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Oekonux book project

Maintainer: Stefan Merten, Version 1, 19.01.2003
Projekt-Typ: halboffen
Status: Archiv

Organization of the Oekonux book

(1) This text is an attempt to structure the questions arising when (people from the) Oekonux project wants to publish a book. This text is a result of a discussion which took place on list-en AT oekonux DOT org. The text is maintained as a OpenTheory project where everyone can comment on it.

(1.1) Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:15, Stefan Merten: The following are people who expressed the wish to contribute something:

(1.1.1) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:15, Stefan Merten: Johan (design, illustration)

(1.1.2) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:16, Stefan Merten: Alan (publishing / contact to publishers / Autonomedia)

(1.1.3) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:16, Stefan Merten: Chris (CVS repository)

(1.1.4) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:17, Stefan Merten: Joel

(1.1.5) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:41, Stefan Merten: Gus (translation from English to Spanish)

(1.1.6) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:45, Stefan Merten: Geert (updating interviews with Stefan Merten)

(1.1.7) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:52, Stefan Merten: Graham (post process English translations)

(1.1.8) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 18:53, Stefan Merten: StefanMn (proof read English translations of his texts)

(1.1.9) Re: Helpers, 01.02.2003, 19:11, Stefan Merten: StefanMz (rough translation of his texts if time permits)

(1.5) License, 01.02.2003, 18:31, Stefan Merten: We need to consider the license for the book as well as the license of the included texts. They have to be compatible. IMHO we should use GFDL as the standard.

(1.6) Timeline, 08.02.2003, 12:07, Stefan Merten: The WOS 3 has been suggested as a good place to launch the book.

(2) The following text is mainly a collections of questions which need to be answered for a Oekonux book. I tried to structure the following questions in a way that the questions which need to be answered first appear first in the text.

1. What for?

(3) If people from the Oekonux project want to publish a book we need to know what we're trying to accomplish with such a task. If this question is answered a number of other answers result from that.

(4) * What do we try to accomplish with a book?

(5) - Try to spread Oekonux ideas to an English speaking audience

(6) * Which audience should the book address?

(7) - Hacker community

(8) - New social movements

(9) - Academics

(10) - General public

(11) * Which languages should be allowed?

(12) - English only

(13) - Multiple languages (perhaps English, German, Spanish)

(13.1) books buchen, 20.01.2003, 17:18, Uwe Berger: perhaps YES!! Die Angelsachsen haben sich doch sehr dem deut(sch)lichen entwunden und ich möchte mich nich auch so verdrehen. Spanisch kommt mir sowieso alles vor. Der Franzose hat da ein Sprichwort: "Ich spreche eine Fremdsprache, wie eine spanische Kuh" et voilá: [Europa grüßt Zeus (das Rindvieh)]; dann kann sich auch Otto der Xte (Normalbürger) einen Reim auf die Geschichten machen: Bastian Baltasar Bux in der Unendlichen Geschichte (Michael Ende) und Zettel der Weber (mit dem Sommernachtstraum(Shake th´beer) werden es uns danken. Der Erzengel MichAel (dt., engl., frz.) kann dann abdanken, wenn die Zettel wie im Traum im WorldWideWeb hin und her weben. Übrigens, Sokrates hat gemeint; daß die Freiheit des Menschen verwirklicht wär´, wenn die Weberschiffchen allein (von selbst) hin und her gingen.

(13.2) 21.01.2003, 22:22, Graham Seaman ??: Perhaps the printed book could be in one language, but any etext or electronically available work could have languages selected (ie., if you could select 'preferred language', 'acceptable languages', and 'unusable languages' and receive the appropriate mix.

(13.2.1) 01.02.2003, 18:36, Stefan Merten: When the printed book shall contain only one language that means that every text must be available in that language (i.e. English). Of course a web based version of the book (does this notion make sense at all?) could contain all languages available.

(14) * Which form should the book have?

(14.1) Debian-like style, 20.01.2003, 07:02, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: My favourite way of publishing would be to put the book on the internet, (a) in a ready-to-print form (like a ps.gz or pdf file), and (b) its source form. This would be similar to the way Debian puts up CD images.

(14.1.1) Re: Debian-like style, 21.01.2003, 22:24, Ano Nym: A variation on this would be to do something like O'Reilly and others are doing now: have a printed book (which is more convenient for many people - including me - who do not like reading large amounts of material on a screen), which is completely inflexible (perhaps only one language), and electronically available texts which can be selected in any combination.

