Accessible Planet

Did you know that with as few as 24 pages of content, you can have an actual book (you know those ORDs – Old Reading Devices) available for sale on Amazon through their CreateSpace service?

I became vaguely aware of Amazon’s print-on-demand service a few years ago, but I was reluctant to go down that route because I still had (and still do have) boxes of my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself sitting in my living room. I wasn’t keen on using CreateSpace until more of the already printed copies sold.

However, recently, this realization struck me: I was doing potential readers a disservice by not having paperbacks available on Amazon. Rather than having my book available where people buy millions of books online. I was expecting them to happen across my tiny website, to realize I had a book for sale and then to buy said book. How inconsiderate is that?

i am happy to say that I have corrected my thinking and that paperback copies of I’ll Do It Myself are now available on Amazon and on CreateSpace, (Of course, autographed copies are still available directly from this blog.)

Much too my relief, uploading my book to CreateSpace was relatively quick and painless. Actually, that was the easy part of the whole process.

Some individuals might say that by having the paperback format now available on Amazon creates a passive income. I say: bull hooey! I now need to ensure potential readers can find my book amidst the millions of other books; that requires work. It might not mean as much work as writing the book in the first place, but work is still needed nevertheless. I like to consider this as less-effort income, which, really, is way more accurate than passive income the big guys talk about.

Now that I know how easy CreateSpace is to use, I’ll be going through previously created content to see what I might be able to repackage and to offer to readers where they prefer to buy books. Of course, the goal will be to provide quality content of value; too much content offered on Amazon is lacking in value. Readers deserve better than that!

This plan dovetails nicely with the intent of the 4-Hour Workday: to generate more “less-effort income” so that I can get out and enjoy more of life. I know my Faith kitty would have approved.

I'd like to make a web application that will enable teachers to create simple "books" with hot spots on each page. The hot spots might play a sound or do some other action like changing to another page. Really simple stuff.

For Immediate Release

The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus supports the Electronic Frontier Foundation concerns regarding DRM in HTML5

BERN & SUVA, June 14 2013 – The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus adopted a statement this week supporting the formal objection lodged by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) regarding the HTML Working Group’s charter.

As explained in the EFF’s objection (see link: https://www.eff.org/pages/drm/w3c-formal-objectionhtml-wg), the W3C’s Working Group responsible for developing the next version of HTML, a core technology for the World Wide Web, has published a draft specification regarding Digital Rights Management (DRM), the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) specification. The EFF objection seeks to invalidate the HTML Working Group’s mandate to develop DRM enabling technologies, as specified in the working group’s charter - “supporting playback of protected content”.

Much has been said about EME, especially since its advancement to First Public Working Draft status in May, 2013. Many worry about its impact on digital rights, access, fair use, privacy and innovation. Many have signified their concerns to the W3C, whether through letters, petitions and discussions, most notably on the various W3C mailing lists supporting communications of this work. Most recently, the EFF has filed a formal objection to tell the W3C that DRM has no place in HTML. The Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) wishes to lend its voice to this movement of protest. The IGC believes that the inclusion of digital rights management (DRM) in HTML5 has the potential to stifle innovation and seriously compromise the rights of end users (see statement: http://igcaucus.org/igc-statement-drm-html5).

The IGC therefore calls on the W3C to stop work on the Encrypted Media Extensions specification and revise its decision to include this work in the HTML Working Group charter.

About the Internet Governance Caucus

The policies that shape the Internet impact not only the development of the technologies themselves, but also the realization of internationally agreed human rights, social equity and interdependence, cultural concerns, and both social and economic development. Our vision is that Internet governance should be inclusive, people centered and development oriented. Our contributions to the various forums relevant to Internet governance, will strive to ensure an information society which better enables equal opportunity and freedom for all.

End

Source : Norbert Bollow & Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro
Internet Governance Caucus
http://igcaucus.org/
coordinators@igcaucus.org

Original press release (PDF)