[FM Discuss] Muddling the Middleman

[Michael Mandiberg]

I'm following this thread in digest form, so it is likely that several  
message have already modified the thread, and several will come back  
after I post this before I respond, but here are my two cents, or 6  
Euros on the subject:

There are two distinct discussions going on here:

1. is it okay to print and sell this content?

2. is selling something... DIY?  Or something like that.

Having just come out of the Collaborative Futures booksprint, one of  
the things we talked a lot about was setting up terms. We have set up  
terms. The books are GPL/CC-BY-SA, right?  So this is covered. Give  
attribution, share alike, and you are in the clear.

Regarding whether selling something is DIY... that seems to be one of  
the key components of DIY. (hello Etsy?) yes, barter is awesome. but  
barter actually takes A LOT of work. i have actually bartered for  
massages before. but, a websites worth of massages is A LOT of  
massages - i was doing 90mins a week for months...  conversely, a  
printed book's worth of massages is prob only 15 minutes of massage  
time... engaging in the exchange of capital is a dirty dirty business  
that we all are complicit in, unless we are freegans, or live off the  
land off the grid (in which case we are highly unlikely to have  
internet access).  Lets be realistic about this. Free Software and  
Free Culture is great, but not just b/c it is free. Free is easy when  
things are perfectly reproducible at "no cost" to the user, but  
printed books are not.  And "no cost" is a misnomer. How much did you  
computer cost?  how much is your internet connection? who is paying  
for the bandwidth.  someone is...

and to frame it an entirely different way, i am considering printing a  
run of 100 of the Collaborative Futures books, here in NYC. It is  
senseless for Stephen Kovats to bring them over for the March 4th  
launch here at Eyebeam, and and people want the dead tree version. I  
want to teach it in my class this semester, as does Mushon.

For every person that wlll read the book, 1000 will go to the  
website.  Or maybe more. but the people who want to read the book  
should not be neglected, nor should it be discounted that they are  
often the influencers. The professors. The people that will review the  
book. The people that will really appreciate that they are holding an  
artifact in their hands. An artifact of a process, but a useful  
artifact nonetheless.

And for fun, consider...

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f7a03edbd7/pee-wee-gets-an-ipad

michael