AAAS

[Chuck0]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> Chuck0 wrote, in the midst of an interesting post on the problems at AAAS:
> 
> >On one hand, there was the belief by many Internet users
> >that information should be free. While I share that belief, I think that
> >many are naive about the costs involved in putting issues of a magazine
> >online.
> 
> Or the costs of developing the information in the first place. I'm
> constantly getting emails from people complaining that LBO is too
> expensive, that I should give it away on the web, that I should put
> up Acrobat versions of Wall Street and A New Economy? (when it's
> done, which won't be long, I swear!), etc. Like I'm not trying to pay
> the rent by writing, like it costs nothing for Internet access,
> subscriptions, phone calls, travel, and like it takes no time to
> maintain a website. The net has bred a righteous sense of entitlement
> among users, because it seems to be costless - there's no commodity
> you can drop on your foot, so it must be free, right?
> 
> Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch,

Sorry, I should have elaborated and explained that point. Many people
are ignorant of the costs involved in publishing. I understand
publishing from my experience working for a big publisher (AAAS),
independent publisher (Alternative Press Review), and micropublisher (my
zine, Practical Anarchy). The librarians for the longest time thought
that publishing just involves the costs of paper and  distribution. They
thought that putting a magazine would enable the publisher to save
oodles of money. Conviently ignored was the fact that print advertising
is what keeps a big publisher afloat. Advertising failed on the
Internet.

I sympathize with Doug here about maintaining and developing websites.
Infoshop.org was developed over the course of 6 years, mainly through my
volunteer efforts. It's become so big and so popular that maintaining
the quality of the website has become not just a full time hobby, but a
full time job. I'm trying to find ways to allow other folks to help out,
but the workload has convinced me that the Left needs to do a better job
of financially supporting the publications and projects that it loves.
The right wing understood this and spent millions buying TV stations,
radio networks, and paying people to write for their magazines.
Fortunately, I'm seeing some positive signs on our front, both in nice
donations to my project and the money that has been donated to the
IndyMedia project.

<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.

      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/

Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 

        - Jens Bjørneboe