(14.2) 20.01.2003, 07:02, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: Debian also maintains a link list of CD vendors. This way it is quite easy to find the cheapest one.

(14.3) 20.01.2003, 07:02, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: A HOWTO on how to print the book would be great, too, for those who want to print it themselves, as it does not seem to be as trivial as burning a CD.

(15) - Regular book printed on paper

(15.1) 20.01.2003, 06:45, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: When you give it to a regular publisher, watch out that the contract mentions that only NON-EXCLUSIVE rights are granted to the publisher. IANAL but AFAIK the German publishing law (and maybe others too) sets exclusive rights granted as the default, if there is no other agreement. The best thing seems to be, to let the publisher publish the book only based on the rights of the GFDL (or whatever license the texts are licensed under to the public).

(16) - Book on demand

(16.1) 20.01.2003, 06:47, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: Same as above. Watch out for exclusive rights!

(17) - Collection of texts on the web site

2. What content?

(18) The answer to this general question influences the question on the character of the book. If texts from outside the Oekonux project are included we need to decide whether it is still an Oekonux book or something different.

(18.1) DFSG, 20.01.2003, 07:04, Thomas Uwe Grüttmüller: The book should consist entirely of free texts -- or at least freely copyable texts.

(18.2) Re: 2. What content?, 21.01.2003, 22:35, Ano Nym: Possibilities: 1. 'Historical': Original oekonux texts, in historical order. Some of the first texts are a little dated now (eg. pre-Napster); we just leave them as they are. 2. 'Current': ask people who have written relevant texts in the past to write an updated but similar version for the book. This might give the editor more control in making the book coherent, and make it more relevant to now. 3. 'Debate': I would personally quite like to see something which argues around the main points (which would be more in the spirit of the list!) rather than texts which repeat the gospel. One way would be to include the published debate between Stefan Mz. and Krisis. I don't know if Krisis would allow this. 4.'General': expand the book to include texts from completely outside oekonux which are relevant to the same interests. For example, Alan's suggestion of Eben Moglen's article, a text from Johan, or one from Quilombo Digital (Brazilian), or Richarard Barbrook. Risks being rather incoherent and lacking in a single theme.

(18.2.1) Re: 2. What content?, 01.02.2003, 19:02, Stefan Merten: What seems to be clear is this: Any book will be a collection of single, independent texts. Otherwise we need to author a single big text. IMHO this is unndoable right now.

(18.3) Re: 2. What content?, 01.02.2003, 18:44, Stefan Merten: The English interviews of Geert Lovink and Joanne Richardson with StefanMn could be updated and combined.

(19) * Graham's list

(20) * Oekonux texts from Stefans

(21) - Gnu/Linux - Meilenstein auf dem Weg in die GPL-Gesellschaft

(21.1) 01.02.2003, 19:16, Stefan Merten: Translation partly available at http://www.opentheory.org/gplsociety/text.phtml

(22) - GNU/Linux ist nichts wert - und das ist gut so!

(22.1) 01.02.2003, 19:17, Stefan Merten: Translation partly available at http://www.opentheory.org/linux-worthless/text.phtml

(23) * Texts from the conferences

(24) - 1. Oekonux conference

(25) - 2. Oekonux conference

(26) * Texts from outside Oekonux

(27) * Manifesto

(28) - Needs to be written

3. Translations

(29) If original German texts should appear in the book in English they need to be translated.

(30) * What to translate?

(31) - Summaries may help a decision what to translate [the respective author]

(32) * Availability of German texts in needed form

(33) - The authors should make their texts available in the needed form

(34) * Cooperation of several translators

(35) - OpenTheory (bad for this task)

(36) - Wiki

(37) - Something editable with a real editor (not limited to the features of a editor included in a web browser)

(38) - CVS repository [Chris]

4. Tasks for publishing a book

(39) * Editing

(40) - I.e. collecting the texts, making them fit together and write a summary

(41) * Spellchecking

(42) * Publishing

(43) - I.e. keeping in contact with the publishers [Alan]

(44) * Graphics (Front cover, Lay-out etc.) [Johan]

5. Money

(45) Money is only a question when we're talking of a book printed on paper. For other forms of distribution this is less important or completely irrelevant question.

(46) * What about financing at all?

(47) - The German e.V. could be the official publisher of the book

(48) - Could there be raised funds for the book?

(49) * What about possible losses?

(50) * What about possible gains?


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