Are ISBNs granted for books hosted on wikibooks? Or are they limited to static snapshots (editions).of a book as it was at a particular point in time?
Regards, Lars
On 05/30/2016 07:18 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
Lars Noodén, 30/05/2016 15:26:
Are ISBNs granted for books hosted on wikibooks?
No. Of course you're free to pursue ISBN from others for books published on Wikibooks.
Nemo
Ok. The ISBN is usually alloted by the publisher, which in this case would be Wikibooks. But I should have looked closer before asking, it turns out they really are for fixed editions. So if there were an option on Wikibooks to save a snapshot and call it a published edition, it might be relevant. I know there are sandboxes for individual users but will there be sandboxes for individual books made available? What I miss from the early days of web development is a staging area where major changes and revisions can be made and then once ready moved as a block to the public area.
/Lars
On 05/30/2016 10:05 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
Lars Noodén, 30/05/2016 19:31:
The ISBN is usually alloted by the publisher, which in this case would be Wikibooks.
That's your misunderstanding: Wikibooks is NOT a publisher.
Nemo
Would it be considered the printer then?
/Lars
Lars Noodén, 30/05/2016 21:12:
Would it be considered the printer then?
I don't know, the definition depends on purposes and country. I looked into giving an ISBN to (Italian) Wikisource/Wikibooks books and it was not that hard with the various self-publishing services; some are even free, because most of the work goes into producing a decent EPUB/PDF and Wikisourcve/Wikibooks are quite ok at it.
As for the issue of new versions, that's something to check with the "ISBN provider" of your choice. But ISBN recycling is an established reality; reusing the same ISBN for slightly different editions (which can be considered mere reprints, with some imagination) is hardly an issue.
Nemo
On 05/30/2016 10:22 PM, Federico Leva (Nemo) wrote:
Lars Noodén, 30/05/2016 21:12:
Would it be considered the printer then?
I don't know, the definition depends on purposes and country. I looked into giving an ISBN to (Italian) Wikisource/Wikibooks books and it was not that hard with the various self-publishing services; some are even free, because most of the work goes into producing a decent EPUB/PDF and Wikisourcve/Wikibooks are quite ok at it.
As for the issue of new versions, that's something to check with the "ISBN provider" of your choice. But ISBN recycling is an established reality; reusing the same ISBN for slightly different editions (which can be considered mere reprints, with some imagination) is hardly an issue.
Nemo
Thanks. Maybe it is more like a serial. What about an ISSN instead? That would allow the content to change more radically over time. I'm thinking specifically of a technical book over a technology that changes a lot from time to time, but not regularly or predictably. New sections are sometimes needed, sometimes just new functions added, and other times functions or small sections are deprecated.
/Lars
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