[FM Discuss] the muddle the model

[adam hyde]

well, my feeling is that the content is free and unless people from the
community take the mandate and try something like this out then someone
from 'outside' the community will. i'm sure of it. if you look here for
example:
http://www.scribd.com/

eg:
http://www.scribd.com/search?cat=google&cof=FORID%
3A10&cx=007890693382555206581%
3A7fgc6et2hmk&ie=UTF-8&q=flossmanuals&sq=Search#1188

there are already commercial entities uploading fm material. they are
making money out of it by having good content on their site. thats fine
with me. however, i would prefer if the people making money were from
the community...somehow it would feel better.

its a risk, thats true, but also i dont know of any way to make money
(even a little) where you dont take a risk - either with time,
reputation or $...and remember, its not just about making money, its
actually an interesting model for promoting the software AND FM...it
could mean that you get paid to promote free software and the good work
that we do...that sounds good to me...no?

my investigations into the print on demand have shown that you can
indeed print cheap books locally...which is MUCH cheaper than
lulu.com...so why should lulu make money? why scribd? why not you? it is
a small risk but if handled sensibly i think i the risk is minimal. for
example in Berlin it is possible to print 50 books at 6 euro each. if
sold at 10 euro each you need to sell 30 to cover costs...thats a pretty
likely occurrence if you choose your moment well

adam



On Sat, 2010-01-30 at 08:24 +1300, John Curwood wrote:
> I have to agree with Joshua on this, I have had visions of doing such
> things and of setting up training courses based on and using FM
> materials.  However there aren't too many conferences in NZ and at the
> present the money issues is a bit of a stopper as well.
> 
> Interestingly I've seen a couple of websites that follow a similar model
> with FLOSS software, repackaging and selling CD's containing the
> software.  Which isn't interesting in itself, but what is interesting is
> the amount of bad press and complaints they get.  The general perception
> people seem to have is that because it is FLOSS software these companies
> are sort of breaking a law by putting a price tag on it.  I think in
> general people still don't get the philosophy behind "free" software.
> Still it gives me something to stand up on my soap box and rant about at
> parties. ;-)
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> John Curwood
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2010-01-29 at 11:07 -0500, Joshua Facemyer wrote: 
> > adam hyde wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2010-01-28 at 18:25 -0600, 0v . wrote:
> > >   
> > >> is part of the CC-BY-SA license,  so,, We're all able to do that
> > >>     
> > >
> > > most books in FM are GPL, which also means that this model has always
> > > been possible. however no one has done it. I have been hoping someone
> > > would but no one has...we even built the tool set to make it easy
> > > (objavi)...I'm quite surprised that no one has done it this but on
> > > reflection i think there is the perception that these books 'belong' to
> > > FM 'the publisher'
> > 
> > Quite to the contrary (for myself), I'd love to get out there and do 
> > just that - I just don't have much opportunity (mostly because I'm not 
> > able to go to the software/dev conferences like I'd like to).  Of 
> > course, there's always the money issue...
> > 
> > JF
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> > http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
> http://lists.flossmanuals.net/listinfo.cgi/discuss-flossmanuals.net


-- 
Adam Hyde
Founder FLOSS Manuals
German mobile : + 49 177 4935122
Email : adam at flossmanuals.net
irc: irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

"Free manuals for free software"
http://www.flossmanuals.net/about