free sw, free books, free info

[Phil Garcia <pgarcia execpc com>]

On Fri, May 28, 1999 at 10:58:22AM -0400, David C. Mason wrote:

> Books and software are two completely different beasts. Open source
> software works because of what software is and how we use it. We
> benefit from being able to change software to answer a need or fix a
> problem. It is much more difficult to change someone's writing. It
> kills the voice of the content and no one benefits. 

I'm afraid I must disagree with nearly every sentence in this paragraph.
The free flow of information, like that of software, also helps to answer
needs and fix problems.  If the software lacks adequate documentation to
benefit certain users without the documentation of a third party, then the
free flow of software is useless for those people unless unless information
about that software is also free.

When software changes, so must its documentation.  When an author of
documentation leaves a project, someone must pick it up, as long as the
software continues to change and the documentation is viable.  The voice in
this case is by far less important than the content itself.  We're not
talking about altering Shakespeare.

Just as programmers use a common style when they work together, more or
less, so do authors.  Collaborations in any genre are common, but even
moreso with technical or academic works.  Even with these, in certain
cases, yes, it can be extremely difficult to pick up someone else's work.
That's the exception, not the rule.


> Carrying the model further, if one of the thrusts of this idea is to
> benefit the author, the business model of the open source community
> would not benefit any author.

The open source community does not have one and only one business model.
Take sourcexchange.com into consideration.  Just as programmers can be paid
to develop free software that might otherwise go unwritten, so can writers
be paid to write documentation that might otherwise go unwritten.


> If a book is truly open source then anyone could pick it up and publish it.

Absolutely.


> Does that mean the author gets no royalties from that second publication?

The author gets no royalties, period.


> Again I have to state that, although this debate is wonderful and well
> worth the effort, I would love to see as much talk and effort put into
> the documentation we NEED that IS free and part of the GNOME
> project (and other projects for that matter). Lets continue this talk
> while we all write one or two pages of reference and tutorials.

An excellent point.  Yes, let's.


Phil Garcia
pgarcia@execpc.com