Forum Activity for @martin-rupp

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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hi,

I have reach a good stage in my development of the open publication system.I initially started with java but changed to catalyst. Catalyst is a kind of perl-application server quite fast and convenient to use for such project.

I don't really know what to do with it. This is really a totally open publication system that belongs to nobody - and by design impossible to modify ( it's based on crypto keys ) but it needs to be hosted somewhere. It could be integrated with your website, I could provide API for your website to link the projects created on this platform. It needs however to be hosted on a server with the catalyst framework installed but I can provide this.

It's done completed yet but I really would like it to be useful and to live and not to sleep on a website that nobody would visit.

I can send you screens and doc if you feel it is interesting.

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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I updated the doc, here is the new pdf version

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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This is a document that describes the basic features of what could be this open publishing web system.

I am waiting for feedback about this idea, if the project looks worth it I would start funding it and developing it and planning integration withresearchcooperative.org and lulu.com ( and eventually other systems ) .

I feel there could be a real good integration with the research cooperative but this needs to be discussed how this could be done.

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Yes some collaborative tools do exist but what I am taking about is a real publishing lifecycle management going through the steps of a publication. I think maybe I should write a doc about this project, it could be shared here.

It could beinterestingto combine this social network aspect and the publishing system because the social network could fuel the publishing system with people because obviously success of publishing systems comes from the people that works with it.

The publishing system would work only with books and books that present the fundamentals of some disciplines, technical books ( techniques for problem solving, solving equations etc.. ) so mainly undergraduate and graduate in a great variety of disciplines.

could we raise interest? could we raise interest from Nobel prices. Fields medalists, known authors? Known scientists? and in general from a lot of talented people.

As you said there is growing problem and this is that most people seem to choose to remain anonymous just like if they were fearing contradiction or free debate. I have the feeling people in the past had not this problem. Of course authors should protect themselves but acting and working as a porcupine is not really an acceptable strategy. by these days.

I have the feeling that many talented people in science would like to join but they fear for their 'reputation' or 'safety' and only deal almost exclusively with these established publishers that as you say outlived the founders and are no longer selling nothing but 'prestige' and 'fame'.

Well can we really create a new dynamic? Here and now?

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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my personal problem, and I amsurprisedapparentlynot so many people share my concerns is that we could reach a total control of sciencethroughscience publication and that alternative models are not taken seriously. Andunfortunatelypeople usually say 'gosh, wow! I am getting published by Springer-Verlag!", what they call 'top-notch' publishers.

in my mind publication should be a free and moral and quality process. This is not an easy subject especially when we introduce also money andremuneration.

I am not a publisher and will never be but yes I would like to try tocontributeto building at least one virtual publishing system that could be used as a template.

As you say things are now changing very rapidly and things you thought were yours just don't belong to you anymore ( just like the money of bank customers in Cyprus ) so this should be taken into consideration that any facebook or ning could tomorrow 'steal' all the work of the people and make the platform paid or anything like this.

This is a global thought because this is also linked with internet ( how do we guarantee that we can use freely internet in the future ?) and so fourth.

anyway, the point would be to create a brand- whatever it is - that would mean high-quality publishing. As you will know publishing quality books would require a complex system with editors, reviewers etc... but the resources do exists as far as I know.

Once the virtual publishing platform would be set up, this could give lots of freedom for authors to deal with freelancers and volunteers , the virtual platform would provide frameworks and guidelines.

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

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Hi Peter,

A quick answer about designing your own social network, this is possible using tools such as phpfox for example. Phpfox is a CMS-based community social network engine that developers can use to create proprietary social networks. I developed one recently for one client and indeed it is extremely powerful.

The difference between phpfox and Ning is that you master everything . Ning is a hosting service for social communities, phpfox is a software so with phpfox you design and control just about everything.

I worked with phpfox so I know it is powerful though there exists other software ( php/jsp ) like this one. The only problem of phpfox is that it is hard and tedious to learn their 'meta-language' ( kind of social engine scripting ) based on the top of php.

