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O'Reilly & Associates is just starting an open, online discussion on
open documents, as I mentioned on this list a few days ago. If you
like the idea of the forum (see my "seed" posting below) go to:
http://forums.oreilly.com/~publishing
and just start clicking; the procedure should be pretty easy to figure
out.
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The groundswell of Open Source, or free software, technologies has
created a sea change in commercial book publishing. Several
publishers, including O'Reilly & Associates, have started offering
books under various open-content licenses so that they can be freely
displayed on Internet sites, distributed with software on CD-ROMs,
taken apart to be used for course handouts, and in some cases
printed by other people besides the original publisher. As
revolutionary for the publishing industry as this distribution
mechanism is, some projects go even further to work directly with
the developers of Open Source projects. We are likely to see the
integration of professionally edited and produced documentation into
the model of Open Source development over the next few years.
Having recently finished one project myself under an open-content
license -- Using Samba -- and having started work on several other
such projects, I'd like to invite all interested persons to a
discussion on how the Open Source community and professional
publishers can
1. Involve developers of open source software more directly in the
development of high-quality guides and other
professionally-edited content.
2. Find the development models for open documents that work well
with the successful models used for open-source software.
There are many angles to consider -- quality control, Internet-time
release schedules, the big-picture thinking required to keep the
book's balance and structure strong during updates, risks and
benefits of forking, adequate compensation for writers and
publishers, dealing with the natural tendency to want to hide work
in progress with competitive publishers -- so take your pick and
give us a thoughtful post!
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Andy Oram O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. email: andyo _at_ oreilly.com
Editor 90 Sherman Street phone: (617) 499-7479
Cambridge, MA 02140-3233 fax: (617) 661-1116
USA http://www.oreilly.com/~andyo/
Stories at Web site:
The Bug in the Seven Modules Code the Obscure The Disconnected
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