From: jgoodwin@cns35.fnal.gov (John Goodwin) Newsgroups: alt.uu.future Subject: FreeLore Project Invitation to Join Date: 17 Dec 1992 14:05 CST Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, AD/Controls Lines: 93 Distribution: world Message-ID: <17DEC199214050973@cns35.fnal.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: cns35.fnal.gov Keywords: FreeLore, Publius, FreeLore Tracts, FreeLore Project News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 ====== INVITATION TO JOIN THE FREELORE PROJECT == FreeLore is useful information that is stored in electronic or magnetic media and has a copyright similar to that of GNU software. FreeLore is not a proprietary name or product, but an idea. In essence, it is the generalization of GNU software to any kind of useful information. You are hereby cordially invited to join the FreeLore Project as a charter member. The provisional purpose of the FreeLore Project is to organize volunteers to: -- promote and encourage the production of free educational and other useful materials (``FreeLore'') in the electronic and electronically-derived print media; -- to define standards for FreeLore; -- to promote active discussion of issues facing the producers of FreeLore; -- to capture and enhance (markup) public-domain data for inclusion in FreeLore; -- to provide information to persons interested in using or writing FreeLore; -- to promote efficient use of networks as a means of providing access to FreeLore; -- to organize and provide support services such as archiving, markup, cataloguing, self-registration of (self-)published materials, and software maintenance; -- to promote cataloguing standards for FreeLore; -- to encourage electronic-media as the primary media of scholarly discussion and journal publication; -- to create copylefted or public-domain software for creating, accessing, and viewing FreeLore; -- to promote freedom of access to information in whatever form generally. Our first task will be to work out a real charter and an agenda. Discussion will be mostly by email, and not necessarily conducted in alt.uu.future. If you are interested, please send your contact information, special concerns, and ways in which you think you might be able to contribute to the project to: jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov Please indicate whether you have access to the alt.uu.future newsgroup, or whether you obtained this information by other means. ========================================================= John Goodwin (in propria persona, nec pro Fermilab) JGOODWIN@ADCALC.FNAL.GOV ----- (Advertisement) Upcoming numbers of the FreeLore Tracts, available in newsgroup alt.uu.future: FreeLore I. What is FreeLore? [Publius] FreeLore II. Who Needs FreeLore? [Publius] FreeLore III. What Is to Be Done? [Publius] FreeLore IV. Public Domain Markup and the Public Good [Publius] The purpose of the FreeLore Tract series is to promote discussion of the direction of quasi- public domain information resources, especially those used for educational purposes, and to encourage the production of useful, free software and educational materials. If you wish to contribute to this series, send your article to the above email address. We reserve the right to edit for style, format, and content, and to reject articles not congruent with the goals of the series. Edited articles will be returned to authors for approval before publication. ======= (end advertisement) From: jgoodwin@cns35.fnal.gov (John Goodwin) Newsgroups: alt.uu.future Subject: PUBLIUS FreeLore Tract I. What is FreeLore? Date: 17 Dec 1992 14:06 CST Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, AD/Controls Lines: 113 Distribution: world Message-ID: <17DEC199214063963@cns35.fnal.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: cns35.fnal.gov Keywords: FreeLore Tract I, FreeLore, Publius, FreeLore Project News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 I enclose an article from by good friend PUBLIUS, who does not yet have access to a computer. ======= FreeLore I. What Is FreeLore? ========== So far, discussion in alt.uu.future has been primarily focused on the question: What would an education acquired through the UseNet medium be like? And so far, I aver, there has been a creative discussion of this issue. Yet, I submit that a larger, more inclusive question would lead us to a more fruitful conclusion, to wit: How can we realize the promise of electronic media for the free flow of information? I offer for your consideration the following facts: o We are well into the information age, yet there is no public domain collection of good textbooks, using which anyone with access to a computer can learn for free. Certainly there is no archive of such books. o There is no free on-line encyclopedia or dictionary. o Public domain written materials from before 1800 have not been reduced to electronic form and are not widely available in at little or no cost. o There are no public domain BookReaders, programs specifically for reading textbooks. Nor are there internationally accepted standards for textbooks to be read by such a reader. I realize that some of this is hyperbole, but it is not far from a true description of what is available in the electornic public domain. You are already familiar with the concept of Freeware, a public domain program that is distributed at little or no cost. I would like to introduce the broader concept of FreeLore, useful information that is in the public domain and distributed at little or no cost by electronic means. UseNet articles, especially the FAQs, often fit this definition of FreeLore. I think the destiny of UseNet University is not only to discuss how one might acquire an education, or part of an education, using this medium, but to define a format for FreeLore, to organize the effort to capture information for the public domain, and to push the effort to create freeware for realizing the promise of electronic communications. We are a very narrow segment of UseNet. We will not ourselves be able to write all the curriculum materials required