[739] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Sharetext?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (NOONAN%MSUS1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.e)
Tue Jul 14 14:45:43 1992
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1992 13:38:27 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
From: NOONAN%MSUS1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@ricevm1.rice.edu>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Risks and Rewards of Sharing
Mary Birmingham, the director of Metronet, suggested to me recently that
there at least two ways to pay for the efforts of individual scholars
and authors.
The first relies on grant money and/or salaries to pay for work related
production of knowledge/information. The authors are paid up-front or
as the work progresses. They may not be adequately compensated on a per
hour basis - but they are compensated without risk.
The second entails risk for both the author and publisher. They produce
the work and hope that it will attract enough notice to make the effort
worthwhile. The compensation rarely reaches the level of the salaried
or grant supported work.
I think that a third model exists.
I think that the internet has fostered a new type of publication -
sharetext. An individual or group sets out to solve a problem for
themselves and in the process creates something that can be of use to
others. At first they share the product with friends and colleagues,
later they begin to explore expanding their circle of influence and perhaps
even getting paid a bit for all the work they did. Sharing drafts of
work-in-progress provides a mechanism for improving the work and testing
the interest level of the potential market. Like shareware the purpose may
be to provide a working model of a more complete product so that the
user will be tempted to pay for it.
Producing shareware and perhaps even sharetext is a hard way to make a
buck. Most people who use these products - even regularly - don't pay
for them.
Final comment: I am appalled by the failure of those who have been
compensated without substantial risk to share via the networks at least
executive summaries of their grant and association funded work. Most
reports already have summary chapters, so placing them on the net would
entail little effort and might even place the work in the growing body
of sharetext.
