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Clive Thompson's article in the latest Wired on "The Future of Reading" is a compelling read. And I found especially interesting his mentioning of "what bibliophiles call book discovery."

He talks about the benefits of both putting book content online *and* also allowing people to engage/comment/mashup the text.

This would massively improve what bibliophiles call book discovery. You're far more likely to hear about a book if a friend has highlighted a couple brilliant sentences in a Facebook update—and if you hear about it, you're far more likely to buy it in print. Yes, in print: The few authors who have experimented with giving away digital copies (mostly in sci-fi) have found that they end up selling more print copies, because their books are discovered by more people.

This also applies well to what a lot of our clients who are focused on accomplishing - trying to have their policy analysis content reach the widest possible audiences and have the largest possible impact. In this context I'd say "idea discovery", or "policy discovery" is enhanced by having that content get picked up and commented on, cut-n-pasted into blog posts, snippets linked to from course curricula, woven into other people's work, etc.

How to do well with "ideas discovery"? I'd say the use of XML to make content as linkable and mashable as possible is great - but may be a bit out of reach just now.

So in the short run, I'd say put policy analysis and policy content...

• into web pages as in-line text (searchable and cut-n-paste-able)
• in logical sections/pieces so discrete (groups of) ideas can be linked to
• with feature for people to comment on the text
• with those sorta annoying little icons for "sharing" with Digg, StubbledUpon, etc.
• with social media tie-ins woven in, such as for FaceBook (looking for ideas on how best to do this?)
• with author comments/answers about the analysis on a blog, with commenting enabled
• onto content sharing sites like Scribd , Slideshare, YouTube, Flickr
• with content in editable format (ie a wiki) to allow real user engagement...

Other ideas for enhancing idea discoverability?