Sharing Print Media....

While I fully agree that basically everything you read in a print journal is available online, there is something I just like about reading magazine and books. Last night I was reading the slew of articles in the current issue of Forbes about Steve Jobs being the CEO of the decade (not hear to discuss the topic, just the physical media), and this morning I was reading articles in the current print issues of IEEE Computer and CACM. The problem how to share?

When you read anything online, you have a multitude of methods to share, with multiple engines ranging from Digg/Reddit/Delicious/etc to Twitter to good old fashion email, but when you read in print... well you have nothing but maybe a notepad near by to write down a note, or maybe only the ability to dog-ear a page in hopes that you remember it later (this tends to be my option, only that I always forget later). Now one thing we do have typically nearby is our cell phone, which are more commonly actually smartphones. They have cameras and web browsers and most importantly the ability to text.

Why I mention this... why don't journals post URL references to the article you are currently reading? I know, URL's can get long, but today with the number of URL shortening tools out there... And its not like print media articles don't already have 'fixed' short ids built into them already. Every journal I know of has a volume and issue number (first part of shortened URL) and a finite number of articles in said issue (final part of a URL), so why can't they simply print that somewhere in the article, maybe at the end or something?

The way I see it, if journal's posted this kind of link information, readers would be able to quickly text the URL to themselves or others to share, or quickly post to their sharing service of choice. At the same time, readers who like to share, would be more likely to continue reading print material and less likely to discontinue paying for print material.

I don't know but it is a suggestion.

update: for those who are curious about what I was actually reading and wanted to share... well I've taken the time to track down the URLs...
1. CACM: Are Business Methods Patentable?
2. CACM: Scratch: Programming for All
3. IEEE Computer: Extreme-Scale Computing

of course tracking out some of these links reminded me that not all content is free on the web... another reason publishers should make it easier to share print material... it may actually drive up revenues by suggesting others subscribe.