Note: As of this writing, the E2 FreeBook Project has not been
officially sanctioned to call itself
E2 anything. If the project turns out to offend, it will be removed, and I will set it up in a different way, under a different name. I respect the work done on
E2 greatly, and will not
infringement on the name in any unwanted way. I simply find it to be the perfect place to begin
idealist.
Note: Despite several pats on the shoulder, I received nearly no members of the project. I was recommended to turn the goals over to the WikiBooks project, and have already begun talks with them.
Permission for nuking granted.
The E2 FreeBook Project is the logical
next step in
the Internet Revolution, at least in this
noder's humble mind. It is an extension of three intersection technological
wonders:
Electronic publishing,
Print-on-Demand, and of course,
E2 and similar (lesser)
knowledge centers that have been born by
the internet.
The
philosophy is, that there is a severe
mismatch between what competent people with very little effort can produce, and what the
industrial and
commercial sectors offer at inflated prices. Just about any
E2 noder or talented
internet user can put together archives of knowledge in a given
topic, ranging from
Napoleon to
genetics. At the same time,
college and
university students the world over pay
extortionist prices for
mass produced books on such topics.
High school and younger students, and a large part of societies with limited or no
educational infrastructure, often cannot afford the luxury of
learning beyond their level. Some cannot even afford to learn at all.
The E2 FreeBook Project has as its goal the following:
- Connecting and organizing noders, and research-minded non-noders, interested in providing the unfortunate (and basically anyone else) with free and/or cheap high-grade study books on topics at levels from high-school through university and post-university learning.
- Structuring efforts of these people into the creation of books that will be offered for free (as electronic books) or cheaply (printed editions through print-on-demand services).
- With sufficient books, create awareness about the existence of free/affordable study materials amongst those not fortunate enough to freely buy the far more expensive versions available.
- Create awareness in educational institutions of high quality, low price/free materials for use in teaching, especially where said institutions lack funding to easily provide the level of education that future generations need and deserve.
- Though printed editions are priced as low as possible, the intent is to leave room for a small profit, which will be donated to E2 in an effort to make it the primary base of operations for the project (hence its name).
How to participate
Participation in the E2 FreeBook Project does not necessarily require a
PhD; all books will be based around the need for adequatedly educated supervision, but elements like
research and some
editing, even
draft writing, are open to anyone with the interest in aiding those
less fortunate than the rest of us.
To participate, send an
email to E2FreeBook___@___hotmail.com (remove _underscores_), detailing your
fields of interest (
topics), your level and
field of
education, the sort of work you would like to participate in, and of course the amount of time you intend to devote. All this will go into
planning assignments, so that no
participant is
overburdened or lacks
things to do.
In general, participants will be
organized into '
flexible groups'. This means that should a participant lack time or decide to leave,
workflow can easily be rerouted. In this way, the writing of books becomes a
community endevour, not a burden on any single
individual.
Workflow
The
intent is to use the highly
flexible nature of
E2 as a
production platform to develop books on. This has been tried before, and is an interesting way to develop books in a
public forum. Content can be added flowingly, until a complete
product is achieved. And, of course, after that has been turned into a FreeBook, these E2 nodes will serve as a
forum for updating the material, until another
edition of the book is in order.
Organizing the creation of FreeBooks will be the work of a central, dedicated group, at the time consisting of
cognis and whoever I may draw upon. This group will do the
work of asking around who can write what, and converting final results into publishable
e-books and
books.
Long-term goals
Aside from
world domination and
sacrificing virgins to
The Elder Ones, the long-term goals of the E2 FreeBook Project is to provide a well-stocked
library of books to lighten the cost of
education for
young people.