Open source publishing
 

Your thoughts on this?

Im thinking about a Free Ads 'paper' that's available only on the Net. However, people can free dl the PDF print it and sell it as long as they don't modify it.

Will it fly? Be brutal as need be but back it up with analysis.

Don't worry about the labor, we have that covered. I'm worried more about business feasibility.

bump

yep, another bump :)

I wonder how many people on this board know what open source is?

OS usually applies to app development, we're looking into applying this concent (open licensing) to 'offline' activities such as classifieds publishing

I think it's too general a concept for people to comment on.

How would they make money or save money from using your ads?

Where is the benifit?

What are you talking about?


lol

It's still in the idea phase.... my system provides the infrastructure for gathering free ads. We publish it via PDF and anyone who wants to DL it can SELL it provided they don't alter the 'paper' there's even a recommended price

basically we piggy back on their 1) printing capabilitiy 2) distrib capacity 3) or they can just send it to their friends like viral email.

I wouldn't count on the future availability of trees in order to make money. :upsidedow

How would one go about selling an "ads" paper? I don't pay for my thrifty nickel.

College students or liquor store owners get something they can sell. We get a physical distribution outlet. If everything works, everyone wins.

hmm... sounds interesting

Not being allowed to modify something but being allowed to sell it has nothing to do with open source.

Make PDF optional, it's slow and bulky, I hate it and don't use it beside there aren't any other options.

To make it a success you got to include something that the people are interested in beside the ads and buy lots of advertising on target sites until the word spreads.

Do you ever have problems tying your shoes?

:eek7

You raise some interesting points. I concede that the title is somewhat inapplicable... the better title would probably be "Open License" Publishing

Its basically a REAL magazine that people are AUTHORIZED (by the open license) to sell. The ads are free and help in its popularity. The revenue stream is from special relationships with large offline chains.

Its still in a very clunky strategic form but hopefully we'll validate this model fairly soon.

Totally depends on the local market and mentality

The closest yet imperfect analogy to this project is the Recycler paper in Los Angeles. Extremely popular but yoked to a physical anchor of an actual paper distributed from a central/hub and spoke source. What if this was decentralized via the Net? More physical distributors and greater market coverage.

Still combing over the model....