On ‘We, the Web Kids’

I thoroughly enjoyed reading We, the Web Kids, and could probably have picked a quote from any paragraph to highlight it’s quality. But I’ve picked one in particular as it connects with one of the themes I’ve been writing around here for the last couple of weeks. That is: paying the artist. Like Piotr, I’m happy to pay for the art I love. And whether it’s a painting, sculpture, performance or book, I’d like to pay the artist as directly as possible. In this extract, he captures some of the motivations excellently: “Why should we pay for the distribution of information that can be easily and perfectly copied without any loss of the original quality? If we are only getting the information alone, we want the price to be proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but then … Continue reading »

Punk rock (self) publishing

Digging through Google Reader this evening I found a mention of Open Site Explorer (posting link here for my own reference). Did a quick search to see who was linking to Bibliofaction and found an old article titled: This is Why Self-Publishing isn’t Taken Seriously. I was worried I’d find a critique of what we’re trying to do with Bibliofaction, but was pleased to find an article that pretty much agrees with what we think is important in self-publishing. I loved this note on Punk rock publishing: “The ethic of: anyone can do it.  Just learn two chords and you can start a rock band.  It was revolutionary.  Self-publishing most certainly has the potential to have that same kind of attitude and purpose, and until that happens it’s going to be perceived as a self-released slush pile, rather than a place where … Continue reading »