With regard to making the time-consuming work of producing rev/Transcript programming books financially viable, how about something like this ...
A 2-tiered rev wiki would be set up, one tier of which would be open access (gratis) for all registered rev users - the other would be available by yearly subscription and compiled/mediated by Dan (and any other gurus he might need to help him). Here's how it could work ... Any registered rev user could contribute an article to the open wiki. This could be as short as a Q&A about how to place an icon in a button with accompanying code snippets, or as long as an in-depth article about the rev mesage path, XML parsing, the use of sockets etc. etc. Any other registered rev user could read these articles and even edit them to correct errors or ambiguities, or just comment on them and/or polish them up. Naturally this open wiki would be mediated by some of the rev community in the same way that other wikis are, to prevent vandalism or abuse. All submissions to the open wiki would be subject to an agreement on the part of the authors that the submitted material would be posted on the open wiki as a resource for everyone to read and edit as required, in return for the right on the part of the wiki administrators to incorporate the material in whatever form they see fit, into commercial publications. The second tier of the wiki would be more book-like, with articles and code examples organized into comprehensive "chapters" that cover particular areas of rev development. These would have been verified and edited by Dan (and his team) and would/could combine the raw materials from the "open wiki" with more conceptual material and background into the subject, with illustrative figures and tested code examples. This part of the wiki would be accessible by subscription only and although it would not be editable by anybody other than Dan's team of gurus, it could still be in a wiki format to enable Dan and his team to collaborate on the compiling and editing work, or to solict the subscriber's comments on the work. Some limited time access to the "revBbook wiki" could be also be included for purchasers of Rev products to get them going with rev and Transcript. After this initial period (say 3 - 6 months), they would also have to pay a subscription. As a new user to rev, I would love to have been able to have access to something like this. Like the chapters in Dan's book, the revBook wiki would offer a conceptual view of rev and Transcript to show a new user the landscape and get him/her started with good rev/Transcript programming practices. This could also address the common rev newbie gripe about the lack of structured documentation - perhaps making rev more popular in the process, leading to more subscribers to the revBook wiki, making rev more populkar, leading to ... More sophisticated rev users tackling some new project would find articles that introduce them to advanced programming concepts like cryptography, internet authentication, the use of externals etc. The "value" in the revBook wiki would be the access to the organised and authoritative pedagogical "chapters" of the kind that Dan has in his books - perhaps with the option to print them as pdfs. The open access wiki would still be a useful resource, but more like the kind of searchable FAQ stuff that rev users already have access to - but greatly expanded. The hook for getting people to continue subscribing would be the ongoing updates and expansion of the revBook wiki. Unlike a book, it could be updated regularly and could more more closely reflect and respond to the rev community's current issues/obsessions/neuroses. Subscribers to the revBook wiki could even contribute to its evolution e.g. by voting on the chapters that they would most like to see. To improve the fiscal rewards for Dan (and his team), runrev could perhaps offer yearly Revolution upgrades bundled with yearly subscriptions to the revBook wiki. Best Gordon _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
