By now, you've probably heard about
Kosmos: You Are Here, the new e-book featuring terrific material from DarkSyde, Devilstower and other DK favorites.
What you may not realize is what it represents in terms of democratizing communications. Just as the internet and the rise of the blogosphere has brought fundamental change to the practice of both politics and journalism, the publication of Kosmos has demonstrated that book publishing is about to enter an entirely new era.
Call it the rise of 21st century Samizdat. Samiz what? More on the flip.
Markos has written extensively on this site about the impact of the Netroots on the political process -- about how it has empowered the masses by allowing virtual communities to meet, discuss, forge alliances, craft consensus and exert influence. No longer will elite party bosses and overpaid consultants have free reign to impose their will.
He and many others have discussed how much online tools have changed the practice of journalism. We see almost daily now how misstatements of fact get corrected in almost real time (Abramhoff gave to both parties!), how plagiarists have virtually no chance to get away with it, how good investigative work performed by smaller news organizations gets spread across the globe, propelled by its own merits rather than by the distributive clout of a New York Times or FOX News.
Most importantly (from my point of view, anyway), we have seen how the Internet and blogging phenomenon have empowered citizen journalism (prime example, TPM Cafe and Daily Muck). It used to be that you needed a multi-million dollar investment in printing presses, fleets of trucks and an advertising sales infrastructure to support them in order to put journalism in the hands of readers. No more. The economic barriers to entry have fallen. Now, journalism must rise or fall on its own market-driven merits.
Which brings us (finally!) to Kosmos: You Are Here and 21st century Samizdat.
Book publishing has long had its own economic barriers to entry. Beyond the presses and the distribution network (from trucks to bookstores) there was also the question of quality. Books from reputable publishing houses featured a high level of writing (don't snark me now), editing, illustration and construction. You went to a bookstore or a library, picked up a volume that you found interesting on the surface, and you could be reasonably confident that many hands and many eyes had collaborated to ensure that you had a product of reasonable quality in your hands.
It was also a very effective means of keeping control of the process in the hands of the publishing houses. They were the gatekeepers who decided what became a "book" and what did not, just as the networks and newspaper companies were the gatekeepers of journalism. And just like with journalism, a steady increase in corporate conglomeration threatened to put a real stranglehold on the free flow of information.
The only alternative was Samizdat. Wikipedia defines Samizdat as "the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries. The idea was that copies were made a few at a time, and anyone who had a copy would make more copies, often by handwriting or typing." This process more or less ensured that any effort to spread "unapproved" books would be hampered by slow response, low quality, and real doubt as to whether the copy in your hands was really what the author intended.
But consider Kosmos: You Are Here. It is a book that includes the writing of several authors who have been previously published by existing publishers or mainstream media, and fabulous artwork by acclaimed illustrators whose work has also been widely published by traditional media. It has been thoroughly edited and proofread, and the content has been vetted by working, credentialed scientists. In sum, in terms of quality, it is the equal of anything you will find on the shelves of your local Barnes & Noble.
Yet no mainstream publishing house has had anything to do with its production. No gatekeepers have muted its content. No profit motive or focus-group study has influenced its writing or production. A group of dedicated, talented volunteers worked together, using online tools, to produce it, ensure its quality, and make it available to one an all at a very affordable price.
So look at it this way: When you buy a copy of Kosmos: You Are Here, you are not just purchasing a terrific book of lavishly illustrated non-fiction science essays; you are not just supporting the YearlyKos convention; you are literally helping to tear down the walls of the last great barrier to entry, the one that kept the highest and best form of human communication -- the book -- in the hands of a few.
Let's show the world how publishing has changed forever. And enjoy a great book in the process. Just click here:
http://www.netmemberservices.com/...