for a complete university library, but if we empower others to create and write such materials, we will have performed a service worthy of the idea of on-line education. When we are done, it should be possible to find a public domain textbook on nearly any subject, to read it on any common system, certainly on UNIX; and it should be possible to use UseNet and anonymous FTP to acquire the materials. A first stab at what is required to accomplish these goals will appear in my next article. PUBLIUS ========================================================= John Goodwin (in propria persona, nec pro Fermilab) JGOODWIN@ADCALC.FNAL.GOV ----- (Advertisement) Future numbers of the FreeLore Tracts: FreeLore II. Who Needs FreeLore? [Publius] FreeLore III. What Is to Be Done? [Publius] FreeLore IV. Public Domain Markup and the Public Good [Publius] The purpose of the FreeLore Tract series is to promote discussion of the direction of free information resources, especially those used for educational purposes, and to encourage the production of useful, free software and educational materials. If you wish to contribute to this series, send your article to the above email address. We reserve the right to edit for style, format, and content, and to reject articles not congruent with the goals of the series. ----- Copyright (c) 1992 John E. Goodwin Permission is hereby granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the FreeLore Tracts provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. From: jgoodwin@cns35.fnal.gov (John Goodwin) Newsgroups: alt.uu.future Subject: FreeLore Bulletin No. 2 Date: 21 Dec 1992 14:27 CST Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, AD/Controls Lines: 574 Distribution: world Message-ID: <21DEC199214275647@cns35.fnal.gov> NNTP-Posting-Host: cns35.fnal.gov Keywords: FreeLore, FreeLore Bulletin News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 ------------- FreeLore Bulletin No. 2 Articles in this Issue: **1 FreeLore Project Startup **2 FreeLore Project Needs Writers, Software Developers, Markup Volunteers, Library Scientists, and Administrators **3 FreeLore Project Needs Software Developers and Consultants **4 FreeLore Project Proposed Software Design Goals (Please Comment) **5 FreeLore Project Software Development Tasks (preliminary) ================= **1 FreeLore Project Startup The FreeLore Project exists to --promote the production of freely distributed educational and other useful materials (``FreeLore'') in the electronic and electronically-derived print media; --capture public domain data in a useful electronic form; --produce freely distributed software to view and use FreeLore; --encourage free access to information generally. We hope to accomplish these goals in the context of freely distributed software (basically the GNU project and its various ports, plus what we write). We are a parallel project and not directly related to the Free Software Foundation, although we expect to work closely with them. Our initial effort will lie in four areas: (1) We will solicit contributions of educational materials and provide volunteers to mark the texts up in any of a number of ``preliminary markup languages'' (undoubtably, various versions of TeX will be among those supported). (2) We will provide software support to translate from the preliminary markup languages to an as yet undefined final markup language. This markup language will probably be SGML and will probably support some form of hypertext (Hytime). It will either directly support the World Wide Web or be translatable to HTML. Software support will also provide freely distributed browsers, including at least one that works on character-oriented terminals and one for X windows. Software support should eventually include some sort of system for going directly from a text editor to the target markup. (3) We will solicit publishing and subscribing sites. The subscribing sites will be the most numerous and will have some minimum configuration like an internet hookup, a character-oriented terminal, and a postscript laser printer. Publisher sites will be any anonymous FTP server. We will prepare ``starter kits'' so that the writers, markers, publishing sites, subscribing sites, volunteer software developers, etc., can work in a decentralized fashion. (4) In addition, we will try to catalogue and track materials that are created under our ``self-franchising'' operation, if we are told of them. `` Cataloguing'' is envisioned as placing pointers to the documents in a single page :-) of the World Wide Web and making a copy version available via anonymous FTP. This is probably only a short term solution: in the long run we will need an institutional sponsor with significant resources for cataloguing. ====================================================================== **2 FreeLore Project Needs Writers, Software Developers, Markup Volunteers, Library Scientists, and Administrators The FreeLore project will only be a success if we have a large number of volunteers. We do not have to wait for software developement to start writing or collecting texts. The texts will not be stored at a single site, but at a very large number of distributed sites. Please consider yourself for one of the volunteer postions listed below: -------- VOLUNTEER WRITERS OR CONTRIBUTERS OF TEXT FOR MARKUP Basically, all you have to do to be a contributer is add a GNU-like copyright to a document you write or have written, and make it available on an FTP server. How-to details will be included in (the next?) bulletin. For now, if you don't have a site that supports anonymous FTP, just send email to jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov, and I will try to find a home for your manuscript. Later on, we hope to provide a list of ``publishers'' and the works they specialize in. No subjects are taken and we are certainly not limiting ourselves to technical subjects like computer science, math, or physics. Texts that mix several languages may have to wait until we work out the details of embedding non-English languages in English