New York has long been the headquarters of communications, advertising, and publishing conglomerates, as well as a center of artistic and intellectual capital. Now the artsy SoHo, Tribeca, and Flatiron districts of Manhattan are becoming known as Silicon Alley. "Sensitivity to content is a hallmark of New York." The proximity of ambitious start-ups and deep-pocket media corporations is helping New York rival San Francisco, Seattle, and Hollywood. One coordinating influence is the 4-month-old New York New Media Association, with 500 members. Another is the New York City Partnership, which is leasing a 50-tenant building near Wall Street as a multimedia incubator. [Amy Cortese, BW, 1/30/95, p. 82.]

David Rosen and Caryn Mladen's "Making Money with Multimedia" is concise and thorough. It includes an example business plan, phone numbers of distributors, and a list of important trade shows. Strongly recommended. 213 pages, $16.95, Apple Computer & Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-82283-0, 1994. [Michael Sellers , comp.multimedia, 1/17/95.]

Edward Ipser's "Entrepreneurial Software Engineering" book covers market analysis, enterprise creation, software development, software generalization and specialization, documentation, packaging, marketing, sales, and support. 340 pp., $24.95 softcover, from Ipser Publishing Company , (800) 247-6553, (419) 281-6883 Fax. [comp.databases.paradox, 1/14/95.]

Motorola's Lexicus Corp. (Palo Alto) has begun shipping its Lexicus Longhand Handwriting Recognition Software for Developers. [iNews. NewtNews, 1/9/95.]

The Visual Basic Project is designed to help programmers learn this popular Windows programming environment. (The Mac version isn't covered, for now.) . Comments to Gregory S. Youngblood . [c.i.www.announce, 1/15/94. Chuck Morefield.]

One market researcher, on Microsoft's 1991 OLE standard for object linking and embedding: "It really looks like OpenDoc is fundamentally a sounder architecture, because OLE is a horror show. OpenDoc, with support from Novell, IBM, and Apple, is clearly a cross-platform standard." [IBD, 1/9/95, A4. EDUPAGE.] (Then again, OpenDoc won't ship until summer; OLE 2.0 already has a large base of users. The two can complement each other. [PC Computing, 1/95, p. 166. Flash Information.])

Apple has set up a developers' web site at , with developer support programs, technical notes, sample code, and articles. A more-complete set of publications (including Inside Macintosh, develop Magazine, and software tools) is on ftp.info.apple.com, directory Apple.Support.Area/Developer_Services. Comments to Mark Bloomquist . [comp.sys.mac.programmer, 1/16/95. Bill Park.]

Apple also has a 1/95 Healthcare Solutions Guide for those wanting to integrate Newtons into medical environments. Send email to . [NewtNews, 1/17/95. Bill Park.]

Apple now has a $400 Associates Newton developer program in addition to its $2,500 Partners plan. . [NewtNews, 1/17/95. Bill Park.]

I hear from Dave Winer that Apple has done very poorly in courting independent developers. Microsoft is much better at acknowledging contributions and offering unsolicited beta software, which Dave calls "sending flowers." My impression of Apple is that developers are viewed as a revenue source via APDA fees, development software, manuals, CD ROMs, and training courses; developers magazines; AppleLink/eWorld networking fees; etc. Apple fails to encourage, coordinate, or publicize the kind of small-scale innovation that made Casady & Greene successful with QuickDex. (You don't see independent shareware programs offered in APDA catalogs, or through any Apple-supported channel.) Only the slick mass-market companies are seriously supported, while small developers with good products are often driven to bankruptcy. Sometimes Apple itself competes with them, absorbing good ideas into new operating system releases.

Selected articles from MacUser and MacWEEK are now posted to and . [TidBITS, 1/23/95.]