publishing

Last month, this site featured an article about the startup I work for, Unglue.it. Briefly, we think more books should be available to the world under Creative Commons licenses, and we think authors and publishers should be paid for their work. We're doing this through a crowdfunding model: raise enough money up front to make it worthwhile, and there's no reason for authors and publishers not to make their books freely available to all. Of course, any innovative model inspires many questions, but the most common questions we get have been about open culture—from widely differing perspectives. Opensource.com has asked me to share some of what we've learned since Unglue.it completed its first successful campaign. » Read more

In 2008, representatives of the Personal Democracy Forum sent dozens of writers, pundits, politicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, and think-tankers the following prompt: » Read more

The always-insightful Alex Reid has penned an essay "on the question of open peer review," which examines a draft white paper posted to Media Commons last week. » Read more

Think of a book you absolutely love. Now imagine being able to share a copy of that book with anyone, anywhere, as quickly and easily as you can send an email.

Normally, this just wouldn't be possible. Chances are, your favorite book hasn't even been digitized. And if it has, copyright restrictions or digital rights management technologies likely prevent you from making and disseminating copies of it. » Read more

Last week, Winston Hide committed what he called "a toxic career move." Hide, an associate professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at the Harvard School of Public Health, publicly resigned from the editorial board of Genomics, an influential journal in his field. » Read more

Incredible work comes out of open source communities. But communities far removed from the world of software development often thrive following the same principles.  

Openness. Sharing. Collaboration. Transparency. Meritocracy. A common purpose.

Following are nine stories from nine very different kinds of communities. Yet all follow the open source way, in their own ways. » Read more

Several years back, I sought one rather elusive cookbook. I first spotted The Use-It-Up Cookbook (A Guide for Minimizing Food Waste) in a used bookshop during a weekend getaway in Seattle. At $8.00, the price was right, but my suitcase had a serious lack of room for additional purchases. I reluctantly placed it back on the shelf and decided it would be simpler to order a copy online when I returned home to North Carolina.

How wrong I was. » Read more

This is an introduction to open access (OA) for those who are new to the concept. It doesn't cover every nuance or answer every objection, but it should cover enough territory to prevent the misunderstandings that delayed progress in our early days. » Read more

This is the second part of a two-part series examining an open source publishing project--an art book--as a fund-raising effort. If you missed it, you might want to catch the first half in our archives.

Publishing

Print-on-demand self-publishing companies abound. The trouble with most of them--if you want to stick with open source--is that they » Read more

In the first half of this two-part series, author, artist, and hard-working mom Beverly Pearl discusses the challenges (and rewards) of creating of a collaborative, inexpensive, self-published art show book with open source tools. This project provides a way for the artists and community to work together, gain new skills, and deliver a professional-looking product—while hopefully raising some money for a good cause. » Read more