IDEAS & NEEDS

[Kleanthes]

OK, with the latest LL bullshit discussion, why not open a new board. Maybe something productive comes out of it.

First, I take it, one/we would need to figure out some details regarding open source publishing. Here's a quick brainstormer:

- secure and fast permanent server big enough to store A LOT of material: this is probably trivial; PIS might not be the right platform since I'm paying for this and the web space is limited, but I'm sure I can talk the University of Cyprus into it, if we can deal with legal issues, and others might have better/alternative access

- legal coverage I: at which point does the copyright go to whoever it goes to (such as a publisher)? Could we make available pre-final "drafts" of work?

- legal coverage II: if we just don't give a shit, how should we go about it?

- access: also easy -- free for everyone! Can we ensure that the pages load quickly, and even material downloads well (bandwith issues)?

- "advertisement": how much can or should we make the site public? A related issue: we need contributors who send us stuff and volunteers who catalogue, document and upload the material

Feel free to continue.

[ghost]

There will be volunteers who want to contribute and help, but: (1) shall we limit our coverage somehow? I mean, shall we accept, say, phonosemantics, or the crazier varieties of Lakoff-style cognitive linguistics?, (2) will there be some kind of anonymous reviewing or will anyone be welcome (I would say, reviewing is necessary, or it would get out of control - do we want that?) But these are not urgent questions, probably.

[Burn]

Let this be my first contribution then...

Kleanthes said:

- secure and fast permanent server big enough to store A LOT of material: this is probably trivial; PIS might not be the right platform since I'm paying for this and the web space is limited, but I'm sure I can talk the University of Cyprus into it, if we can deal with legal issues, and others might have better/alternative access

If we're talking text here, I mean publishing mainly documents, then space shouldn't be too much of an issue. My estimate would be that you can put 15 to 30 books in PDF format in a 100 Meg webspace (ranging from 3 to 6 Megs in size, few graphics).

If you need more space, ask for it. Seriously. You would be surprised how much free space a simple call for help on the main page of a site can get you. People who like your site are always willing to donate. I tried and got lots of offers, some even with webspace with well over a Gig for free. Hmm, maybe I can reactivate those resources.

- legal coverage I: at which point does the copyright go to whoever it goes to (such as a publisher)? Could we make available pre-final "drafts" of work?

Doesn't this depend on the contract AND the country the company resides in?
Interesting resource could be www.copyright.com/CopyrightResources/ (=US Copyright clearance center, maybe that can clarify a few basic questions?)

- legal coverage II: if we just don't give a shit, how should we go about it?

As quietly as possible because if the publishers DO give a shit about us not giving a shit they could start sueing our asses. Probably no one involved would be able to publish anything at all for the rest of their lives.
Then again, if someone would want to publish a book and is about to sign a contract, they could/should reserve the rights to the digital distribution (if there is such a thing).

- access: also easy -- free for everyone! Can we ensure that the pages load quickly, and even material downloads well (bandwith issues)?

In short: yes. There are strategies to minimize DL time for pages, but I won't go into that now.
Bandwidth/download speed not only depends on the provider but also on time, computer and connection speed (modem, ISDN, DSL, cable, T1, T3 etc). There are two trivial (because obvious) ways around this problem:
1. Offer a high-bandwitdth and a low-bandwidth version of the homepage (psh! This is something 20th Century Fox would do...) or
2. Choose a Site Identity that allows for nice optics AND little data. This doesn't automatically mean that a site looks like crap, as google and the5k.org demonstrate (both have starting pages of less than 5kB in size, the latter is a community that made the concept of pages of less than 5kB into an art form).

If you opt for a commercial solution, reliability and server speed are expensive of course. The more constant the server uptime, the more you gotta pay.

- "advertisement": how much can or should we make the site public? A related issue: we need contributors who send us stuff and volunteers who catalogue, document and upload the material

Advertisement: Maximise META-Tag efficiency, get listed in directories, link exchanges, banner exchanges, apply to and give out site-awards, become member of webrings or start your own one. The most important ingredient is probably to keep the thing moving, to keep the page alive. A new article every week. Why not use a weblog (like livejournal, it's free and no ads)? Maximise the content surfacing, show what's new on the first page the visitor sees. But, actually, when I look at your counter, it looks like quite a few people know about the site, so publicity shouldn't be too much of a problem. Question: Is PIS already established as a resource, does it have a reputation? Any info on that?

Volunteers: Make it public, right on the first page. "Contributors wanted!" Remember to think about submission rules. If you don't want any, then you will have the problem that you will have to accept stuff from EVERYONE. If you do that, you have a validity problem. Because if you accept stuff from everyone, eventually a lunatic or someone who is plainly babbling unscientifically will come along. The problem probably won't be the volunteers, it will be the reputation of the site depending on the contributions published on it.

But these are just my two cents. I thought I might say something on the matter because I've done a LOT of homepages...

Cheers,
Burn

[equi]

I don't know if I qualify to post here as I am not sure if I am a punk and as for being "in science", I guess that depends on how you define it.

I think it would be great if there was such a place available where people could publish anything without fear or favour, and where people could freely exchange information is a very good one.

This was, I believe, the original concept of the internet, or at least what those who embraced the technology all those years ago believed it would become.

Unfortunately it is now a very large porn store with a small section out the back that is reserved for the abnormal people who actually want elucidation of a non-sexual nature.

Now, I believe that porn has a place in the world, so I am not saying that it is necessarily a terrible thing that there is so much porn.

What I do believe, however, is that there is so much porn and other commerical rubbish cluttering the web that it is very frustrating for the spiders hoping to consume something that actually has some substance to it (ok, ok, enough with the metaphors already!).



What we need then is a repository for material that is not simply a robotic directory of sites (let's face it, the business people and the porn peddlers are smart enough to evolve). Every time you go searching for light bulbs on the internet, you'll probably end up having to read something about Marjory shoving one up herself (or whatever).

So, the limitation to the idea of a single repository for information is, just as the original post said, bandwidth and server space.

But this is "inside the box" thinking. My view is: if the box is not large enough, get more boxes!

I have a vision! Let's imagine a world where everyone who has a web presence and wants to do some good for the world (or possibly evil - we wouldn't have censors) may host a page (or several pages) on their unused server space (most sites have a lot of unused space - I would guess the majority of them).

The only burden on the PIS server would be hosting the index to those pages.

So what is in it for the generous person who hosts the page? Well there is a benefit that the host would have an automatic reciprocal link in Google, thus boosting the "popularity" of their site, and every hosted page could link to the hosts "main" website.

The only problem with it is that you could not necessarily trust people to not modify the contents of the original document (there are some idiots out there!). This would unfair to the author, and how could it be policed?

We also have the problem of the legal side of what is published. For example, if we put the page on our site and somebody somewhere gets offended and raises a stink, how do we not get sued? For example is the author responsible for the content because he wrote it or are we responsible because we distribute it?

So there would need to be very hefty disclaimers in place at the very least.

I think in the end this idea of having multiple hosts for free content could never work until the world is free of narrow-minded people. And that will never happen.

Sigh... maybe we should just take the hint and stick with the porn?!