Learning RR's Transcript/ Books on Rev

[Graham Samuel]

On Tue, 3 Jun 2003 12:21:50 -0500 "Tomas Nally, P.E." 
<tnally at aga-engineers.com> wrote:
>
>On Tuesday, June 3, 2003, at 12:55  AM, it was written (by Graham 
>Samuel, actually):
>
>>  As to methods of production for a book, as several people have pointed
>>  out, this is unlikely to be a money-making venture in the short term,
>>  and IMHO for the health of the RunRev product, the info should not be
>>  too hard to get to. For that reason I for one am against use of
>>  technology like Mark Brownell's, which if I understand it correctly is
>>  designed to maintain commercial secrecy and to give strong protection
>>  to copyright materials.
>
>I don't quite understand this.
>
>If a writer wants to invest his warrior work ethic
>and intellectual capital into a book for profit,
>what has the typical RunRev user risked?
>
>Does the prospect of the development of a commercial book
>somehow suck all the oxygen out of the air for those who are
>interested in developing a not-for-profit publication?
>I don't see why that would be the case.
>
>If a book is released commercially, and a RunRev user determines
>that the exchange of her money for the book doesn't advance her
>interests, then she doesn't have to make the exchange.  If the
>exchange advances her position, then she can acquire the book.

OK, I owe a reply to various people who criticized my comments at the 
top of this message.

Firstly, I am not against making money - in fact I rather like doing 
so myself! And I applaud anyone who sets out to do a RunRev book as a 
commercial venture - as a bona fide I promise to buy a First Edition.

My point is more that as a group of interested RunRev users and 
indeed evangelists, we want a book to happen regardless of it 
fulfilling any short-term profit model. At this stage IMHO the 
project needs to be cooperatively authored, edited and (maybe) 
actually produced, and we should use as much voluntary effort as we 
can, and produce something for the lowest possible cost (not zero, I 
do understand this). This thing (maybe a PDF, maybe something else) 
will be copyright and will be for sale. But nobody should kid 
themselves that it will make a real return on investment in the short 
term - I'm simply trying to avoid an attitude of "let's not do it, it 
won't make money". My hope and belief is that such a book will help 
to enlarge the RunRev community and thus will stand a good chance of 
making money eventually, but that will not be our short-term aim. Now 
someone wiser than me can work out who 'we' are and who will own the 
copyright!

I very much hope I have not dampened the enthusiasm of any potential 
authors or publishers.


Graham

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          Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK & France