Wondering what your thoughts are on up and coming publishing models—I'm thinking hybrids between existing platforms (e.g. "blog" meets "book") or emergent technologies or methods (perhaps involving real-time publishing or co-creation or something). Let's test out Branch by beginning this enlightening conversation!

I feel like short form and long form digital publishing will eventually branch off into different forms--reading a 20-page article and reading War and Peace are going to demand different kinds of experiences. I still haven't seen any digital novels that have blown me away with their use of new technologies. Has anyone else? And if it's true that they don't exist yet, is it a limitation of the form or just because no one's really applied themselves to the problem yet?

Word! I can’t get enough of well-designed magazines/articles, but don’t think I could easily read a novel on a computer or tablet. Definitely some practical concerns (eyestrain!) to solve technologically.

I’m excited by startups doing great things for shorter content, like move science/tech journalism forward beautifully (Matter), create a platform for multimedia, mobile-oriented storytelling (Atavist), and long-form content discovery and curation (Byliner).

Re: mobile, I think the smartphone/tablet ecosystem creates great possibilities, but creating apps for content is an unnecessary overhead. I’m excited about HTML5 and the future of web publishing—proliferation of content/platforms taking advantage of the open standards of the web.

I'm also interested in this on a basic structural level. Web-native publication allows for rapid, iterative testing and exploration of ideas—hence an accelerated evolutionary cycle for technologies, content, platforms, and formats. Independent of implementation, what are some new shapes/forms content might take?

For example, combining the basic structures of magazine and novella (Magella?) could = a medium-length series of nonfiction articles/interviews driving toward a singular narrative conclusion. Perhaps something of an ebook living on a responsive website; a blog, but with more focus and longevity.

Things along these lines that come to mind are Dive Into HTML5, Google's Think Quarterly, and Adam Westbrook's Inside the Story.

All interesting points. Another model that I hadn't thought of was publishing in installments, a la amemoirproject.com (which I just came across today!) Still will eventually be longform novel length (at least I imagine), but the installments lend themselves well to our short-attention-span online reading habits.