Cultural Research

Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson - Free: The Future of a Radical Price

I recently completed Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price in fragmented bits of reading. It's a great book for thinking one's way into the implications of free as a price and such related concepts as freemium pricing strategies.

At the same time, it's a rather frustrating book if evaluated from an academic perspective with few proper citations and open-ended, uncited use of chunks of Wikipedia and other writers' content!

It's a rare book that merits serious consideration after such excesses have been exposed but Free is just that kind of book. Of particular relevance for this blog, studying ways to monetize free content is very much on the minds of open access advocates searching for sustainable business models. Free offers a great brainstorming tool with notes from related efforts including open source software.

"Free use but paid via other means" is also a key pricing strategies for libraries supported by taxes, donations, student fees and the like. We don't pay each time we take out the books but we or other folks like us pay by other means. Open access business models often take similar routes.

The interrelationship of free web content and open access publishing also was explored in the release of free editions of Free for limited time in digital formats.

So, yes, I'm recommending Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price with reservations because, if taken for what it's worth, it's quite a good book!

Chris Anderson blogs or blogged at The Long Tail where you can currently find a downloadable list of "notes and sources for the book" Free.

Wired Magazine:
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier

I originally checked out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier due to news about an attempt at censorship but quickly came to appreciate the book itself. The combination of a graphic novel in which a "Black Dossier" is a key element of the plot and is included in the book itself in the form of various documents mixed into the pages of the illustrated tale is thought provoking.

In fact, this work got me thinking quite a bit about the relationship of such hybrid works to various electronic offerings. For example, ereaders and such devices are always more complicated than they at first appear, acquiring extra little bits and pieces of equipment. Oddly enough, The Black Dossier includes a 3D section requiring an extra bit of equipment in the form of 3D glasses!

The mix of texts mean that readers drawn in by a graphic novel may not want to read every last page just as a documentary on DVD may acquire more viewers than related documents on an accompanying DVD-ROM.

One clear difference is the fully integrated nature of The Black Dossier, a book that includes all its elements in one package. A reader might become attached to such a book in a different manner than one might become attached to an ebook one accesses on an ereader. Perhaps the ereader will get all the future love once reserved for physical books themselves.

But thinking about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier also inspired a new blog category, Books I've Read, in order to separate the discussions on particular books and the changing nature and concept of the book, until now jammed together in Books.

Hip Hop Research: Towards an Annotated Bibliography

Greg Dimitriadis: Performing Identity/Performing Culture [Revised Edition]

In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm kind of an idea guy with way too many ideas. But I am getting better at maintaining core projects while keeping a small array of secondary projects in the long term mix.

CR: Library Innovation Blog is intended to be a core project but I haven't dug as deeply as I had hoped to by now. Still, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and it's off to a good start. A related project that's been moved to the secondary back burner for the moment is Hip Hop Research: Towards an Annotated Bibliography, a blog with a special focus on academic monographs featuring hip hop as a central theme.

Marc Lamont Hill - Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life

I launched Hip Hop Research as the first step towards an annotated bibliography to be developed as a reference work for academic libraries. I recently made contact with a library publisher via a woman who requested that folks send initial ideas prior to a book proposal. We'll see where that goes but, no matter the validity of the topic, hip hop content often seems to throw a wrench in people's perceptions, especially if their knowledge is limited to what they see in mass media.

To be honest, now that I'm reviving my search for a library position (at the worst possible time, of course!), I launched the project as much to validate my own work in hip hop media as to help validate the work of hip hop researchers in academic settings. I really do worry about what people think when they find out I've been a web publisher focused on hip hop for the last ten years, full time for the last five.

Given the response I've gotten from folks I've known who are from similar demographics as those doing the hiring in most of the situations for which I apply, I really have to wonder what potential employers think when they see the words, "hip hop."

Yvonne Bynoe - Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture

It's funny, I've learned so much doing hip hop related projects that I would never take any of that back, but I do wonder how it looks to people I don't know, inundated with too many applications and looking for easy ways to pare down the list.

But, hey, as a 50 year old white man with a long history of activism and interest in African American culture, I feel like I'm so much more connected to the living reality of black people now than I ever was when I was trying to connect as a left/lib activist and artist. I have real friends now who are black and who I know through shared interests rather than African American connections who I've cultivated as part of a larger agenda, though I say that meaning no disrespect to folks finding other ways to connect.

To be perfectly frank, if getting a job meant giving up the one thing that has helped me more than any other to understand black culture in contemporary America, then I'll keep forging an independent path. But I'd love to bring what I know into an academic setting as a reference librarian since that may well be the best venue for my wide ranging interests and love of knowledge. Wish me luck!

Statement from Reading Is Fundamental's Carol H. Rasco Regarding Federal Budget Cuts Defunding RIF

I love Obama but right now he's breaking my heart.

Press Release:

President Obama Eliminates Funding for Reading Is Fundamental's Book Distribution Program Serving 4.4 Million Children Nationwide

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO, of Reading Is Fundamental:

"On February 1, President Obama released his proposed FY2011 budget which eliminates the funding for Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and its nationwide services. Without this federal funding, over 4.4 million children and families will not receive free books or reading encouragement from RIF programs at nearly 17,000 locations throughout the U.S.

"Unless Congress reinstates $25 million in funding for this program, RIF will not be able to distribute 15 million books annually to the nation's children at greatest risk for academic failure. RIF programs in schools, community centers, hospitals, military bases, and other locations serving children from low-income families, children with disabilities, homeless children, and children without adequate access to libraries. The Inexpensive Book Distribution program is authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six Administrations without interruption since 1975.

"Since its founding in 1966, RIF has played a critical role in improving literacy in this country by providing new, free books for children to keep and build home libraries. Access to books and the power of choice ignite children's hunger for knowledge and a passion for learning. In addition, research has shown that children who have more access to books not only perform better academically, but also become productive individuals whose contributions help create strong communities. On behalf of RIF and its network of over 400,000 volunteers nationwide, I urge all Americans to contact their congressional representatives and ask them to reinstate funding for this vital program."

Act Now: RIF.org/saverif

Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF), founded in 1966, motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF provided 4.4 million children with 15 million new, free books and literacy resources last year. For more information and to access reading resources, visit RIF's website at www.rif.org.

Discover the Joy!

Source: Reading Is Fundamental

CONTACT: Mitchell Schmale, Mitchell@MaroonPR.com, +1-410-336-8571, for
Reading Is Fundamental; or Alishia Frey of Reading Is Fundamental,
AFrey@RIF.org

Web Site: http://www.rif.org/