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

Services archive

Hi peter, no I do not have the funds for such a team but the main point is that this team could be flexible ( freelancers/volunteers/etc...) and depend on each book project and also that I do not believe there would be any specifically way to make such a structure a viable commercial structure so this could be only in my mind a way to give a real professional alternative way to some science author to publish books.

Alsohonestlyhow many books in science are best sellers? really a very very few part of them so the whole idea would be to do everything at production price, meaning without benefits. Lulu allows to put a price which the price the books costs to be manufactured so the buyer would pay only for the production of the on-demand book which is now incredibly low.

The key point here is quality. Obviously producing a quality book as you mentioned takes time. Using a combination of freelancers, volunteers and the publishers and the online system this may be doable.

The freelancers will require payments for their tasks and the author should pay them directly, the platform will only allow the collaborative building of the book, step by step.

The key idea would be to create a brand, a bit like wikipedia did and in fact this may lead to more and more 'virtual' publishing.

I have seen someone in an exhibition from Springer-Verlag claiming they 'invented' on-demand printing ... 5 years after lulu started on the market...

Project: creating a virtual publishing house

Services archive

HI Everybody,

I am in the process of creating a virtual publishing house for technical and science books ( not papers ).

My idea would the be the following: creating a complete software , ideally made in java ( jsps + app server + database + backend ) allowing the production of a book from scratch to publication.

I would connect at the end the pdf to the lulu backend system ( http://www.lulu.com ) so that lulu would care about the manufacturing of the book, the ISBN registration and the diffusion of the books in the shops. Lulu have a complete API and have already automated the production level andhonestlytheir books are extremely well manufactured. ( so lulu would be the hardware and the virtual publishing house would be the software )

Needless to say that the idea would be to sell the books at affordable production price.

How could the people team up together to produce such books, what sort of budget would be involved and how freelancers could be involved .

I have started to work on a sketch of this project with a personal book I am writing (http://tpfa-answer-book.info/ ) and I created several php scripts with database and used a few collaboration tools together.

The software would allow creating a book project, moving it from different stepsuntilit reaches enough quality to be published.

I would be interested to know the comments about this project, if people thinks it would be valuable, etc...

I have a few experience dealing with some 'reputable' publishers and I came to the conclusion that they are just now using their image to sell 'prestige' and 'reputation' without caring about the interest of a given book or even about the quality of what's inside. I met a few 'madoff' inside these companies and I have the feeling that there will be more and more.

Obviously he who controls publishing of science, somewhat controls science so Springer-verlag SBM and pearson and a few others ( and there not many ) just controls science bycontrollingpublication of science.

Would this open virtual publishing system would be a good alternative?

With best regards,

Martin Rupp

updated by @martin-rupp: 21/06/17 01:16:09PM

peer-reviews in Mathematics

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Hi,

I can use a % of my time ( or of my human CPU if you prefer ) to review papers, articles or books in Functional Analysis, Number Theory, Statistics or general Undergraduate Maths.

In return , I am also looking for peer-reviewers in the same area.

I am referring to real science peer-reviewing and this mean exact reviewing of samples of the material analyzing maths terms, clarity, exposure, correctness etc...

The only condition is that the material must beavailableto everybody so at least a pdf must be publicly downloadable.

I prefer books because papers can be openly published and reviewed in preprint servers like arxiv.

updated by @martin-rupp: 13/06/17 08:40:21PM

looking for final lateX proofreading

Proofreading - REQUESTS

Hi,

I am looking for someone willing to proofread a math book with regards to the following things:

- punctuation

- english terms

- layout, way the equations are arranged

the book is written using laTex and it is 10% English text 90% equations,.

I am not looking for the English to be perfectbecause there is most of the times only sentences such as: "indeed, and thus, so we have "etc... but making the final book more balanced, maybe centering some contents or making some paragraphs more easy to read.

This would be a 100% lateX job . I wrote all the lateX code myself but I am not too familiar with how to make a book with a very good layout.

I cannot pay too much for the project, something like 100-200$ for 300 pp crow format.

http://tpfa-answer-book.info/

This may be done exercise by exercise as each solution of an exercise isindependent.

You would come after the current final math proofchecks that are currently been done on eachexercises.

With best regards,

updated by @martin-rupp: 02/06/16 07:57:50PM