[Fsf-friends] fsf must rate and talk about application softwares too

[Kush]

Krishna Pagadala wrote:
>      We sorely lack access to good libraries and books
>
> As far as libraries go, while unaccountable governments are one problem, I think the bigger problem is cost and affordability. The only solution is to use/create Freedom Knowledge like wikipedia. Buy book/magazine/software/videos that is copylefted or public domain only. Write them and release them under a copyleft license.
>
> -Krishna
>
>   
I beg to differ. There are other innovative ways to spread knowledge in 
cases where electrical power and hardware cost/access is a problem. 
Books, magazines and newspapers are the cheapest sources of knowledge 
still and many people have tried many ideas to have books spread around. 
Wikipedia is a very good solution to broaden the horizon and collaborate 
on systematising knowledge. We have to keep an open mind and try various 
approaches to make libraries viable/ possible. I know of a few 
innovative approaches and there may be thousands of others. (such as
1 --discounted books bookpool.com(50% costs for latest computer books 
--doesn't work in India though because of customs/bureaucracy) or
2 --collaborative ventures of an Indian publisher with Oreilly in Bombay 
which has reduced costs of latest technical books drastically,
3--bookcrossing.com (sharing books),
4--article in the bbc which mentioned revolving libraries at street 
corners  --leave a book at designated street corners and people will 
read them and return them back to those places  --experiment very very 
successful in beijing or shanghai or some chinese city (no fixed cost 
for hiring large buildings for libraries),
5--mobile libraries,
6--library networks etc etc)


Cost is not a constraint to an innovative mind (as the saying goes 
--where there is a will, there is a way). There are analogies to the 
free software world too  --we have quite a lot of ebooks which can be 
copied onto CDs/DVDs for increasing penetration and knowledge 
(producingoss.com pragmaticprogrammer.com (ruby version 1) cathedral and 
the bazaar, unix programming culture, hacker folklore, etc etc) but I 
don't think anybody has tried to list so many titles and give away 
documentation etc the way gutenberg.net is doing  from a one stop 
platform or website, in India, either on a state level or a 
national/regional level. The opencd.org ultimatebootcd.com etc are not 
known as much as they could be known. Magazines spread a lot of CDs but 
ultimately they end up as plastic junk --time some innovation was made 
in reducing the plastic waste by making the CDs recyclable/reusable.

Kush