[Catalyst] So, what do we want in the -next- book?

[Mark Keating]

I don't normally respond to this list so forgive my intrusion:

Ali M. wrote:
> "Education (or knowledge depending on how you translate it) is As
> Indispensable As Water and Air"
> -- Taha Hussein (an Egyptian scholar)
>   
"The quality of an Education is related directly to the cost of that 
Education. An individuals right to that Education should be without 
limitation but the price of it must be shared by all."
-- Mark Keating (UK OSS supporter)

> .
> One of the maing benefits of Free Software is Free education, I don't
> understand when a Free Software proponent do not also support just as
> much free education in the form of free docs and books
>   
I think you are taking the word 'free' in far too liberal a sense. OSS 
is not free. It costs quite a lot. What it usually costs is time. The 
developers who create these tools for us do so at that cost, they are 
willing to pay it. The docs that are available online are done so with 
the same cost. To believe that this is all 'free' is a very narrow 
distinction, the code and docs might be freely available but that's only 
because the cost has already been paid (in time as already quoted). 
There is no 'free' lunch and no 'free' beer and no 'free' clothes ( I 
should know I have supplied all of these to developers as some small 
thanks for the work they do at the 'cost' of their own time).

Making community docs available online 'freely' distributed is not the 
same as writing a book. Which is where this thread began (I believe). 
Until such a time that there is a utopia where people can be liberally 
rewarded (by an overseeing body for the community) so that they may 
enlighten us all 'freely' in writing books and teaching, I guess we'll 
have to keep buying books so that they can buy food (hmmm sounds like an 
overt Capatalist action to a Socialistic ideal).

I do wish we lived in a world where we didn't have different systems of 
government affecting community driven events such as OSS, we should have 
people sponsored for doing community projects so that everyone can have 
them. I am a proponent of the idea that Education is an absolute right, 
not a "benefit", but at no point do I blinker myself into thinking their 
is no cost.

So this is not about support. It is about reality.

Apologies for the vitriol.

> On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 8:13 AM, Matt Rosin <telebody at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> FWIW, I am very much for both free and commercial docs. The more docs
>> of both types the better.
>> I would prefer that experts loved by the community be given incentives
>> to do both.
>>
>> Books are nice, but I would probably prefer purchasing just the
>> digital version of a book right now.
>> No shipping or printing costs, always at my fingertips.
>>  Ideally it would include a lifetime ID so I could download it with
>> revisions and code forever, so if I lost the data I could get it
>> again.
>>  It would have to be unencumbered and preferably both a PDF and pod versions.
>>
>> I'd like recognition of a relationship and credit toward future
>> purchases. As a loyal customer I tend to repurchase things I like over
>> the years, multiple times.
>>
>> I wonder if it could be made cheaper by forgoing the physical printing
>> but giving the author/editor/publishing team the same profit. That
>> might make it easier for more people to get hold of it.
>>
>> My 2 yen,
>>
>> Matt R.
>>
>>
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>>
>>     
>
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>   

-- 
Mark Keating BA (Hons)           | Writer, Photographer, Cat-Herder
Managing Director                | Shadowcat Systems Limited
Board Member                     | Enlightened Perl Organisation
http://www.shadowcat.co.uk       | 'Sufficiently Advanced Technology'
http://www.enlightenedperl.org   | http://linkedin.com/in/markkeating
http://www.projectmonkey.vox.com | MSN: mdk at shadowcatsystems.co.uk