text (a high priority). Please do not contribute materials without the consent of the author (unless the author has been dead at least 75 years and you are sure you are not violating someone's copyright). ------------- VOLUNTEERS TO DO MARKUP (almost certain to include some dialects of TeX, LaTeX, and Texinfo) We will decide as early as possible about supported preliminary markup languages. For now, keep reading the bulletin and scrounge your sites for potential authors! ------------ SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS Software tasks are so numerous and varied that a separate article has been devoted to them. See Below. ------------ PROJECT ADMINISTRATORS If you are willing to handle correspondence, maintain membership lists and lists of consultants, answer questions about the project, edit newsletters and journals, prepare kits for prosepctive project members, solicit writers and publication sites, and similar onerous tasks, without any (monetary) compensation, I would very much like to speak to you. jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov +1 708 840 8069 You should be well connected to the internet and of a cheerful disposition. ---------------- SPONSORING INSTITUTIONS NEEDED If your institution is able to make educational materials available via anonymous FTP, and you are willing to participate in the project as a ``publishing'' site, please contact jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov with details of the service you can provide, a contact person, and any restrictions on the sorts of materials you will store. ----------------- **3 SOFTWARE CONSULTANTS AND DEVELOPERS NEEDED We need both developers of software and consultants. If you are willing to be added to the consultant list, contact John Goodwin (jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov). Your name will not be released in a public list, unless you give us explicit permission to do this, but our central administration may contact you or put software developers in contact with you as needed. I do not put you on the consultant's list simply because you contact me and tell me that you have expertise in a certain field. In many cases, there are other projects that will have a large effect on what we do. If you are willing to act as liason (mostly keep abreast of what they are doing and tell us about it), write John Goodwin jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov Consultants are needed in the following areas: ----------------- SGML, HYTIME, HYPERTEXT SIGHYPER AND DAVENPORT LIASONS We need someone experienced with SGML and/or Hytime standards, who can advise us on recent developments, existing freely distributed software, other projects etc. We also need persons to act as liasons to SIGHyper and the Davenport project. ------------------ GUTENBERG PROJECT We need someone who can act as liason to the Gutenberg Project. ------------------ HTML CONSULTANT WORLD WIDE WEB LIASON We need someone to act as liason to the World Wide Web project. Also, we need someone who is familiar or willing to become familiar with the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used by the WWW project. To find out more about the World Wide Web, telnet info.cern.ch and login as www [no password]. --------------- INTERNET GURU NEEDED We need someone who knows about networking, is familiar with RFCs and the issues involved in transmitting text without garbbling it. --------------- MAILING LIST CONSULTANT We need someone with wide experience getting email through to remote parts of the globe and decrypting wierd messages about mailing failures. -------------- POSTSCRIPT GURU We need someone familiar with the postscript language, EPS, laser printers, etc. -------------- X WINDOWS/MOTIF/UNIX/C WIZARDS Most potential software developers mentioned expertise in these or that they were learning them as rapidly as possible. However, we would still like to keep a list of persons who can advise us and keep up with these fields. Please be as specific as possible about your areas and levels of expertise. --------------- TeX WIZARD TUG LIASON Since we expect to accept TeX as a preliminary markup language in some fashion, and since TeX to SGML conversion, hypertext and so on is a frequent topic in TUGBoat, we need someone to track and advise us on these subjects. --------------- GNU SOFTWARE EXPERT FSF LIASON We would like to be fully operable within the GNU environment and to maintain close ties with the Free Software Foundation. If you are experienced using GNU software and willing help advise about getting it running and getting our stuff to work with it, please ask to be added to our consultant's list. We also need a liason with the FSF, preferably someone who has written related software for the GNU project and is familiar with standards, proceedures, testing, etc. --------------- LIBRARY SCIENTIST NEEDED Part of our marked up document will be a ``catalogue card'' that permits us to maintain lists of documents, what they are about, and where to find them. We need someone familiar with and also recent developments in the MARC format as it pertains to documents available by anonymous FTP. Someone with knowledge of international cataloguing trends and standards could help us a lot. Contact: John Goodwin jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov +1 708 840 8069 Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory MS-341 P.O. Box 500 Batavia, IL 60174 --------------- COPYRIGHT LAW EXPERT NEEDED If you have had enough professional experience with copyright law (e.g. you are a lawyer) and are willing to advise us on a pro bono basis about wording of copyrights, copyright infringements, etc. in the areas of documents and/or software, please contact: John Goodwin jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov ====================================================================== **3 FreeLore Project Needs Software Developers The best way to begin being a FreeLore Project Software Developer is to prepare yourself to become a consultant in one of the above areas using