The E-Book Radical Library (project, discussion)

[Q]

Earlier this year I started this discussion (http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?do=discuss&discussionid=6221), but at the time it didn't get any response, so it dropped off my radar. Tonight however it suddenly became a topic of discussion again and I was advised to put it on the main boards instead, to attract more views and discussion.

What is being proposed?

Right now, there are a few projects that offer radical e-books:
- Radical Ebooks (http://radicalebooks.blogspot.nl/)
- V£R$O (http://fckvrso.wordpress.com/)
- Marxist Internet Archive (http://www.marxists.org/)
- The Anarchist Library (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/)

And a few others of course. But all these have their drawbacks:
- They're using the classic server-client model of internet hosting, sometimes even using services that can easily be terminated if the powers that be wish so.
- They're often focusing on either PDF or on HTML format. These are respectively crap or suboptimal for ebooks.
- The offerings are limited to one subject or tendency.

So, what we need is something that:
- Makes shutting down and other forms of censorship highly difficult, if not impossible.
- Is multi-format, with a focus on EPUB and MOBI.
- Is free for submissions, preferably user-generated/uploaded, as to secure a broad assortment on ebooks.

In the above linked discussion I offer two technical solutions for this:
- Freenet: A peer-to-peer network that is designed from the ground up to be highly censorship resistant and anonymous (if you're using it in darknet mode). Besides these advantages, there are also the drawbacks that a "freesite" is not viewable if you don't have freenet installed, loading times are often quite a bit higher than on the normal internet (not a huge problem as ebooks aren't very big in general) and the software is still under heavy development.
- Osiris: A project that has as its basic feature a collectivised form of webhosting. So, if one hoster is taken down, the website remains up, as the other hosters remain working. Besides this advantage, there are the drawbacks that all traffic is unencrypted and you are not anonymous (you're basically a normal webserver, aside from the collective thing). Maybe there are plugins that resolve this, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I want to put this up here for further discussion, if there is interest :)

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/

Has lots of stuff as well.
I actually prefer PDF's what's your problem with them?

[Q]

I actually prefer PDF's what's your problem with them?

The problem with PDF's is that most of them are formatted in a A4/US Leter format. Reading those on smaller displays (an ereader, a mobile phone, whatever future device that becomes popular) is a no-go as you need to keep zooming in and out of text.

Proper ebook formats, like EPUB, are a free-flow format, adapting itself to whatever display it is being put on, so you can always read it just fine. As a well known example of a free flowing forat, consider HTML: HTML is of course geared towards webcontent but can project its information whatever size display you have.

To put it more succintly: PDF is a paper-format. EPUB and MOBI are geared towards digital media.

[Hermes]

Do you have any instructions on how to make an e-book? I don't have many around the house, but the few I have I could work on transferring, if it would help at all.

[Q]

Do you have any instructions on how to make an e-book? I don't have many around the house, but the few I have I could work on transferring, if it would help at all.

Succinctly speaking, there are three steps:
1. You scan all pages.
2. You transform the scanned pages (basically photos) towards editable text (using Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, software).
3. You edit the text layout and put it into an ebook format. There are several tools out there for making an EPUB.

This page might be a helpful guide (http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Roll_Your_Own_E-Books) in starting your inquiry.

[BOZG]

http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/

Has lots of stuff as well.
I actually prefer PDF's what's your problem with them?

Q has explained the differences but in short PDFs are not eBooks.

They can be automatically converted but the finished product is normally very badly laid out and with a lot of additional rubbish such as page numbers and header/footer information included which is fine for PDFs but worthless for true eBooks. Converting the opposite way is also far superior.

[BOZG]

I forgot to add that this is something that I'm definitely interested in doing.

[hetz]

http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/)

American Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and De-Democratization (http://www.sendspace.com/file/du75f4)
Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics, and the Imagined State (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wkxqi2)
Dreamland: The Neoliberalism of Your Desires (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ou6h1r)
Migration and Imperialism: The Mexican Workforce in the Context of NAFTA (http://www.sendspace.com/file/670oqa)
Mobile Workers, Modernist Narratives A Critique of the Historiography of Transition on the Zambian Copperbelt [Part One] (http://www.sendspace.com/file/5xs929)
Mobile Workers, Modernist Narratives A Critique of the Historiography of Transition on the Zambian Copperbelt [Part Two] (http://www.sendspace.com/file/d6amk0)
(Re)Articulations of Citizenship (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ex98y1)
State versus Islam: Malay Families, Women’s Bodies, and the Body Politic in Malaysia (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jv5s89)
Economic Sociologies in Space (http://www.sendspace.com/file/k16cj2)
Labor and Agglomeration Control and Flexibility in Local Labor Markets (http://www.sendspace.com/file/vl65l0)
Political Economies of Scale Fast Policy, Interscalar Relations, and Neoliberal Workfare (http://www.sendspace.com/file/op87pe)
Postwelfare Massachusetts (http://www.sendspace.com/file/fgl0fe)
Protected Neoliberalism Perverse Institutionalization and the Crisis of Representation in Postdictatorship Chile (http://www.sendspace.com/file/1i0qg9)
Rules of Privatization: Contradictions in Neoliberal Regulation of North Pacific Fisheries (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jbfu6l)
Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wf3d90)
The Moral Sentiments of Neoliberalism (http://www.sendspace.com/file/aex09p)
The Neoliberal Turn in Latin America The Cycle of Ideas and the Search for an Alternative (http://www.sendspace.com/file/lor3wq)
Selling Neoliberalism: Brazil’s Instituto Liberal (http://www.sendspace.com/file/6vge60)
The Song of the Nonaligned World Transnational Identities and the Reinscription of Space in Late Capitalism (http://www.sendspace.com/file/n3u3us)
The Temporary Staffing Industry Growth Imperatives and Limits to Contingency (http://www.sendspace.com/file/g2326m)
Understanding the Third World Welfare State after Neoliberalism: The Politics of Social Provision in Chile and Mexico (http://www.sendspace.com/file/b9lw3h)

[BOZG]

American Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and De-Democratization (http://www.sendspace.com/file/du75f4)
Blurred Boundaries: The Discourse of Corruption, the Culture of Politics, and the Imagined State (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wkxqi2)
Dreamland: The Neoliberalism of Your Desires (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ou6h1r)
Migration and Imperialism: The Mexican Workforce in the Context of NAFTA (http://www.sendspace.com/file/670oqa)
Mobile Workers, Modernist Narratives A Critique of the Historiography of Transition on the Zambian Copperbelt [Part One] (http://www.sendspace.com/file/5xs929)
Mobile Workers, Modernist Narratives A Critique of the Historiography of Transition on the Zambian Copperbelt [Part Two] (http://www.sendspace.com/file/d6amk0)
(Re)Articulations of Citizenship (http://www.sendspace.com/file/ex98y1)
State versus Islam: Malay Families, Women’s Bodies, and the Body Politic in Malaysia (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jv5s89)
Economic Sociologies in Space (http://www.sendspace.com/file/k16cj2)
Labor and Agglomeration Control and Flexibility in Local Labor Markets (http://www.sendspace.com/file/vl65l0)
Political Economies of Scale Fast Policy, Interscalar Relations, and Neoliberal Workfare (http://www.sendspace.com/file/op87pe)
Postwelfare Massachusetts (http://www.sendspace.com/file/fgl0fe)
Protected Neoliberalism Perverse Institutionalization and the Crisis of Representation in Postdictatorship Chile (http://www.sendspace.com/file/1i0qg9)
Rules of Privatization: Contradictions in Neoliberal Regulation of North Pacific Fisheries (http://www.sendspace.com/file/jbfu6l)
Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality (http://www.sendspace.com/file/wf3d90)
The Moral Sentiments of Neoliberalism (http://www.sendspace.com/file/aex09p)
The Neoliberal Turn in Latin America The Cycle of Ideas and the Search for an Alternative (http://www.sendspace.com/file/lor3wq)
Selling Neoliberalism: Brazil’s Instituto Liberal (http://www.sendspace.com/file/6vge60)
The Song of the Nonaligned World Transnational Identities and the Reinscription of Space in Late Capitalism (http://www.sendspace.com/file/n3u3us)
The Temporary Staffing Industry Growth Imperatives and Limits to Contingency (http://www.sendspace.com/file/g2326m)
Understanding the Third World Welfare State after Neoliberalism: The Politics of Social Provision in Chile and Mexico (http://www.sendspace.com/file/b9lw3h)


We're talking about eBooks, not PDFs!

