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Crowdfunded Linux Voice Magazine Releases First Issue CC-BY-SA

Posted by timothy on from the different-models-can-all-work dept.

M-Saunders (706738) writes Linux Voice, the crowdfunded GNU/Linux magazine that Slashdot has covered previously, had two goals at its launch: to give 50% of its profits back to the community after one year, and release each issue's contents under the Creative Commons after nine months. Well, it's been nine months since issue 1, so the whole thing is now online and free to share. Readers and supporters have also made audio versions of articles, for listening to on the commute to work.

7 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. 9 months? by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I haven't read this magazine yet; diidn't realize it existed until today.

    However, the computer industry moves so quickly -- is the information stale or outdated nine months after initial publication? If so, what's the point, other than a public relations exercise? This may be vulnerable to the same malady that killed the paper computer magazines of the 80's and 90's.

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:9 months? by M-Saunders · · Score: 5, Informative

      Linux Voice is heavily tutorial based, and we try to make them last as long as possible. But yes, some information can get outdated -- and that's why we're releasing content CC-BY-SA! Anyone can now take it and update it, put it online elsewhere, to benefit the whole community.

    2. Re:9 months? by MacTO · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Perhaps it is a good idea to read Linux Voice before commenting upon it's value, simply based upon the merit that it is a magazine.

      While certain aspects of a magzine do go out-of-date quickly, others don't. Nine month old news, not so great. Nine month old reviews are okay. They'll introduce you to a product, even if some information is outdated. Nine old month tutorials can be useful.

      Magazines do have merits other than content. The flow of information is more paced. Reading the news daily (or even hourly) means that you are more likely to run into redundant details across multiple articles. It also means that there is less time to write comprehensive stories, verify details, and edit the material. I'm not saying that they're perfect, but you really have to wonder about the quality of a lot of the online media when they publish as much a day as a magazine publishes in a month. Actually, I don't have to wonder. I've gone to many sites where the articles range from terrible to excellent, primarily because the authors range from terrible to excellent. Yet they won't cut the terrible authors because it's more important to have a continuous stream of updates than it is to invest in quality.

  2. Re:PDF? PDF??? by M-Saunders · · Score: 4, Informative

    1. There are HTML versions of many of the articles. 2. We're giving this away for free! To share and adapt. Feel free to pull the text from the PDFs and put it up on GitHub. If you're still angry about PDFs, we'll happily give you your money back... Oh wait, you got it for free! :-)

  3. Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here we go again, /. at its worst.
    A 116 page CC licensed magazine with dozens of articles, and our comments?
    That their format sucks, that it's out of date, that there is a smell spelling error on page 87, and so on.
    Way to go guys and gals, a fine example of what /. appears to be all about.

    1. Re:Slashdot by M-Saunders · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, our 3,200+ (and growing) subscribers have a different view, clearly. Not everyone has the time or inclination to search around the web, and while there's certainly lots of very good content out there, "it's like drinking from a fire hydrant" as the old quote goes. Our readers like a montly dose of Linux-related features, tutorials, interviews and reviews, neatly packaged up into one bundle, from a team they can trust. Sure, the market for computer magazines is much smaller today. But there clearly is a market, otherwise we wouldn't have raised £127,000 in a crowdfunding campaign and have a very satisfied readership (only three subscription cancellations since we started!). And of course some of the reviews on that page are a bit dated -- it's from nine months ago! But the tutorials should still be useful, and everyone is welcome to update them and share with the community.

  4. Re:PDF? PDF??? by M-Saunders · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We (the editorial staff) use FOSS to make the magazine content: in my case Vim, AbiWord, Gimp etc. We're all geeks and not designers, so we hired one, and her tool of choice is InDesign. We would like to move over to Scribus at some point though -- and possibly even fund some missing features that we'd need to make the magazine!