END OF BOOKS? WHATBIRD.COM RELEASES MAKE-A-GUIDE
SAUSALITO, CA, NOVEMBER 8, 2005: "Disrupting the status quo. My favorite thing" is the mantra of Mitchell Waite, former publisher of computer books who was among the first to include CD ROMs, posters, 3D glasses, and software in the back of tech books. Now Mr. Waite has a new spin on book buying: ala carte publishing, or what he calls the Make-a-Guide.
The buying of books has parallels to the music industry...until iTunes and similar services listeners interested in one or two tracks of an album had to pay for the whole album. Book buyers face the same issue today -- you can't just buy the chapters you want, you have to pay for the entire printed book. Mr. Waite's spin on buying books is to let the reader choose just the content they want, and this may open a new chapter in the publishing industry.
His first example of the technology is birding guides. The site where the first MAG is found is www.whatbird.com, a search engine for identifying birds. Nearly 46 million Americans take bird watching trips each year and the market for publishing of field guides is huge. And yet until recently the way we learned about birds was the field guide -- a book whose basic system of identification has remained the same for over 100 years.
The Make-a-Guide lets you build a field guide answering the questions in a set of screens, selecting for example all the birds of a particular state or family. Then a PDF of the book can be downloaded or a custom printed book ordered -- usually for much less that the cost of a traditional guide.
WhatBird's highly visual, easily navigated database uses something called parametric search which allows you to find what you are looking for in a few easy steps. Each step narrows the search results, as opposed to most search engines that provide an all or nothing approach. Whatbird.com is now a holy grail of descriptions, hand drawn illustrations, maps, quizzes, photos, video and audio recordings of over 800 species of birds in North America -- all accessible in a simple web browser or via a cell phone or PDA.
Supported by a group of ornithologists, including David Lukas and Simone Whitecloud, the site not only provides valuable information, but allows people to communicate with experts who can answer any questions you have about birds, helping to make it the preeminent online community for birders and nature lovers who share this passion. The site is so accurate and easy to use that the Wild Birding Institute is using it for Project Wildbird, a three year study on backyard bird feeding habits.
The market for identification books is hundreds of millions of dollars a year -- one popular book has over 2.5 million copies in print. With birds in the news each day from the re-discovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, to fears about West Nile Virus or Avian Flu spreading to humans, this site and its new ground breaking Make-a-Guide system, provides not only a valuable tool for people seeking more information about birds but a way to purchase field guides that are custom tailored to there needs.
To learn more about Whatbird.com or schedule an interview, please contact Mitch Waite or call 415 888 3233.
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Mitchell D Waite
