On 11 Dec 2006, at 19:35, Kirsten Chevalier wrote:
On 12/11/06, Andrew Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, perhaps if nothing else, we could use a wikibook to
collaboratively work on the structure of such a book, and then from
that you could publish a "real" book. I don't really know the legal
issues, though. I am thinking of several books though which have been
written and released both as full paper books, and as free digital
books. Could we do something similar?
I definitely think using a wiki to work on the book would be a good
idea. I just wouldn't want to imply that that meant it would
necessarily be a public wiki or that it would be around forever. The
legal issues are basically that publishers don't want to publish books
that people can get for free off the web (whether or not you agree
with this logic). There are exceptions to this, like Lessig's _Free
Culture_, but it's my impression that they usually involve authors who
have enough sway that publishers will let them get away with whatever
they want.
Well, I know that e.g., Cory Doctorrow puts his books online for
free, and he seems to have no trouble also getting printed versions
sold (see for example http://craphound.com/someone/). So I guess it
should be possible to do. Especially because the demand will be quite
large, IMO. A collection of real-world examples a la dive into python
would certainly be on the top of my to buy list.
-- Andy
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