UoPublishing
From UoWiki
The Uo wiki is full of amazing texts, wonderful pieces of individual or collective writing that often accumulate incisive comments, links and extensions via this and other uo wikis. UoPublishing is the methodology we are developing for use in the Uo wiki and associated services, for producing writing and published material.
Please document further developments and ideas for this practice here.
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[edit] Distribution
A tried and tested method (see UoJournal 1 and 2) has been to pick a specific event, that requires a specific intervention with some of the ideas developed by the Uo. The FacultyCartography produced the first CoUoPilot at the Jonctions/Verbindingen 8 meeting in Brussels organised by consantvzw . in late 2004. Only 10 copies were produced, and the license agreement (CopyCan) was written by hand on the back of each one. They were given to very speicifc people because we needed to give them more information than it was possible to convey during the short time we had to talk and meet.
This has been a useful model for CommunicationsOfTheUo because it is about a specific communication - directed at a specific group or context.
[edit] Production Process
A broad, repeatable outline of the production process for the UoJournal and NowOrNever has been something like this:
- Grab wiki pages from the UoWikis and OtherUoServers (or add them if necessary).
- Format downloaded pages uniformly
- Proofread and add any missing links/content
- Put one of the UoLogo s on the cover
- Add brief about publication to the UoJournal page
- Add a link to a pdf printable version of the publication, and an editable version in OpenOffice format or something useful.
The various tools that have been used in the production UoPress zines so far are: OpenOffice , vim/lynx/phpwiki , html2ps , psutils and ghostscript .
The simplest way is probably to paste into and then edit with OpenOffice, then output as pdf, or use OpenOffice's booklet printing feature to make a foldable A5 booklet .
A good way to bind these brochures is by stiching them with a needle and thread. This is much more time-consuming than stapling them, but the long staplers required to staple bi-folded A4 are quite hard to come by. The process of sewing them together is also quite fun, and can be enjoyed socially in a kind of TextSewingCircle. Highly recommended.
[edit] Background
In September 2003, the Uo Faculty of Cartography sat down and assembled a text called TheFreemasonsOfTheFuture from various sources on this Uo wiki. The process was enjoyable, very different to sitting down and writing a 'text'. The assemblers were very happy with the outcome. Nothing happened with the text for a while, then one of the assemblers proposed it be published in Mute magazine .
Actually putting the article into publishable form was difficult and involved editorial work, as well as further development of the text. It was quite satisfactory, but not as fun as the initial assembly.
More recently, the editor of the upcoming issue of the European Journal of Higher Education proposed that we publish a text there. After an unsuccessful experiment involving several researchers to generate a 'new' text, the editor asked if they could re-publish the Freemasons text. This seemed like a good idea, although the deadline was almost up.
So, several Faculty of Cartography members went to work on the text and produced a third draft , along with illustrations to be published in the EHJA. This process was far more satisfying than the last, involving more researchers and conflicting edits, and the result remains to be determined (being the final outcome of a collaboration with the EHJA editors).
If, at the start of this process, with the first invitation to produce a text, the text had been started on the wiki, then edited by researchers and given a deadline after which editing would stop, the process of Uo Publication would be a very interesting experiment indeed.
UoPublishing is a project to further develop this method of publication, examine its shortcomings and problems, and seek to provide a way of working that takes deals with some of the pressures and problems of deadline-driven authorship of 'texts', particularly in the context of a loose and sometimes antagonistic group such as the the Uo.
[edit] Creditation
One of the problems has been figuring out who to credit for work, without recourse to reactionary or default use of authorship. This can cause problems of visibility, percieved lack of ability to act without 'consensus' and other dubious problems. The most useful solution seems to be simply informing the uo wiki that the work is being used, and hoping that authors who want credit to themselves of their organisations or pseudonyms to add themselves to the list of credits.
Biographies can be dealt with in a similar way, although a collective biography could in theory be authored in the same way.
[edit] Payment
Another problem may arise when payment for texts is an issue. In this instance it is probably best to adopt a model of naming the primary point of contact between the Uo and the publication wishing to engage. In this instance it becomes part of the deal: a claimer could be issued along these lines:
Financial Claimer Faculty Member X is being paid �Y to work on this text. It is their responsibility to negotiate terms of that payment with publication Z. If you work on this document and wish to be remunerated for your labour, it is probably best to approach Faculty Member X to make an informal arrangement.
[edit] Biographies
If author biographies are needed, it may make sense to create a faculty biography, or use a biography for the Uo in general instead of individual ones. Of course each case is different, but the AboutUo section is available and easy to modify into a general Uo Biography. Similarly, the UoTimeline is an attempt to formulate the 'public' activities of the Uo temporally, which may provide a good basis for any biographies that are needed.
[edit] Intellectual Property
This is a significant issue. In fact the publication of TheFreemasonsOfTheFuture did cause a conflict of sorts where some parts of it were used in an academic publication (or a draft thereof) without credit (in draft), although one member of the Uo was contacted privately to discuss this, the lack of creditation or clear statement about ownership of the text made it difficult for the person who wanted to use that material to request permission or cite the text. There was a small fracas on the uo list which might be educational, and the Uo Historification Committee still need to write up their findings on how the situation was (or was not) resolved.
It might be best for copyright to rest with anyone who puts their name on the creditation list, although that might be restrictive for those who wish to re-use the thing and contribute to it without naming themselves publically.
Creative Commons lisences are a good possibility for this kind of thing, but would need to be investigated thourougly.
