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I think there is a confusion in the article. While Amazon no doubt is a corporate giant and almost a monopoly the rise of ebook publishing changes the ballgame a lot. Ebookery is larger than the Kindle and it is very interesting to see how independent publishers as well as self publishing has embraced the ebook option. Granted that the Kindle is a closed format but there nonetheless are many other ebook readers especially if the epub format becomes a standard. (that looks likley). The everyday ipad maybe offers up to a dozen or more free ebook reader -- other than kindle or ibook -- apps with access to many catalogues. Those sites still stuck in text format -- and the Marxist Internt Archive is one example -- are going o be limited by their shallow pdf offerings and lack of epub options...but it is clear that a transition is underway -- one that could make 'independent' publishing much more viable because it changes the whole distribution equation. An example is the ebook catalogue initiative, Reading From the Left http://readingfromtheleft.com/ and sites like Scribd --which I use a lot -- http://www.scribd.com/ offers a new platform for easy distribution of pdf format files.Even for 'independent publishers' (at a price, of course). One of the issues the socialist left has to confront is the fact that its project has been dependent on the hard copy outputs of Modernism -- especially the printed newspaper -- for so long that publishing to hard copy is now almost a standard. There is a sequence I think in Eisenstein's October where the camera pans down and through huge stacks of freshly printed newspapers waiting to be distributed to the propaganda hungry masses.It's a telling moment in the film relAtive to the intervention of the Bolsheviks. Well, things have changed and while the transition is very uncomfortable and a rocky road I think there is enough happening to suggest that early adopters are going to be reap the rewards. I mean it changes the distribution equation and the old reserve of the 'left wing bookshop' stuck in some side street in one place is no longer required protocol. The 'market', technically at least, has expanded across continents. While the left has had a long time love affair with pdf maybe its time to explore the epub and related file formats at least for text based books and pamphlets.PDF can be a bit cumbersome on a reader as there are more bells and whistles on offer from the new formats. As for 'journals' -- the newspapers et al -- it is a hard call to know how to proceed. I don't think WSWS or Labour Start have ticked all the boxes and my web cloud preferences suggest that building consciously online communities is a preferable way to proceed rather than simply uploading articles. I also think, unlike WSWS, that it doesn't have to be either/or -- that hard copy has to continue in the mix.... But I'm not going to make a ruling as Rupert Murdoch is engaged with the same conundrum. I also think that since the web is one big mash up it is much harder -- nigh impossible -- to sustain by dint of engineering a strict editorial line.Online, opinions are all , so a certain open dialectic has to be put in place. You can see that unfolding on Facebook for instance in a way that begins to transcend elist chat. But the irony is that since no web place is an island the potential for aggregating left opinion and discussion, reportage and argument is very practicable. The fact that so many socialist enterprises still pursue a closed discussion suggests how unprepared they are to exploit the digital universe in the clouds that awaits them... However, I don't think it is set to be an easy journey. ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
