Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?
Anya Kamenetz, DIYU, April 30, 2010.

The question had to be asked, I guess: why wasn't the Edupunk book released as a free download? Author Anya Kamenetz responds, "I am a professional writer and journalist, not an academic or a performer, and it's important to me therefore that I be paid specifically for my writing and reporting." Well, leaving aside the fact that this response is a tautology, I would respond there are other ways to be paid. Kamenetz anticipates the objection. Writing a book, she says, is better than writing in a magazine where "the advertisers have a whisper of influence" and better than speaking engagements where "I am collecting revenue directly from organizations that have particular agendas."

But this requires us to somehow swallow the idea of the purity of the book, which, frankly, is a load of hogwash. It's beyond credibility to thing that publishers don't have influence over what's publish. There's a lot I like about Kamenetz's book (which I'm reading now, having bought it before the unexpected free copy arrived (so now I have two)) but it also represents the commodification of the idea of edupunk. That's what publishers do. They capture ideas, and own them, later reframing them to suit their own purpose.

As a final refutation of her answer: does she feel her views on edupunk are somehow less tainted by commercial interests than, say, mine? Or Jim Groom's? Because she got paid to write about edupunk and we didn't? Of course not. Groom and I are just as much writers and journalists as she is (well, at least I am; I'll let Groom speak for himself). Being published isn't what makes you a journalist. It's what makes you a paid journalism, and in a world where everyone is a journalist, you are not being paid for your journalism. Which kind of begs the question, then, doesn't it: why, actually, did Kamenetz get paid? (Hint) (Hits Today: 0 Total: 800) [Direct Link] [Tags: Books, Edupunk, Marketing, Online Learning, Academia]

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Re: Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?

Leonard Low, April 30, 2010

"I am a professional writer and journalist, not an academic or a performer, and it's important to me therefore that I be paid specifically for my writing and reporting."

I am a professional educator and my university is dedicated to professional teaching. By Anya's logic, we should be compensated for everything we create - our professional work should not be available for free. There is no difference: to not release "DIY U" as a free download while clamouring for educators make their work available for free seems rather hypocritical to me. :p [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?

Steven D. Krause, May 1, 2010

I agree that Kamenetz's making some kind of dubious arguments about how influence works in magazine publishing, how it (apparently?) doesn't work with book publishing, etc. But I don't have a problem with her saying "this is how I earn money," and while I suspect it isn't explained (I haven't read this book, at least not yet), I think there is a subtle difference in the way that she gets paid as an independent writer and the way that the likes of me get paid as a tenured professor get paid.

If Kamenetz puts her work out there as a free download, she doesn't sell as many books and therefore make as much money. This is debatable for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is that there's reasonably good evidence that people do actually buy books even when they are available for free online. But I still see her logic. On the other hand, I can (and often do) put all kinds of my teaching and scholarly work up online to disseminate it as widely as possible, which I assume is very much in the spirit of DIY and Kamenetz's book, and I still get paid the same. My university will continue to pay me if I put the material up online or if I don't put it up online-- it doesn't matter to them. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?

Frank Lowney, May 2, 2010

The assertion that publishers commodify ideas is misleading. The implication is that their copyrights exclude ideas from use by others and thereby enable them to sell those ideas exclusively. This is not correct, at least not in the U.S, where copyright applies only to the "unique expression on an idea," not the idea itself. The same goes for facts. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?

leighblackall, May 4, 2010

I still haven't bought her book. I might have, if I'd been given the opportunity to read it online. Instead, I'll have to wait for my library to get a copy. You see, a book to me is an artifact. A useless object that sits on a shelf on a wall to sometimes gaze at from my lounge chair, maybe lend to a friend, maybe scan for a quote if I can't be bothered turning on the computer and doing a word search. I buy them when they're good. I don't buy them before I know they're good. The way this is going, I might not even read it! She needs an online version up now to make up for these remarks! Leigh Blackall Canberra. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

Re: Why Don't I Release DIY U As A Free Download?

5tein, May 6, 2010

Leonard, the difference is that as an professional educator you receive a salary for the work you do and, depending on your institution's IP policy, the things you produce. Writers often don't receive a salary, but are remunerated by the capitalist system of supply and demand. There is probably a broad audience for Kamentetz's book; otherwise I doubt a publisher would have picked it up and gambled on publishing and promoting it. Doesn't mean her content is unique or irreplaceable (I haven't read it, so I couldn't say one way or the other) but at least that it fit a perceived need at the right time as judged by people who could realize its mass distribution at a profit.

Stephen's point that there are other ways to get paid is a strong one, but authoring an entire book on-the-job is not a luxury many of us have. Still, from what snippets and reviews I /have/ read there does seem to be at least a scent of hypocrisy in this decision. [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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