[FM Discuss] wikimania presentation

[adam hyde]

On Wed, 2009-08-26 at 11:28 -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
> Generally very good. I will be interested to see what it turns into.
> 
> Two comments.
> 
> You are too harsh on (cc). Most of what is licensed under (cc) has
> nothing to do with book publishing. Photographs, videos, music
> (including source tracks, not just final mix), scientific
> data...Enabling sharing and preventing others from putting (cc)
> materials under (c) is not a throwaway, but the essence of the
> program, just as with GPL. (With the exception of the No Rights
> Reserved CC-0 license, provided to remedy the lack of a way to put
> material into the Public Domain in current law.) But perhaps you can
> tell us what experience led to your disdain for (cc).

i'm not so hard on cc. I think cc is a necessary hack to a bad system.
however, at the end of the day its copyright itself that is broken.

> 
> Please do not use the terms "borg" or "collective". They are
> unnecessarily provocative, but more importantly, they are misleading
> and confusing to the uninitiated, in this case me. I had no idea what
> you meant on the first reading. In-jokes always fall flat when used
> outside. The standard way to say what we are is "community".

if there is one place i expect people to understand the term
'borg' (other than a star trek convention) its the wikimania event ;)

> 
> Is there any way to help others of us get to conferences and make
> presentations on FM ideas?


its happened before. maybe anne or janet want to talk to there
experiences on this...

