I gave out the latest statistics for visitors to this blog yesterday. And now the really important data - monthly ad revenues from Google were $34.94 and the accumulated earnings since the last payment are $122.79. Quite a long way until it becomes Macmillan's principal revenue generator. I was, however, rather put out to discover that our finance department are recording the revenue in the management accounts of our Fiction division. I've asked them to move it immediately into non-fiction. Hardly any of this blog is fiction.
Here's part of a comment by Ann Michael yesterday:
'While protecting what is ours is certainly a fair course, sometimes you have to wonder whether that protection is akin to fighting the ocean tides. I don't have all the answers but it seems to me that working with the tide is more constructive than working against it!'
I couldn't agree more and that is why we set about building BookStore openly and in full consultation with Google and other search engines and with other publishers and booksellers. We've made great progress but it has not been easy. For all sorts of reasons (some good some not so good), Google finds it difficult to work with others unless the others agree to work exactly as Google dictates. We continue to believe that Google wants to 'do no evil' and that it wishes to remain light on its feet, responsive and innovative but sometimes it does not appear that way.
Incidentally, I think Ann's open letter to the Harvard Business Review is worth studying for anyone in the business of trying tio make a living out of online publications.
This is my prediction for the book with the most press coverage this week. I'm still slightly worried since I discovered I'd eaten in one of the restaurants visited by the poisoners. Strangely, the poisoning doesn't rate a mention on the restaurant's website.
Finally here is part of an article which appeared yesterday in the New York Times but seems to have disappeared from their website. It seems to be an update of this. Those who remember the human genome controversy will enjoy it, I think.
Scientist Reveals Secret of the Ocean: It's Him
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: April 1, 2007
Maverick scientist J. Craig Venter has done it again. It was just a few years ago that Dr. Venter announced that the human genome sequenced by Celera Genomics was in fact, mostly his own. And now, Venter has revealed a second twist in his genomic self-examination. Venter was discussing his Global Ocean Voyage, in which he used his personal yacht to collect ocean water samples from around the world. He then used large filtration units to collect microbes from the water samples which were then brought back to his high tech lab in Rockville, MD where he used the same methods that were used to sequence the human genome to study the genomes of the 1000s of ocean dwelling microbes found in each sample. In discussing the sampling methods, Venter let slip his latest attack on the standards of science – some of the samples were in fact not from the ocean, but were from microbial habitats in and on his body.
"The human microbiome is the next frontier," Dr. Venter said. "The ocean voyage was just a cover. My main goal has always been to work on the microbes that live in and on people. And now that my genome is nearly complete, why not use myself as the model for human microbiome studies as well. "
It is certainly true that in the last few years, the microbes that live in and on people have become a hot research topic. So hot that the same people who were involved in the race to sequence the human genome have been involved in this race too. Francis Collins, Venter main competitor and still the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), recently testified before Congress regarding this type of work. He said, "There are more bacteria in the human gut than human cells in the entire human body… The human microbiome project represents an exciting new research area for NHGRI." Other minor players in the public's human genome effort, such as Eric Lander at the Whitehead Institute and George Weinstock at Baylor College of Medicine are also trying to muscle their way into studies of the human microbiome.
But Venter was not going to have any of this. "This time, I was not going to let them know I was coming. There would be no artificially declared tie. We set up a cutting edge human microbiome sampling system on the yacht, and then headed out to sea. They never knew what hit them. Now I have finished my microbiome."
Reactions among scientists range from amusement to indifference, most saying that it is unimportant whose microbiome was sequenced. But a few scientists expressed disappointment that Dr. Venter had once again subverted the normal system of anonymity. Recent human microbome studies by other researchers have all involved anonymous donors. Jeff Gordon, at the Washington University in St. Louis expressed astonishment, "I have to fill out about 200 forms for every sample. It takes years to get anything done. And now Venter sails away with the prize. All I can say is, I will never listen to one of my review boards again."
Venter had hinted at the possibility that something was amiss in an interview he gave last week for the BBC News. He said "Most of the samples we studied were from the ocean but a few were from people." When the interviewer seemed stunned, Doug Rusch, one of Venter's collaborators stepped in and said "Collected with the help of other people."
Venter was apparently spurred to make the admission today that many of the samples were in fact from his own microbiome due to a video that surfaced on YouTube showing Jeff Hoffman, the person responsible for collecting the water samples, performing a tooth scraping of Venter and then replacing the ocean water filter with Venter's tooth sample.
Venter said the YouTube video was immaterial, "Well, we wanted to wait a few more weeks to have the papers describing the human microbiome published. But in the interest of human health we are deciding to make the announcement today."
Unlike with the human genome data however, Venter says all of the data from his personal microbiome will be made publicly available with no restrictions. "If there is one lesson I have learned it is that open access is better than closed access. The more people can access my microbiome, the more they will help me understand myself. Plus, unlike Collins and Lander, who publish only in fee-for access journals, we will be publishing our analysis in the inaugural issue of a new Open Access journal that is a joint effort between the Public Library of Science and Nature. It will be called PLoN, the Public Library of Nature."