From: "John Zube" To: "Joe Toscano" Subject: 270101: Toscana, Your letter of 12.01.01: CD-ROM project, advertisement draft., ABC, financing competitive broadcasting of an educational nature Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 14:08:37 +1100 Organization: Libertarian Microfiche Publishing (Extract) Dear Joe,=20 your hand-written letter of 12/1/01 got buried for a while.=20 Thanks for the offer to reproduce a hint towards the CD-ROM library & = publishing project. Thanks also for the hint to the largerst A website: A-Infos, which I = still have to look up. (I have not yet coped with more than a fraction = of my previous downloads, which led me to my renewed CD-ROM interest.) My own descriptions of the project were usually too long. But upon one = U.S. libertarian's urgings (Don Lobo Tiggre, LIBERTARIAN ROUND TABLE), I = have reduced one draft to at least 628 pages. See the attachment. John Humphrey's first appeal for a Libertarian Library, note that he = wants to include anarchist texts as well, is also rather short. See the = attachment. As for a still shorter draft, in the form of a "classified = advertisement", perhaps something like this will do: WILL 300 ANARCHIST CD-ROMS BE ENOUGH? HOW MANY ANARCHISTS DOES IT TAKE TO FILL A CD-ROM? How many anarchist Mbs can and will you contribute towards a complete = anarchist publishing, library & information service efforts on ca. 300 = CD-ROMs, with all the desirable reference works, linked, like the = Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-ROM, to websites? Get entered in the = still small but growing list of interested people for the cooperative = filling of CD-ROMs, all produced only upon demand. They are, currently, = still the cheapest, easiest, most powerful, wide-spread & durable enough = alternative medium for all freedom books etc. For further details see: = www.geocities.com/libertarian_library/ or write to me. - PIOT, John = Zube, Libertarian Microfiche Publishing: www.acenet.com.au/~jzube & = http://butterbach.net/lmp/lmp_sup.htm - jzube@acenet.com.au - or: = P.O. Box 52 (35 Oxley St.) Berrima, NSW 2577, Australia, Tel.: (02) = 48771436. No fax! In the U.S. there were and are still, for decades, public radio = stations not funded by advertisements or taxes but voluntary = contributions by local community people and organizations. Some of them = "financed" themselves by the sale of their printed programmes and by = public meetings or via voluntary labour. In this district, too, we have = a Highlands FM station. Why the ca. 150 such stations, that existed for a while in Milan, Italy, = alone, were not continued, was so far not made clear to me by advocates = in freedom in broadcasting. Naturally, as many in one city, could not = expect to be very profitabl via advertisements. I would be interested in = a study on why most of them failed and why the remaining ones were = successful. Among the possibilities for financing them, which are not yet = sufficiently discussed, would be the sale of tickets or vouchers, = transferable, offering minutes of broadcasting time, with which the = holders could purchase e.g. the broadcasting of their favourite music, = lecture or discussion or which they could allocate to their favourite = educational individual or group as their gift certificate. At least a = considerable percentage of the total broadcasting programme could thus = be marketed and supported. Thus the sponsors would get some choice in = the programming in return. Time slots in different hours could be = differently priced. Most tickets or vouchers would be for the programmes = in the coming months, 1 or two months ahead and would be forfeited if = not utilized, with programming proposals and submitted, within a certain = period. It, too, would be something like a direct democracy or consumer = sovereignty arrangement. Nobody would be forced to contribute, as with = his taxes for the ABC, for the programming choices of others. That would = be much more in accordance with anarchistic principles than a tax funded = government radio station network. One would have to draw a fine line between messages that are cultural = and educational and those that are merely advertising messages favouring = the usual consumer products and services.=20 While I listen mostly, if at all, to the ABC, I am not its friend, since = most of its talk shows offer little that is of anarchist or libertarian = interest. On the contrary. I was surprised that they gave you a slot for = a time but did not expect it to last for long.