Tools of Change, the first industry wide conference to address the impact of digital technology on book publishing, is being discontinued by O’Reilly Media. In a post Thursday afternoon, O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly explained that after TOC 2013, the company realized that “a conference was no longer the best vehicle for us to contribute to publishing’s forward movement.” O’Reilly went on to note that his company—which he calls a “technology transfer company”—is “shifting the focus of our publishing tools group from hosting the conversation about publishing technology to bringing our own tools to market.”
The centerpiece of O’Reilly’s future plans is a new platform that the company has code-named Atlas. According to O’Reilly, “Atlas is a tool for collaborative writing (currently being used by authors of about two-thirds of the books in our pipeline), one-touch publishing in all formats (including print-on-demand), and an interactive online reading platform that takes full advantage of the digital realm. We believe it takes a big step towards fulfilling the promise of digital publishing. You’ll be hearing much more about Atlas in the coming months.”
With the end of the TOC program, chairs Kat Meyer and Joe Wikert will be leaving the company.
