[wsfii-discuss] Re: Whole Infrastructure Catalogue

Tue Oct 18 04:09:47 UTC 2005

This all sounds like a fascinating project. I'm particularly interested
since our pre-wsfii work week was taken up mostly by a Book Sprint, i.e.
we got 6 people together in the room and started working on a book
specificially about wireless community networking for the developing
world (rural networking etc.)

So we are going through the process of creating print materials for
content that must be pretty closely related in part to this Whole
Infrastructure Catalogue idea.

We are also spending some time researching Print on Demand opportunities
etc.

Admittedly we are not doing this with wiki -> book auto conversion,
mostly because the printed book is the most important outcome for our
project, and the on-line version follows on from that.

Importantly (I think) we are not just thinking about how to get a book
printed (which is easy), but how to get the content of the book
distributed in such a fashion that it is easy to print locally in the
developing world. Just a reminder that printing doesn't solve the
distribution problem. Having a 1000 * 1 kg lumps of paper in a warehouse
in the US doesn't do anything for people in the developing world. The
distribution is the difficult challenge, on-line and off-line.

I have to admit, i have some problems understanding exactly what would
go into this catalogue, but i'm really happy to see o many people that
are enthusiastic about it.

Here's an outline of the Book we're working on:
http://www.okfn.org/wsfii/wiki/BookSprintOutline?highlight=BookSprint
Perhaps there is the facility for some reuse?

cheers

/tomas

Paula wrote:

>Pretty much agreed on all points - modularity suits me cos flexible and
>time-containable - can fit it round other stuff and build up gradually.
>Grant funding turns stuff from use value to politics and real-politik
>not my thing. Think we've got enough gory examples in front of us ;-)
>
>Not completely sure about the print thing - a hellish lot of work.
>Unless you know some way of pretty much "importing" the wiki into a DTP?
>Bleedin expensive too?
>
>I agree with the general point that a lot of people either don't have
>high speed access to use an online guide and also that many people
>prefer to follow a "hard" guide anyway. It'd be great to do, but we'd
>need a group committed and sustainable enough to actually achieve it?
>Might also be worth considering maybe a partnership with an ISP such as
>GreenNet or the co-op thingie & offload some of the infrastructure cost
>that way?
>
>Are you thinking of trying to generate both online and print versions
>simultaneously - more sensible to tackle an online version first? Note
>someone else on the list interested - you acquainted?
>
>I'm near Nimes somewhere this week, but picking up email . . .
>
>Paula
>
>hugh barnard wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I'm interested in this...it can probably be done in a
>>modular, rather than a 'big bang' way...I'm interested
>>in something that is both on-line and print:
>>
>>1. Many of those that would benefit aren't on-line
>>much,  because they're waiting for affordable
>>infrastructure.
>>
>>2. Some of the print _may_ be a way of financing some
>>of it..I have a personal preference for auto-finance
>>over grants. More sustainable and more genuinely
>>independent.
>>
>>Best regards Hugh
>>
>>
>>
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