permaculture

[Permaculture Cooperative <permaculturecoop@gmail.com>]

have updated the long post from this morning, and posted it with some links
etc

1. *Group Effort*:

The Permaculture Designers Manual was a group effort: the manuscript was
written and edited by Bill’s x-wife: Reny Mia Slay. It was illustrated by
Andrew Jeeves. Do they get any money, royalties or credit ? where are they
now ? I heard Reny went broke and now drives a taxi.

2. *Sourcing*:

There are precious few sources, or references for such a big, dense book ?
so, the filter of Bill’s mind, then his dictation/colloboration to Reny and
to Andrew make this legal, but maybe not the most ethical way to write such
a encyclopedic designers manual. The contents of the manual are drawn from
all over the world, and re-branded “permaculture”. For instance, do a search
for permaculture in relation to the ecoburb Village Homes in Davis
California.

http://gaiapermaculture.com/projects/permaculturecooperative/blog/2009/11/17/live-together-or-die-alone-on-copyright-cooperation/

10. *What-If for Permaculture.coop* ?

What if the 300 institutes and hundreds of design and related permaculture
businesses and cooperatives and organisations, established a 
*Permaculture.coop
Intercooperation Framework* (using Mondragon as a good model, like Mollison
said in 1983 http://permaculture.tv/?s=mondragon)  What if this
Permaculture.coop Intercooperation Framework had a Retirement Fund, that
could provide Pioneers like Mollison with an income and real, tangible
support ?  Like maintaining their farms in Tasmania and Tyalgum ? What if
there was a sensible, global mass-multi-media campaign developed, where the
large array of books, DVDs, courses etc, was managed like a global commons,
and exploited sustainably ? If we gave away FREE a lot more courses, books,
videos etc, and got a lot more PAID work and funds, and expanded the
international permaculture network, this argument would simply disappear
into the history of the 1990s. http://permaculture.tv/?p=1224
http://permaculture.tv/?tag=mondragon<http://permaculture.tv/?tag=mondragon%20>

11. *Freedom is Not Free*

I know how much time, money, resources go into publishing - I was webmaster
for *The Australian* and *The Daily Telegraph*, and about 30 other
newspapers in Sydney at News Ltd, between 2000-2003. The realities of modern
print-publishing are really pretty dire. Its not easy printing these
Designer Manuals. But it would be a hell of a lot easier if there was a
cooperation system that went beyond email exchanges and some casual sending
of funds. Online publishing is a nightmare. Quite literally MOST of the
economic value of internet publishing is being gathered by Google. Look at
the Google Books Settlement or this for a taste
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randall-amster/a-googlement-above-the-pe_b_165024.html

12. *Reality Check*

Like Evan, who I respect, I have been trying to get the International
Permaculture Network to adjust to the realities of the 21st century; sudden,
abrupt cllimate change, globalisation, neoliberalism and the Internet. Evans
publishing of the PDF is important as a political gesture but its irrelevant
in terms of effecting sales of the book. Reading PDFs online is not a great
experience <http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030714.html>, and you would have
to be pretty desperate (and poor) to do so. Those that can afford to buy the
book, will. But sadly, many people in the West, and most people in the
South, and that includes those who need them cannot afford them.

13. *A different model*:

The computer book publisher, Oreilly invented a new subscription based
service, that allow you to spend say, 20 USD per month and you get access to
a limited number of chapters and videos. What would happen if we did
something similar ? a quality online offering ? allowing users to pay and
login and access books, videos etc online for a subscription. It would
actually create a market where none existed before. We could then pay
authors, and offer free access for schools etc.
http://my.safaribooksonline.com/home?subpage=hometab2

 As they said on the TV series “Lost”… “Live together or die
alone<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Together,_Die_Alone>
”


On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 12:32 PM, Permaculture Cooperative <
permaculturecoop@gmail.com> wrote:

> 1. Group Effort: the Designers Manual is a group effort manuscript was
> written and edited by Bill's x-wife: Reny Mia Slay. It was illustrated by
> Andrew Jeeves. Do they get any money, royalties or credit ? where are they
> now ? I heard Reny went broke and now drives a taxi.



plans http://gaiapermaculture.com
video http://Permaculture.TV
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