Print On Demand | info + invitation from OpenMute

I attended Openmute's workshop at the DIY media festival at the dana centre today.
They've spent a lot of money + time on this FLOSS project and "are happy to share the acquired knowledge with partners in the spirit for the lesser known and ethically orientated copyleft license."

So, I learnt a whole host of great practicalities:

+ Print on Demand
PDF files can be transformed into a bound publication with colour cover / b+w insides in 15 days.

This digital printing method using 3M+similar machines has been in the corporate sector and MIT-land for a while: now web services have made it affordable.

It's great: 1 - 1000+ copies at £1.34.

Use Lightning Source to do this.
Fixed costs turn into variable costs (pay as u sell), Amazon automatically stock, PayPal automatically works.

+ Networked distribution

A warped version of NGO strategies: civiCRM.

Using an online database system first introduced in the 2004 US elections (customer relationship management > constituent relationship management > contact relationship management) nice people can distribute nice things at nice places. The niceness gets rewarded with sales percentage. What a nice way of doing things, and WHSmiths is nowhere to be seen!

+ Web to POD printing

Drupal CMS tools enable articles to be clustered / uploaded / printed.
It's all happening at a place called the POD park.

Expect this to be in our faces 'Fall' 2006 courtesy of Google / Amazon via iTunes for books.