Announcing 8080 Books: a new imprint from Microsoft
Anybody who knows me know that I like books. Quite a lot. I have a house full of them and an office/storage space with even more. I like audio books too and listen to them a lot, but nothing can replace the analog, tactile nature of a book in your hands. That smell when you first open a fresh book and the difficulty in putting down a good book once you have begun.
Which explains how I found myself involved in 8080 Books, a new imprint from Microsoft that we're launching today. Our first book is No Prize for Pessimism: Letters from a Messy Tech Optimist by Sam Schillace, Microsoft's Deputy CTO.
It's been quite a journey to get to this point with my co-conspirators, Greg Shaw and Katie Oakes Stevens with great support from Frank X. Shaw , another book nerd like the rest of us.
I've learned a lot about the book publishing industry including real life experience to support some of the reasons we're launching this new imprint (hint: speed to market). You can learn more about this in our charter on the 8080 Books website.
As we note in that charter, anyone and everyone are future readers and writers. That said, we anticipate that many of our readers and writers will come from these places: current, former, and future Microsofties, customers and partners, researchers, and policymakers.
Our second title, Platform Mindset, by Marcus Fontoura, is well underway and will be available later this year. And there will be more to come in 2025. I'm incredibly excited about this new adventure and will answer the question I get most often when asked about the new imprint - why?
I'll answer is with a line from our charter:
Books matter. In a deluge of data. In a bloat of blogs, a sea of social, and a maelstrom of email. Books will always matter.
I'm incredibly proud to be launching today and I hope you enjoy Sam's book and follow our journey. I look forward to hearing your ideas, questions and more in the comments here or via email to [email protected]
Oh, and for anyone in the Puget Sound area, we invite you to Sam's first reading and signing at Brick and Mortar Books, on Wednesday, Dec. 11 in Redmond, Washington. Check here for details. Space is limited.
-Steve
Congratulations
Head of Corporate External and Legal Affairs Microsoft Australia/New Zealand
3 个月Congrats Steve and team. What a great initiative.
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4 个月So if I set the TV according to my diopters and the TV adapted the image according to my diopters I could watch without using glasses or contact lenses, obviously the personal TV is the one that people have in their own rooms, not the ones in common. obviously also for mobile phones so that those who look at their phone set the diopters and the phone adapts to give them the opportunity to look without the need to wear glasses or contact lenses, the idea came to me because I sent a message to a friend and he couldn't see the message without his glasses he had at home.
Principal Content Designer
4 个月So much to love about this announcement! Greg Shaw knows a thing or two about book publishing, glad to see that he’s a part of this. And support from the *other* Shaw as well: good work! ??
Partner at Flying Sofa LLC
4 个月This is terrific news! The world is not binary, there's lots of grey areas and deep critical creative thinking involved with puzzling out the future. Your books will help. Just look back at the title Programmers At Work which I wrote in the 80s published by Microsoft Press. AI was the hot topic then among Tech visionaries, but hardly anyone foresaw the internet. Congrats on your new endeavor. It's going to spark innovation and make a difference.