R Njenga's Books, a friend later called me and sought some clarifications about Online Publishing.
This post seeks to shed more light about Online publishing in interactive formats, specifically Rich PDF. It'll also be cross-posted on Pete R Njenga's Books.

Online Publishing
This essentially means making it possible for the public to access information on the world wide web. The information in this case may be text, images, videos, eBooks in various formats and other publications.
In our case, online publication will mean publishing eBooks and eMagazines online, contrary to traditional print publishing.

As earlier indicated, online publishing is fast gaining ground, thanks to easier and wider access to the internet, faster network connections and the availability of a motley of e-readers, computers and other mobile devices.

Interactive eMagazines and eBooks
Interactive magazines are basically those through which the reader can do more than merely read. This may

At the 2011 TED Conference in Long Beach California, Mike Matas, formerly of Apple but now with Push Pop Press presented the first full-length interactive digital eBook.
The book he demonstrated, Al Gore's Our Choice contains video, graphics and interactive data visualizations. Watch Mike Mata's TED Talk below:



Rich PDF
The concept of interactive publications is however not new. Back in 2006, I was introduced to an amazing albeit weighty Graphic Exchange magazine, published in Canada by Brill Communications Inc. When I downloaded and viewed the 2004 and 2005 editions from the Graphic Exchange archive, I was simply blown away by the level of interaction that a Rich PDF can have.

The full versions of the Graphic Exchange magazines contain video, music, and other interactive elements.

So how are the Rich PDFs created?
Well, all it takes it the usual Adobe Creative Suiet Software [Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign]. Once the magazine layout is complete in InDesign, additional buttons and button areas for interactive elements are added.
For further Rich PDF features, the magazine is enhanced and spruced up in Adobe Acrobat Professional.
The Graphic Exchange site has a good number of tutorials explaining in detail, how to create Rich PDF.