The first in a series of interviews with notable people in publishing:Carrie O'Donnell, President, O'Donnell and Associates Barista: What was your goal when you founded O’Donnell & Associates, and how did you envision the role of your company in publishing? Carrie O’Donnell: When I started OD&A 19 years ago, I thought that technology was going to change the business, and that we, as an industry, were not set up to be customer-oriented during this change. I wanted to create a business that could help publishers focus on customers to shape product and strategy, and to build loyalty. As the industry started outsourcing to companies like ours, we moved into full service development and comprehensive publishing services. Barista: Why have you created Higher Ed Café and what do you hope to accomplish with it? Carrie O’Donnell: A few years ago when AAP disbanded their Higher Ed group, I started thinking about the possibility of creating an online community to network and brainstorm around some of the big industry issues. Then, a few months ago, Joana Jebsen, our VP of Business Development, and I began working on this blog, Higher Ed Cafe. Barista: You envision the blog then as a way for people in the Higher Ed content industry to communicate with each other and to find out what is going on in each other’s areas of expertise. What else do you want it to be? Carrie O’Donnell: I hope it will create a dialog about some of the big questions and challenges that we have in Higher Ed publishing. I want to put a little fun back into things and allow us to reconnect with people we worked with 10 or 15 years ago. I want to know what everyone is up to! Also, I am hoping Higher Ed Café will provide a way to showcase our successes. We always looked in Publishers Weekly to see who had been promoted, but the focus was never on educational publishing—it was trade-oriented. I feel that there are quite a number of things that are worthy of dialog and reflection. For example, an annual national study of college freshmen just came out last week from UCLA. Findings show that students are more politically active than they have ever been. They are also less likely to go to their first choice college. So what I would like to do is post some of the findings on the blog and invite comment and discussion as to what they tell us about students today. Barista: What other big issues do you see? Carrie O’Donnell: I see a groundswell of process change across the industry with people and companies trying to be more streamlined. And the processes are going to continue to change because technology requires that you go back to the drawing board all the time. The other thing I see is an increase in customer-centric behavior in Higher Ed—a trend that is just beginning to creep into other segments of our industry such as university presses and professional publishers. Barista: Do you think that people are going to be willing to talk about innovative things they are doing? Carrie O’Donnell: We go to the O’Reilly Conferences where people are exchanging ideas. I think that people are going to share thoughts on issues but maybe not specifics of how they are resolving those issues. People often ask us to comment on the latest trends and developments in publishing. I think people are thirsting for an exchange of knowledge and for context to understand the changes that are going on. ODA is uniquely positioned to facilitate this sharing with its unique “outsider/insider” position. Barista: How do you see the blog evolving? Carrie O’Donnell: We want to get it out there and see how it evolves. We want to start a dialogue–which is why we will ask members to answer questions such as “How did you get into this industry?” and “What topics do you want to see discussed?” We are waiting to hear from you, our members, what the big challenges are for you. We want to create the community and see where the members take it.