[Slavoj Zizek's Balls]

Freenet would be great if people didn't mind downloading it due to the security it could provide. Osiris would also be great because it would show that there is nothing to hide and we coul also resist attempts at censorship due to the website's collective hosting. Plus wouldn't Osiris work better on mobile phones and other electronic devices?

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

We're talking about eBooks, not PDFs!


The links that are in the OP are sites with mostly PDFs, especially the Verso one.

[BOZG]

The links that are in the OP are sites with mostly PDFs, especially the Verso one.

Yeah, yeah. Followed by a complaint about those sites!

Though in fairness, having text based PDFs of stuff is much handier than having to scan and use OCR which is normally not very good, at least the free software anyway.

[BOZG]

Q, I just had a quick browse through the stuff about Osiris and Freenet but I'm busy with final assignments etc so I will read again.

I'm presuming that we could launch something with as few or as many people as we want, it's just a case of reduced speed, anonymity and storage space with smaller numbers, yes?

[Q]

Q, I just had a quick browse through the stuff about Osiris and Freenet but I'm busy with final assignments etc so I will read again.

I'm presuming that we could launch something with as few or as many people as we want, it's just a case of reduced speed, anonymity and storage space with smaller numbers, yes?

Yes. If we go for Freenet, we'll need to setup a freesite that can have multiple editors. I know that is possible, just not sure how yet, so I'll look into it.

But yeah, setting up freenet is easy (http://freenetproject.org/). You'll need to think about the size of your datastore though. This is the portion of your harddisk that you reserve for freenet use. A general rule of thumb is that "the bigger, the better" since it will also improve your loading times. So if you have several GB at your disposal, just assign that.

[Q]

Yes. If we go for Freenet, we'll need to setup a freesite that can have multiple editors. I know that is possible, just not sure how yet, so I'll look into it.

Ok, just asked around in the irc channel where the developers reside and unfortunately such a thing cannot be done. So, any submissions would need to go to an editor, or a group of editors, who have direct commit access.

Edit:
Ok, there is to be a wiki, called jfniki but it works well only for text, not packages like epubs. There is another bit of software called Sone, which currently works as a sort of Twitter over freenet. What we essentially need is a multi-login Sone with a gallery to display the ebooks. But alas, that's not possible and it seems I'm the first to ever ask for such a feature :p

[Lenina Rosenweg]

For what its worth, I have a Kindle Fire. I also use Unbuntu Linux on my laptop. PDFs are almost the only format which I can download and send to my Kindle. Mobi, etc don't work, I can't open them. PDFs work fine for me.

The radicalebok archive has/hasd a lot of good stuff-everything from Chris Knight to Hobsbawm, Zizek, Badious, and EP Thompson.Unfortunately they used megauploads a lot and after the US gov't crackdown a lot of their stuff isn't available any longer. Tre tant pis!

[BOZG]

For what its worth, I have a Kindle Fire. I also use Unbuntu Linux on my laptop. PDFs are almost the only format which I can download and send to my Kindle. Mobi, etc don't work, I can't open them. PDFs work fine for me.

The radicalebok archive has/hasd a lot of good stuff-everything from Chris Knight to Hobsbawm, Zizek, Badious, and EP Thompson.Unfortunately they used megauploads a lot and after the US gov't crackdown a lot of their stuff isn't available any longer. Tre tant pis!

But that's the thing, PDFs don't work fine. Certain PDFs work fine based on a combination of the layout / your eye sight. Find a PDF with the wrong font size or have poor sight and reading it becomes an ordeal because of the need to pan and zoom. It isn't with a true eBook. If mobi doesn't work for you, that suggests that there is something is wrong with your Fire.

[Aurora]

Project Gutenburg wrote a review of the Kindle Fire and apparently Amazon have made it very difficult to add any content that doesn't come directly from them, so maybe that's the problem? I have a Kindle 3 which accepts the same formats and have no problem using MOBI.

[Q]

Unfortunately they used megauploads a lot and after the US gov't crackdown a lot of their stuff isn't available any longer. Tre tant pis!
Yeah, and this was another reason for starting this thread, as described in the OP ;)

[Samwise]

Is this idea still alive and in the making ? Would be happy to contribute and fill the digital shelves with digital books.

[BOZG]

Is this idea still alive and in the making ? Would be happy to contribute and fill the digital shelves with digital books.

