[FM Discuss] the booki vision so far

[adam hyde]

hi,

I am actively pursuing more leads for funding for the Booki development.
Below is a text describing the vision. I want to trim this down to a
short doc so I can easily ship it off to anyone interested. So, the
below is source material, any comments welcomed.

-----

Booki is a revolution in publishing. Booki is based on
functionality we have already created for FLOSS Manuals, but reworks the
underlying architecture, and extends to features we cannot achieve with
our current website. We have the experience already in developing a lot
of the functionality required. We know how to develop book formatted PDF
with bi-directional text and Unicode support, we know how to build
systems to track copyright attributions, we have built our own web-IRC
gateways, but most importantly we know what features work and what don't
work for this kind of environment. 

Now we need to take the lessons learned and develop a Free Software with
Collaborative Authoring and Book Sprint requirements embedded in the
core of its design. This does not mean rewriting FLOSS Manuals, it means
designing a new software paradigmn and re-imagining Publishing. 

** Re-imagining Publishing
Creating reusable repositories of books and dispelling the myth of sole
authorship is simultaneously a disruptive challenge to the publishing
industry as well as a productive environment for collaboratively
creating many wonderful new books. This is our goal for Booki.

In doing this Booki changes accepted methods of publishing. Unlike
current publishing models, Booki does not consider authors as isolated
producers. Booki facilitates collaborative production through simple and
effective writing and book management tools. The Booki interface is
designed around the authors and their needs to write, to discuss their
views, to seek assistance with partner writers, to translate and reuse
content. Using a platform like this you can collaborate to produce very
high quality content, very quickly. In this type of environment we have
written, and you can write, a high quality book in 2 days with people
you may never meet. This already sounds very distant from traditional
publishing methods.

However, Booki also accelerates the production cycle of print-ready
sources. In Booki print-ready source (book formatted PDF) is generated
on the server in a matter of minutes. If you update the book then you
can very quickly output another book-formatted PDF. Standard industry
production processes cannot compete with this pace. 

Booki also changes the ways books are designed. Booki changes the method
of design from the proprietary Indesign 'industry standard' to the CSS
open standard. In Booki, the design of book formatted PDF is controlled
with CSS – bringing book design to the web literate. If you know CSS you
can change the style your book. 

Booki also challenges the traditional publishing view on reuse, and
posits the idea that books can always be improved. Hence books should
always be reusable. Booki uses open content licenses by default which
partially assists reuse. However without a repository of content and a
technical process for managing reuse, content won't often be reused
regardless of the license. Booki makes reuse easy by technically
facilitating the forking, updating, improving, remixing, rewriting,
recontextualisation, and translation of books. 

Translation is an especially interesting case of reuse. Where the
traditional publishing industry cannot easily translate content due to
its restrictive licensing and contractual requirements, Booki encourages
and facilitates translation wherever possible. Booki provides
translation tools to ease the migration of books across language
boundaries. However translation is not the only language feature of
Booki. Booki also places a high value on the production of original
content in any language. For this reason Booki is designed to be easily
localised by integrating the Pootle localisation platform into its
architecture. This means anyone can translate the Booki interface to
assist with the production of content in any language. 

Translation, reuse and republishing on this scale also challenges other
legacy publishing concepts, notably 'Editions'. 'Editions' no longer
make sense when books can easily and quickly be forked, translated,
updated and republished. This is because in the publishing industry
(costly) ISBN numbers are linked to Edition numbers. It is impractical
to utilise ISBN in this new environment because books can be updated and
re-released as quickly as software. So 'Edition' is no longer a suitable
concept. Since the development of books in Booki better mirrors Open
Source development  models we prefer to talk of Versions instead of
Editions. Hence Booki requires a different vocabulary so as to
differentiate the Booki publishing model from traditional publishing
processes.

Actually Booki makes bolder challenges to what a book is. Booki is
really a platform for the collaborative development of Comprehensive
Texts, one output of which is books. However Booki can output your text
to multiple formats, opening the door to RSS syndication, ebook
distribution, or any other format for the distribution on offline or
online media. Booki helps comprehensive texts move fluidly through
different media. However, 'comprehensive text' is too wordy and so we
still use the term 'book', but perhaps more liberally than traditional
publishers.

Although built to support Collaborative Authoring and Book Sprints you
can use Booki to write a book by yourself over a longer period of time.
You can also install your own version of Booki for your own use, or
share an  existing installation. Whichever strategy you take;
collaborating, writing in solo, rapidly developing books, or taking your
time - when you have worked with Booki you will never think of
publishing the same way again.



adam



-- 
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