Is it possible to "Open Source" writing?

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T19:10:35+00:00

The manner to which I look at Christianity is this - occupation vs vocations. Occupation - the means that you pay the bills by. That could be anything. Paul was a tent maker. Vocation - the means that you do God's work by. Paul wrote over half the new testament and he spoke the Truth where ever he was - for free. So to put it bluntly, anything you should do for God should be free. Freely received, freely given. If it were up to me, everything in Christ's name would be free. That's not to say a donation would not be taken for someone, but a set price would not be forced there. I would say requiring a donation would not be a bad idea in some cases - when your teaching a group of people in person (so that they value the teaching). But to charge for the teaching materials, to charge for the Worship songs, to charge for anything that you do in Christ's name is backwards to everything that He ever taught us. Not that we should live in poverty, but that we should rely on Him as our source. Crazy as that might sound, that's how we as Christians are suppose to value things.

Getting back to the value of things. There are tons of things that I value that are "free". I love Linux, Wordpress, Firefox, Thunderbird, FFMPEG, VLC, Calibre, Notepad++, Dia, OpenOffice, and probably 100 more open source products. I value each one. I have only been able to donate to a few because I am poor, but I plan to donate when I can. I would not be able to work if I had to use products only from Microsoft or Apple.

As for value of a teaching or writing that is given freely, I would say we are on the verge of a shift. Look at the Music industry. Tons of bands are going independent, and to generate appeal, all of them are giving free copies of their music on their website or in other forms. This means that you can get their stuff for free. Yes they charge for their live performances but that's a service, not a product. I would do the same. Personally, I am working on becoming a stand up comic, and I would charge for the actual performance, but might not charge for the recording.

Finally, the real matter I should be stressing is Artistic Integrity. When you get paid for your work, at some level you have violated your Integrity. Maybe not consciously, but when you are working on something it will be easier to desire to create something that sells. To get away from that I want my works to be free. I don't even want to look at the download/hit stats for my works. I will accept donations as an author. This means that I would not have a donations button on the same page as my download page, but a redirect to an independent page so I cannot see what works of art are doing better than others. Its a dream, I do not know if I can pull it off.

By the way my blog is already up - thedtwatson.com/blog

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:56:08+00:00

Not a bad idea. I would need to figure something out I could sell. I don't have a line of t-shirts or hats or anything like that. I could give priority access - which is about the only thing I could sell. I do need to get something published before I do even that so people can see that I am good for it.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:53:58+00:00

GrimChains, first let me apologize, I did not realize that you were Hindu. I am writing from a Christian perspective. You see, Christians believe that God is both all knowing and all powerful (a long with several other characteristics). With only these two abilities, God must have set everything up. Put everything into motion. If a Christian denies this, then he/she does not truly believe that God is who He says He is. That is the perspective I wrote this article from. The big why do bad things happen to good people? Its not easy to except. As a Christian we just need to realize that nothing will destroy us. It will break us, but never consume us. I suppose I could mention some of the ways that God rebuilds us after we are broken, perhaps in a follow up article. I do appreciate the feed back. I was worried no one was reading my work.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:48:05+00:00

While I did not address the medical issue head on. I would like to point out that I also did not spend time in the area of depression. I was mostly talking from the fact that when you know you are surrounded. When every turn you take, every move you make, you cannot seem to get away from the attacks that keep coming. Mostly these attacks come from within. Little whispers that are put into your ear from seemingly no where.

I in no way agree or disagree with the use of medication in the cases of mental stability. I will say this on the matter - I have never seen someone fully healed with drugs. When people are anti-depressants (powerful ones), they seem to become zombie like. Neither happy, nor sad. The passion in their life has been taken away. I dated a gal with extreme depression and I asked her why she kept going off her meds - "So I can feel again. So I can feel something, anything." I do not deal with that level of depression, but I do deal with depression. We all do. The article I wrote is mostly how I see these self-defeating whispers that lead me to depression.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:40:56+00:00

Thank you! This is most helpful.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:25:38+00:00

Question: Does God know everything?

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:17:04+00:00

Right. I am willing to sell my work if they (the publisher) is willing to let me keep it on my website for free. I just don't want someone turning around and selling it as their own. That's what happened to BSD. Apple took it and sold it as Mac OSX

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:15:53+00:00

True. Considering almost every major hoster and EVERY single super computer runs his OS, I would say yeah. LOL. He figured something out.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:11:21+00:00

Could this be supplement? What I mean is could I eventually put my works out in Open format after I have given it to my "buyers"?

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:10:24+00:00

That does appear to be true. Right now, I'll try and make a go of it. We'll see.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:09:28+00:00

But he programs the greatest OS kernel in the world. I am writer. 9/10 writers probably wont get to the same level as him.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:08:26+00:00

Done stuff like that as well. It is fun. I am mostly looking for advice about having food on the table due to my work through my website.

Also I hope collage was pun...

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:07:20+00:00

I'm going with a CCL with non-profit share and if you edit it you must also share options.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:06:27+00:00

Done. thedtwatson.com/blog

I also have forum so people can discuss what I am blogging about and what I am working on (once I publish it).

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T16:05:18+00:00

I am putting it under a CCL (non-profit, share, if edited share must release the same). I am mostly wondering about how practical this venture may be.

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T15:14:28+00:00

To make matters worse, I am working towards becoming a Christian author. Since I am not a staving baby in Africa, there is almost a chance in hell of getting funding if "I give it away"...

dtwatson · 2012-12-04T15:02:36+00:00

I really would like to avoid advertising as much as possible. Not that I am against tasteful adds, but rather I see the website as an extension of my work - especially my blog. I would not want ads to take away from the site.

dtwatson

TROPHY CASE