=20 If you consider the ABC to be the property of all Australians, then why = not insist to give them their personal shares in it, so that they can = express their desires as shareholders? Naturally, they should also be = free to sell their shares. They might agree upon a covenant that no one should be allowed to own = more than e.g. 10 or 100 such shares. Transformation into such a coop would also a privatization form but = hardly one that consistent anarchists could object to. And should a future ABC be prevented to sell some of its products, from = programme guides to segments of its broadcasts, in any medium? The "public hands" are usually not very representative, even if quite = democratic and majoritarian voting takes place. Assume there would be voting on its programming or programmers, as there = is voting on parliamentary decisions: Assume that 2/3rd of the population would be entitled to vote in this = (excluding children, feeble-minded people, madmen and convicts), that = 2/3rds of them would bother to cast their votes (or requests), & that = those programs or programmers favoured would be selected by a 2/3rd = majority and that the latter made their programming decisions with a = 2/3rd majority, then you would have 2/3 x 2/3 x 2/3 x 2/3 =3D 16/81 or = about 1/5 of the population represented, falsely, as a majority. With past and present broadcasts becoming available online, presently = probably still free of charge, apart from telephone and service provider = connection charges, in the long run individually desired programmes of = the past and present could thus probably be obtained online, mostly for = a modereate fee, if not free of charge, at the expense of these = broadcasters. And many programmes may be offered in this way that were = never broadcast at all. As it is, most broadcasts are "SPAM", i.e., not desired by most = recipients, who are thus either forced to turn to another channel, = suffer it or turn their radio off. PIOT, John. CDROM628words LIBERTARIAN CD-ROM PUBLISHING & LIBERTARIAN LIBRARY WHAT?=20 Complete libertarian publishing library & information services for all = freedom texts not yet cheaply, permanently & easily accessible in any = medium, supplementing & listing all of freedom texts etc. offered in all = media, or cheaply combining them, with permission, if required. BY WHAT MEANS?=20 CD-ROMs, zipped, later CVDs, then still better disks, until all freedom = texts can be found on the Internet & large & multiple websites are easy, = fast & cheap enough to set up, maintain & download A public & growing list indicating all interested & inviting independent = collaboration or competition. CD-ROM disks, drives & burners are already wide-spread & cheap. CD-ROMs = are commercially pressed for as little as 50 cents. Each can contain, = zipped, 200 to 2,000 book titles. A lifetime's freedom reading on a mere = 10 CD-ROMs! A complete freedom library on perhaps no more than 300 = CD-ROMs!=20 Filling them will not only require extensive downloading & e-mailing of = already digitized texts but also extensive digitizing, mainly as a = labour of love. Luckily, scanners have become cheap & efficient & = division of labour for large jobs is an ancient invention. WHO? =20 Anyone interested in contributing libertarian Mbs, keyboarding, = scanning, proof-reading, editing & computer skills & copyrights = permissions. CD-ROMs, like microfiche & floppies, are essentially = self-help media but do mostly need collaborators to fill them. With = cheap, lasting, powerful & efficient alternative media anyone can be a = publisher, editor & compiler. HOW? =20 By keyboarding, scanning, downloading, alone or in association with = others. Sending Kbs & Mbs on floppies, partly filled CD-ROMs or via = e-mail - to the compilers of CD-ROMs.=20 By dividing the chores of e.g. digitizing whole books into manageable = portions between those who like a particular book.=20 By collaborating with & publicizing all who have already taken steps in = this direction. See the slowly growing list of interested people. WHY?=20 Because it is possible now, affordable, & achievable by enough = interested people.=20 We could use all our resources at our fingertips. We have never had them = yet. On CD-ROMs they could be made cheaply & conveniently accessible & = linked to current websites. In combination they could be rather useful. = Sufficient knowledge could give us considerable influence.=20 Climbing the mountains of liberty knowledge would not only provide us = with a great view but also realistic blueprints, the best programs, = strategies, tactics, advice, refutations & references. Remaining = disagreements would come closer to being settled. All valuable ideas, = discoveries, talents & opportunities could be brought to light & made = widely accessible. The Internet can do much but not yet everything or = optimally.