Re: [mv] Re: MiniVend Documentation/Book

[Birgitt Funk <birgitt@minivend.com>]

******    message to minivend-users from Birgitt Funk <birgitt@minivend.com>     ******



On Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Mark Stosberg wrote:

> ******    message to minivend-users from Mark Stosberg <mark@summersault.com>     ******
> 
[snip]
>   Perhaps another model could take something from the CSA model (more
> info here: http://www.caff.org/caff/programs/ag_community.html). In this
> model, a partnership is former between consumers and farmers. The
> consumers buy a share of the harvest at the beginning of the season, and
> then when the harvest comes, all the consumers get a share of the
> harvest back. This gaves the farmer some capital, and some assurance
> that his/her crops will sell. 
>   I think a similar model that could be appropriate for the Minivend
> Documentation project could the CoSource marketplace:
> http://www.cosource.com/  
>   Some folks can collaboratively agree to pay for minivend documentation
> (in a somewhat legally binding way, I think), and then some other folks
> can agree to take on the project for that the agreed upon amount. So if
> a bunch of users agreed to pay $30 (or more!) each to fund the project,
> some enterprising writers and editors might take the project on, knowing
> they were guaranteed at least this fixed amount. 

You could combine the two models together with an online book version
of the entity to be written within a MiniVend shop.

-- MiniVend users buy upfront a share of the expected harvest (generated 
   thorugh sales of the online or printed documentation/book to be
   written -- CSA model) 
-- MiniVend users write the proposals of what exactly should be written
   up (Manual, HOW-TO, Reference Guide etc - like discussed last year)
   and submit it to cosource.com. (or we do this reverse auction model
   ourselves).
-- People bid for parts of the job (cosource.com model)
-- Endproduct is a database of pages of the documents which can be ordered
   in a MiniVend cart either for download or for print for a price per
   page/chapter/document.
-- A harvest is generated and MiniVend users get their upront payment
   back and the developers/writers paid.
-- The documentation comes then with the sample MiniVend catalog of
   the cart which sold the documentation. Would be even great to document
   MiniVends capabilites as a publishing system by example.

>   I think tje perception with publishing in a paper book form is that
> the authors get paid, and if it's published online and distributed for
> free, then the authors don't. This doesn't necessarily have to be case,
> it's just that the solution may have to be more creative. :)
>   One solution is that people would each submit some documentation and
> perform as editors simply for the "cause"-- to support the community the
> supports them. 
>   By focusing on a printed book rather than online documentation, we are
> adding a lot of extra production and distribution cost to the project.
> By targeting online documentation as the end result, we could take the
> money saved on production, paper and shipping, and pay the authors and
> editors more! (We could also save a good bit of paper, too).
>   That said, I'm not totally "anti-book". I realize the format does have
> it's own benefits and is sometimes a very format have documentation in. 
> 

What makes a printed version of a book ? We don't need a publisher. We
can publish a book about MiniVend with MiniVend and sell it ourselves.
Print/download by demand through an order in our own MV cart.

Or not ? 

Birgitt Funk

-
To unsubscribe from the list, DO NOT REPLY to this message.  Instead, send
email with 'UNSUBSCRIBE minivend-users' in the body to Majordomo@minivend.com.
Archive of past messages: http://www.minivend.com/minivend/minivend-list