I'm still up for it.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[redshoesrock]

I am absolutely up for it. If we have PDFs, is there a program that can "read" them and put them in a file that can be converted into either epub or mobi format? Otherwise it looks like I have a lot of typing on my hands.

[BOZG]

I am absolutely up for it. If we have PDFs, is there a program that can "read" them and put them in a file that can be converted into either epub or mobi format? Otherwise it looks like I have a lot of typing on my hands.

Yes but it tends to do a bad job. Most often it's caused by page numbers, footers and headers or footnotes. Still, it's probably quicker to convert and then clean up manually if it's minor problems.

[Samwise]

I am absolutely up for it. If we have PDFs, is there a program that can "read" them and put them in a file that can be converted into either epub or mobi format? Otherwise it looks like I have a lot of typing on my hands.

You might want to try "Calibre". The results are far from perfect, but with a little time spend on an epub-Editor like "Sigil" all the formating errors can be fixed.

[Q]

Haven't really given it much thought lately, but sure, we could still do this.

What technical implementation would be best though, something that would fit (mostly) the needs of the OP? Thoughts, people?

[Q]

http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/

Not only that site has died, but its successor on Wordpress (http://ebookcollective.wordpress.com/) has now been shut down too.

This rather reinforces the points made in the OP regarding censorship of free information.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Get it while it lasts

http://ebookcollective.blogspot.it/

http://ebookcollective.blogspot.com/2013/05/attention-if-you-are-aware-of-any-links.html

Much praise to whomever is taking the time and effort to maintain this, even though I do wish they'd have less Foucault and semi-pomo philosophy and more history.

[Q]

Get it while it lasts

I just did. Sadly many books are no longer available and the bookfi.org site roundly sucks (haven't been able to download a single book from it...). But I've just downloaded 105 PDF's and 11 eBooks (sigh...) worth of documents.

But eventually the services run out to flee to, so this is just a temporary thing anyhow.

[BIXX]

If I scan the pages, Would it be possible to put the PDFs into an image form and black out page numbers and other things that fuck up the formatting, then go and run the converter?

I'd be willing to transcribe everything I own (admittedly not much) though, if it ends up being required. I could email them out to anyone who wanted it or upload it somewhere. Until we get a good ebook service running (which I am confident we can do) I think it would be a good idea to post up lists of what documents we want and have, so that we can share them, and slowly turn them all into ebooks. I think it would be fairly easy, or am I missing something?

This (at least my probably naive mind) would allow us just to send requests to one another and then we could kinda be our own hosts, if that makes any sense. So in case one person's computer gets screwed up somehow, we would have other copies on other computers. What do you think?

[Q]

If I scan the pages, Would it be possible to put the PDFs into an image form and black out page numbers and other things that fuck up the formatting, then go and run the converter?

I'd be willing to transcribe everything I own (admittedly not much) though, if it ends up being required. I could email them out to anyone who wanted it or upload it somewhere. Until we get a good ebook service running (which I am confident we can do) I think it would be a good idea to post up lists of what documents we want and have, so that we can share them, and slowly turn them all into ebooks. I think it would be fairly easy, or am I missing something?

This (at least my probably naive mind) would allow us just to send requests to one another and then we could kinda be our own hosts, if that makes any sense. So in case one person's computer gets screwed up somehow, we would have other copies on other computers. What do you think?

Actually, you're missing one important part. When you scan a page or make a photo of it, the text is part of that photo. You can't do anything with it. To be able to do that, you need to convert it with OCR software (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition) to editable text. Otherwise you're just making a PDF with a bunch of photos or scans, not with text. And this is where most lack knowledge and experience as OCR software is often not free and only professionals seem to work with it.

[BIXX]

Actually, you're missing one important part. When you scan a page or make a photo of it, the text is part of that photo. You can't do anything with it. To be able to do that, you need to convert it with OCR software (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition) to editable text. Otherwise you're just making a PDF with a bunch of photos or scans, not with text. And this is where most lack knowledge and experience as OCR software is often not free and only professionals seem to work with it.

Well, if I were to block out the things that mess up the formatting, would that work?

[Q]

Well, if I were to block out the things that mess up the formatting, would that work?

Messed up formatting is not the problem. Once you have editable text you can easily remove pagenumbers and such. The point is to get to editable text.

[BIXX]

Oh ok. Well, if I could get a free program to do it I might experiment with the conquest of bread (I know there are already copies of it) and if it works I will do other texts.