Comments on: Can Publishers survive Open Access? We’ll find out when How Change Happens is published today

By: Lis Jackson

Lis Jackson — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 08:07:41 +0000

I just had a look for your new book on Amazon. Apparently, customers who bought it also bought ‘Heart of Darkness’. Clearly ‘How Change Happens’ is set to become a classic!

By: kb

kb — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 06:52:24 +0000

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/hypernormalisation-review-adam-curtis-bbc-iplayer-a-masterfully-dark-dive-into-our-dissociative-a7367166.html

as well as reading this excellent book also find time to watch hypernormalisation

By: Krisnah Poinasamy

Krisnah Poinasamy — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:52:23 +0000

The MOOCs might provide a way to prototype that.

PS looks like the London 2012 team struck again with cover above.

By: marco

marco — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:14:21 +0000

Go, Duncan! It is a bold experiment to release the book as a free PDF, but I believe it is courageous and worth praise. I just downloaded it this morning, and at the same time I will be glad to buy the printed version as well. Radiohead came out with their album “In Rainbows” with a completely new business model, pay-as-you-like for the download of the zip file containing all the songs. Critics from the music industry say they made less revenue compared to selling the physical version, but they choose to forget the savings on dematerialization (it costs virtually nothing to share a pdf versus producing a physical CD or vinyl).
On a different note of translating the book into other products, if the HCH were to take other forms, a MOOC is definitely interesting. I’d also be interested in workshop formats: 2-3 days workshop, hands on, problem-based teaching, were people get to learn from the content and at the same time on a challenge they are facing.

By: Martin Belcher

Martin Belcher — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 06:39:32 +0000

A blog on the different format access metrics at various points after publication would be interesting. A few years back I was involved with the development of a book very much targeted at readers in African tertiary institutions (How To Accelerate Your Internet: A practical guide to bandwidth management and optimization using open source software). We made that available to download as PDF and CC Attribution-ShareAlike licence and we also published it as a book via a print on demand service from Lulu.com. Access figures for each were surprising, at least to me. I’ve since moved on and don’t have the exact figures to hand but we sold something like 2000 copies in a couple of years. We had about four times that number as PDF downloads in the same period. Considering the nature of the content I was pretty surprised. I never expected such a high level of hard copy purchasing.

The book and download are still available, although trying to chase down the links just now, one sees the lack of permanency of (at least some) online publications. The book is available from the publisher but the PDF is not (the book Website no longer exists). Well at least not from the original publishing organisation (INASP). It is available from someone else – the benefits of the licensing terms I guess.

Good luck with your book.

By: Duncan Green

Duncan Green — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 05:42:27 +0000

Or maybe include a wiki version of books where people can add their own paras etc, and then compare the original and the wiki version after a couple of years?

By: Krisnah Poinasamy

Krisnah Poinasamy — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 22:26:41 +0000

Bought the Play Books version yesterday (26th) – very much looking forward. Thanks for continuing to inspire.

On format – digital first/only – allows highlighting, endless commenting and then review all your comments at once rather than page by page. PDF is best for ‘book-like’ scribbling and you can share PDFs (not eBooks) – better for knowledge sharing? Next step is surely Google Docs-editing for marking up books – seeing my friends’ live comments (or not).

By: Sharon Bell

Sharon Bell — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 20:41:07 +0000

My hardback copy arrived in Aotearoa/NZ on Wednesday. Still at the sniffing pages/rubbing cover stage though before I take a highlighter to it.

By: Priyanthi Fernando

Priyanthi Fernando — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 17:07:59 +0000

Bought the Kindle version too, like Ian Chandler – but only because I had no idea there was going to be a free download – but better for reading anyway, and incredibly cheap!. Already through the first few pages, and promise to read your guide on how to comment on other peoples’ stuff before I start articulating the many thoughts that are already swimming in my head as I read. Thank you for pioneering a Creative Commons publication – hope others will follow suit.

By: Ian Chandler

Ian Chandler — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 10:38:32 +0000

Well done Duncan for both the writing and the mode of publishing (actions speak louder than words). Personally, i’ve bought the Kindle edition as I’m more likely to read it there while travelling (and its a bargain at under £2) and also downloaded the PDF so I can easily search for sections I want to refer to. Many thanks and best wishes for the promo tour.