adam

> 
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 5:17 PM, adam hyde<adam at flossmanuals.net> wrote:
> > hi,
> >
> > So...i present in Wikimania on the last day with Shun-ling Chen (Harvard
> > Law School), Melanie Dulong de Rosnay (Institute for Information Law of
> > the University of Amsterdam) on open publishing and the wiki borg.
> >
> > I thought I should outline a little here what I will present. I have
> > been sitting on a plane for some 20 hours now, and still 15 or so to go,
> > so plenty of time to think...still, these thoughts are sketches and
> > might change before the panel...but anyways...here are some points,
> > please comment as much as you like (it will also help me focus the
> > material) ...
> >
> > The presentation from me will probably be using slides...so, here in
> > order of how they appear on my screen now are the main points with some
> > underlying rationale provided in text which I will speak to on the
> > day...
> >
> > Slide 1
> > //Three Cornerstones of Publishing//
> > * THE Author
> > * THE Publisher
> > * Copyright
> >
> > - here I want to establish that the publishing industry as we know it is
> > a construct, the three cornerstones of which are the above. They work in
> > perfect harmony with each other to form the basis of the publishing
> > industry business model.
> >
> > slide 2
> > //Three Barriers to Open Publishing//
> > * THE Author
> > * THE Publisher
> > * Copyright
> >
> > - I want to show that the very same things that have created the
> > publishing industry are the very components that frustrate anything that
> > we might call Open Publishing. I don't want to go into much detail in
> > this slide, I want it to be a teaser to provoke the audience to wonder
> > why the same things that have created the industry also retard the
> > development of free culture.
> >
> > slide 3
> > //Publishing now//
> > * author - (c) - publisher
> > * Output : book
> > * Symbiotic relationship
> > * Publisher bestows authority on a writer.
> > * The writer confirms the status of the publisher.
> > * Copyright all rights reserved
> > * Business model established and protected by copyright
> > * The Book is The Authorised version
> >
> > - this is just an outline to show what everyone knows already. However I
> > will emphasise the symbiotic nature of the Author and the Publisher so i
> > can highlight later that if you break one, you break the other.
> >
> > slide 4
> > //Pseudo free culture (cc)//
> > * Author – (cc) – Publisher
> > * Output : book
> > * Symbiotic relationship
> > * Publisher bestows authority on a writer.
> > * The writer confirms the status of the publisher.
> > * Copyright some rights reserved
> > * Author has mandate to change
> > * Publishers are weird about (cc)
> > * Reuse tolerated if attributed
> > * Authorial Status maintained by Attribution requirements
> > * Forking is marginally tolerated
> > * Business model established but not protected by ©
> > * The Book is The Authorised version
> >
> > - this is intended to highlight how Creative Commons (cc) (or any
> > copyright license used as an alternative to the default all rights
> > reserved) by itself does not bring free culture. For example, there are
> > still cultural norms that mean (cc) is used often as a pretense to free
> > culture. Some examples of psuedo free culture in action would be :
> > # the Ubuntu Handbook published under a cc license by McGraw Hill with a
> > '(c) - all rights reserved' notice right next to the 'CC-SA-BY' notice
> > # the fact that single authored works in FM do not get changed as much
> > as works whose genesis has been by community
> > # my conjecture that culture norms mean that Attribution clauses enforce
> > Authorial gatekeeping (ie the mandate to change a document is culturally
> > retarded due to Attribution requirements which are a legacy of the
> > publishing culture and (c))
> >
> > At the end of the day, (cc) does not effect the publishing industry
> > model in anyway, except maybe in that publishers spend less on lawyers
> > fees.
> >
> >
> > slide 5
> > //Life under the borg//
> > * borg – (cc?) – ?
> > * Output : bookS.
> > * This is free culture at work
> > * Borg genesis of content
> > * No-one to care about protecting copyright rights (** except that the
> > material remains free)
> > * Attribution is relatively meaningless
> > * Limited authorial gatekeeping
> > * Mandate to change more easily transfered
> > * Business model not established and not reliant on copyright
> > * The Book is not the Authorised version
> > * This is where the publishing industry stops working
> > * This is where information starts working
> >
> > - this is meant to show that Open Publishing can only happen if the
> > culture of Authorship is changed (to an open collaborative model) and
> > this in turn immediately effects the notion of what a publisher is and
> > hence effects the entire publishing model. If the culture of Authorship
> > changes then pretty much copyright becomes meaningless too because at
> > its core copyright and copyright licensing prevents
> > collaboration/particpation
> >
> > slide 6
> > //What stops working?//
> > * Editions (incl. ISBN)
> > * Traditional business model
> > * Role of the publisher
> > * Authorial Status
> >
> > //What starts working?//
> > * Versions
> > * Rapid development of content
> > * Life of a text
> > * Reuse (incl. Translation)
> > * New Business Models
> >
> > - this slide has two titles to show what stops working in an Open
> > Publishing environment and what starts working. Essentially the business
> > model collapses, however the actual information itself actually starts
> > to work...if texts can be easily updated, recontextualised and
> > translated then they start having a longer relevance and broader use. It
> > also means texts can progress. However, it also means the cult of the
> > Author dissipates, as does the cult of the publisher as it is now. If
> > you take away the three cornerstones of the existing publishing model
> > then it is hard to see how it might continue to function under the same
> > model
> >
> > slide 7
> > //What is important For Open Publishing?//
> > * Texts genesis must be by the borg
> > * Biggest copyright hacks possible
> > * Technology to enable reuse and collaboration
> > * Remove the reliance on generating income from the end of the process
> >
> > - I want to outline here what are the conditions for Open Publishing.
> > Technology itself is actually not necessary and perhaps problematic to
> > put here, as written works before copyright (eg manuscript culture) were
> > more participatory and 'open' that now.
> >
> > slide 8
> > //What is Copyright & Copyright Licensing In Open Publishing//
> > * A technological burden
> > * A participatory burden
> > * A burden for reuse
> > * A burden to free information flow
> > * Irrelevant
> > ** If there is to be copyright, it should be to enforce the right to
> > copy
> >
> > - copyright is an unnecessary hinderance to open publishing
> >
> > slide 9
> > //What is an Open Publisher?//
> > * A technology provider
> > * A repository for reusable content
> > * Enables collaboration
> > * Enables reuse
> > * A hub
> > * A facilitator
> > * Reseller/distributor
> >
> > - this is a slight diversion to consider what a publisher might look
> > like in a contemporary Open Publishing environment.
> >
> > slide 10
> > //What is the Business Model?//
> > * A technology provider ($)
> > * A repository for reusable content ($)
> > * Enables collaboration ($)
> > * Enables reuse ($)
> > * A hub ($)
> > * A facilitator ($)
> > * Reseller/distributor ($)
> > * Note : © is not required
> >
> > - just to illustrate that the same functions of a 'open publisher' are
> > also potential revenue generators, and to note that none of these
> > generators require copyright. Writers also get paid here via
> > commissions, as they do now, and I will also state this.
> >
> > ...i know the notes are brief...one day i will write this up as an
> > essay...but if anyone can follow it and comment please do...
> >
> > adam
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> > --
> > Adam Hyde
> > Founder FLOSS Manuals
> > German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
> > Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
> > irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
> >
> > "Free manuals for free software"
> > http://www.flossmanuals.net/about
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> 
> 
> 
-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 15 2230 54563
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

"Free manuals for free software"
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