Linux in a Nutshell (O'Reilly book)

[Joshua Zeidner]

 Craig,

  you're not really disagreeing with me.  I stated several times that
the reason books linger is that there are no dependable ways to
deliver content and compensate authors.  Lack of compensation = lack
of quality.  So I think an important issue is: can we design a system
where compensation is maintained without using paper?  These questions
were asked long ago by many people, most notably Ted Nelson [1] [2] .
Some valuable content networks do exist on the web, but the models
(primarily advertising) have very recently proven to be inadequate for
most purposes.  The quality of blog content does not even approach
that of the variety of print media from books to magazines as it tends
to emphasize very superficial attention.  Actually Ive had a series of
really good discussions lately on how much the internet has degraded
as a medium in its short lifespan, most web surfing is actually a
grating experience these days, almost making it not worth using.  Were
starting to learn there is a limit to 'advertising inventory'.  I
personally think that people will start to get proactive in regaining
control of their web experience.  One might even designate a spectrum
of attention span for various media:

  highest
    academic/scientific literature
    textbooks
    non-fiction
    literature
    paperback novels
    magazines
    newspapers
    tabloids
    blogs and other internet media
  lowest

  while high quality content does exist on the net, it rarely does
without a corresponding print reference (wikipedia offers good proof
of this).  At this point I dont think we can really create quality
content networks without some kind of DRM system, as the alternative
is 'eyeball real estate' model found in ie. Google AdSense.

  In my estimation, this is the fault of the media designers and print
has very little intrinsic value (primarily durability).  And Im not
speaking from casual speculation here, I worked on a project called
Pulp Digital a few years ago that addressed these market aspects.

  -jmz

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu

[2] http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/LiteraryMachines.html



On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 8:50 PM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-05-04 at 19:53 -0700, Joshua Zeidner wrote:
>> On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Alan Dayley <alandd at consultpros.com> wrote:
>> > I don't understand the negativity around dead tree media.
>>
>>   The criticisms are complex.  Primarily, chopping down rain forests
>> to explain to someone how to write Perl is considered wasteful and
>> excessive[1].  Its obvious to anyone who is serious about development
>> that a few google queries rivals what you can find in any printed
>> technical manual ( for $69.95 ).
> ----
> I can think of several examples where this doesn't work. For example,
> FreeRadius, where the author implores people not to search the web for
> inexhaustible out of date solutions...
> http://www.mail-archive.com/freeradius-users@lists.freeradius.org/msg44033.html
>
> or Samba.org who actually publish their manuals for download in html
> form, pdf form, read it on the Internet in either but their dead tree
> versions of both 'The Official Samba 3 HowTo' and 'By Example' continue
> to be best sellers.
>
> I have found that LDAP walk-throughs on the Internet confuse the
> daylights out of people because each one has a different purpose and
> they all differ in significant ways.
>
> I rarely get useless information from books, I have often gotten useless
> information or what I would term 'chasing my tail' activities from doing
> Google searches. Samba seems to be one of those daemons where people
> find something on the Internet that cause them to waste huge amounts of
> time.
>
> I find my Ruby Pickaxe book an invaluable resource to this day.
>
> I find the O'Reilly Bash book totally useful as the man pages have
> minimal information and the info pages often don't have what I want.
>
> Besides, I need all those books to help maintain my pose as you call it.
> ----
>> The core issue though is what I
>> mention elsewhere in this thread, currently there is no dependable way
>> to enforce compensation for authors other than print.  Where there is
>> no compensation, there is low or no quality.  Amazon has an
>> interesting initiative, the Kindle, but history has shown that all DRM
>> schemes will eventually be hacked- so its just a matter of time before
>> people are reading 'bootlegged' copy on their Kindles.  Secondly this
>> raises the familiar issues of the excesses of copyright.  As we begin
>> to rely more and more on legal authority in the realm of ideas, we
>> start to encounter more and more exploitation (ie. people copyrighting
>> chord progressions or yoga postures).  We have yet to find a practical
>> system that works and promotes innovation and art, obviously progress
>> needs to be made in understanding what factors are at stake here and
>> how to effectively address them.
> ----
> The issues of DRM really are too remote to this discussion and do
> nothing to clarify simply because if books are so worthless, does it
> really matter if they are dead tree or Kindle format?
>
> Perhaps it is a generational thing but I find that my comprehension is
> much better reader ink on paper than than on screen and I notice that I
> am not alone because every attorney I know will final proof on paper.
>
> Craig
>
>
> --
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