Hi, I was very keen to know whether the guys at wiki have plans to start a project to produce e-books/textbooks out of wiki articles. There was another similar request on the group also, so will the guys at wiki please respond back and tell us if they're interested on starting something like this. I have a whole lot of ideas that I was hoping to share on this sort of a project. I've put down all these ideas on my website, its at http://www.geocities.com/abioommen I've put a name to it -- gdocs.org -- but thats just for the heck of it and I don't have the resources or time to do it alone. Its a idea that I believe that Wiki can really bring to reality and it can kick off some sort of a revolution in open-content, if wiki seriously does something like this. So I was hoping if the guys at wiki would start something like this!! --abhishek
abhio@vsnl.net wrote:
Hi, I was very keen to know whether the guys at wiki have plans to start a project to produce e-books/textbooks out of wiki articles. There was another similar request on the group also, so will the guys at wiki please respond back and tell us if they're interested on starting something like this. I have a whole lot of ideas that I was hoping to share on this sort of a project. I've put down all these ideas on my website, its at http://www.geocities.com/abioommen I've put a name to it -- gdocs.org -- but thats just for the heck of it and I don't have the resources or time to do it alone. Its a idea that I believe that Wiki can really bring to reality and it can kick off some sort of a revolution in open-content, if wiki seriously does something like this. So I was hoping if the guys at wiki would start something like this!!
As much as I support the underlying concepts of this proposal, I believe it has to wait until the "foundation" is in place. This will be a modest revenue generating venture which will need to have a place to deposit its money, and will also need to manage costs related to producing printed books. Those costs can be significant.
Besides the obvious benefit of having the Wikipedia available to a larger audience, physical publication will also be helpful in guaranteeing that the open licence nature of Wikipedia is protected for a long time after the present contributors are gone. Being able to produce a printed text at that time will be prima facie proof that the person using it cannot legally override the open licence with his own copyright.
In short: a great idea but still premature.
Eclecticology
Ray Saintonge wrote:
As much as I support the underlying concepts of this proposal, I believe it has to wait until the "foundation" is in place. This will be a modest revenue generating venture which will need to have a place to deposit its money, and will also need to manage costs related to producing printed books. Those costs can be significant. Besides the obvious benefit of having the Wikipedia available to a larger audience, physical publication will also be helpful in guaranteeing that the open licence nature of Wikipedia is protected for a long time after the present contributors are gone. Being able to produce a printed text at that time will be prima facie proof that the person using it cannot legally override the open licence with his own copyright.
In short: a great idea but still premature.
Thanks for the complement, but I think the guys at FSF who created FDL, had something like this in mind already. from your reply I was felt you were suggesting Wiki printing books. I realize such an idea is "premature" at present, but if in my proposal on my website( www.geocities.com/abioommen ), you will see that I am not suggesting that Wiki print the books, but provide mailing lists to interested editors to work together and once their work is good, I'm sure publishing houses will themselves print the books. And since it must remain under FDL, these books will be relatively much cheaper. Please read my proposal( its still in executive summary stage) and tell me what you think of it. --Abhishek PS:Sorry I'm replying so late, my mail client was malfunctioning
abhio@vsnl.net wrote:
Hi, I was very keen to know whether the guys at wiki have plans to start a project to produce e-books/textbooks out of wiki articles.
I'm still trying to convert articles to LaTeX (prime target is the handbook of the germen wiki) and it's pretty awful. But if it will work, it will be pretty easy to convert a complete wikipedia to a pdf document. Than you only problem is to find a lasy printer.
Smurf
wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org