Theos-Talk Archives (May 2005 Message tt00554)

Dear Jerry:

Like the printing revolution which changed the world by making written 
material widely available to the readers around the world, we have the 
Internet revolution. Internet is still in its infancy as far as the 
widespread effective usage is concerned. My thinking is how quickly and 
effectively can be it used to spread information. All the issues and 
questions you have mentioned are valid. But there are some extremely 
distinct advantages in using Internet to disseminate information. We have 
had an instance in Dallas Morning News, there was a law suit trying to 
prevent the Newspaper publishing a story. Even before the case could be 
heard by a District Judge, the Newspaper went ahead and posted it on their 
website making the law suit moot. Then there are the issues of editorial 
control or sensorship that can come into play when material has to be 
printed; in addition to the time delay in the publishing anything in hard 
copy. Then there is also the cost involved in the publishing process. With 
today's on-demand printing, any book can be printed at home if you have a 
fast laser printer so there can be cost reduction and lack of inventory 
storage. Of course the livelyhood of the author and research costs.

Now we have the Internet tool. My loud thinking is how do one tap the power 
of Internet to publish and disseminate information. I do not have all the 
answers; the whole Internet revolution is in progress and I do not think 
any one of us can predict how it will ultimately develop; what new 
innovative discoveries and inventions people are going to come up with in 
the years to come.

One area that has seen development of free access is on-line editions of 
Newspapers. Most of them are free; some may need registration to enable 
them to know from where the customers are coming from. Since these 
piggy-back on the hard copy editions, the publishers are able to make free 
editions available to Internet users.

When I suggest publishing free on the Internet, perhaps I am coming from an 
idealistic viewpoint - a situation we may end up in the years to come. In 
the meanwhile all we can do is to encourage writers to try to publish their 
material on Internet to the extent they are comfortable and free 
availability of on-line storage from some of the free websites or 
interested individuals who have access to storage space. (Some years ago 
when there was a situation when we we looking for storage space for 
theosophical materials, there was an offer from a theosophist who had 
access to storage space to provide free storage space.) I see great 
potential possibilities in the area of free Internet publications, even 
though it may take years. In the meanwhile all we can do is to brainstorm 
for new and creative ideas.

mkr




At 04:00 PM 05/19/05 -0700, Jerry Hejka-Ekins wrote:

> Dear Ramadoss, friends,
>
> I have many times seen your message advocating that instead of paper and
> ink publishing, everything should be instead published on the Internet.
> I have been giving this matter considerable thought and I agree with
> many of the ideals behind this notion, such as:
> > > > > > > > > > > > > > rest clipped <<<<<<<<<<<<<<


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