the contact information given there or in the discussion of possible projects (See **5), and then to read and comment on the design goals below (See **4). If you indicate to me that you want to be a developer, I will send you a list of other developers. You should contact each other and discuss the design goals, etc. For now, please keep me in the loop. I am not a Software Engineer and expect that this part of the project will eventually be supervised by someone the ``Software Development Group'' chooses. ====================================================================== **4 FreeLore Project Proposed Software Design Goals (Please Comment) >>>DRAFT<<< Version 0.1 22 December 1992 The FreeLore Software Suite allows the preparation, viewing, and printing of marked up text. GENERAL o the design goals are met with freely distributed (preferrably copylefted) software. o all software expressly created for the project will be written in portable ANSI-standard C. (at least the core software; g++ should be an option for fancy stuff?) o all software will run minimally in the GNU environment on a UNIX (or linux...) machine. o the system will work on a character-oriented terminal with significant enhancements for an X terminal. ALLOWED INPUT TEXT o Acceptable plaintext input uses any of several character sets including at least US ASCII and ISO Latin-1. Preferably it will also include the "two-character" sets of RFC 1049 (essentially Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic alphabets). o The plaintext input is either email robust or a converter is provided to make it email robust. o The plaintext input can include multiple mnemonic character sets to represent other languages in an almost human-readable form, as defined in RFC 1049. This is important for many educational texts, which contain quotations in other alphabets or are textbooks with examples in other languages. PRELIMINARY AND FINAL MARKUP o Accepts preliminary markup or formatting in a number of forms including several forms of TeX or LaTex, (nroff markup?), Texinfo, and perhaps also common proprietary formats (WordPerfect, Microsoft RTF?--or do we care?). o Uses some form of SGML for the target representation (various DTDs or one DTD?). This stage is called ``final markup.'' o (email to SGML direct) A method is provided to encapsulate any valid plaintext or any valid preliminary markup document in a final valid SGML document. This is a minimal automated form of markup. This minimal markup should correctly treat embedded character sets (including both the ``two-character'' sets and the mnemonic character sets representing non-English languages) and embedded equations, (also encoded binary figures?). BROWSING AND PRINTING o The SGML form supports a hypertext browser, e.g. complies with Hytime. o At least two browsers are initially provided: one for character oriented terminals; and an X11 browser. o The SGML form supports connection to the World Wide Web, either directly, by conversion, or through a server. o The SGML form can be printed as typeset quality text on a postscript laser printer by some path (including possibly back-conversion to TeX, initially). GRAPHICS o (Graphics in separate document or embedded in SGML?) o If graphics are present in the SGML document, an apologetic note is added by the character-mode browser. DOWNGRADING THE MARKED UP FORM o The SGML form can have the markup ``stripped'' and returned to plaintext in a way that permits viewing of contents without markup ``clutter''. [Clutter does not include things like equations, but does include things like kerning, font choice, etc. GNU Texinfo-->Info is a good example of how to downgrade a marked up file, except that it requires writing equations twice if you want it to appear in both printed output and Info.] o The SGML can be returned to any of the preliminary markup or format forms. This operation is not the inverse of the preliminary to final markup form, but rather provides a standard and useful way to ``downgrade'' the hypertext. Specific markup is lost in the, say, TeX to SGML, translation, then a standard specific markup is added in the SGML to TeX translation. The result is a standardized document, so the composition of the two translations is useful, i.e. not the identity transformation and not garbage. ====================================================================== **5 FreeLore Project Software Development Tasks (preliminary) This list is very preliminary, since the design goals are not yet set; but it gives an idea of the sorts of things we will probably be doing. CARTOON OF WHAT THE FINAL SYSTEM MIGHT LOOK LIKE Input Plaintext (May be provided by anyone) | | | v Initial Markup ---> .DVI file --> postscript (TeX/Texinfo document, etc.) | ^ | | | | (``downgrading'') v | SGML/Hytime document ---> postscript | | | | | | | | | | | X11 Hypertext Browser/Previewer | | World Wide Web Hypertext Browser | Character Mode Hypertext Browser Plaintext downgrade (content dump) Notice that most of this functionality is provided already if you use Texinfo as the initial markup language, have a Texinfo to HTML converter, and use HTML in place of SGML+Hytime. We really need convergence between GNU (Texinfo), WWW, and the Davenport (SGML/Hytime) project, since all of them are trying to provide the same thing, more or less. USEFUL THINGS TO DO (FREELORE PROJECT PROTO-TASK LIST) o Find out about the Davenport Project and see if there is any PD or copylefted code that implements the Hytime standard. o Set up a WWW server at your site and get the X11/Motif or X11 browser running. To get information telnet info.cern.ch and login as WWW [no password]. o Read RFC 1049; compare with RFCs 1341 and 1345. Write a C program that will search for character mnemonics embedded in plaintext and convert them to a markup language (TeX or better SGML). o (related) write an X11 program to display plaintext with embedded non-English character sets. It should do something reasonable if the font is not available (like leave mnemonics alone, but convert two-character codes to mnemonics). o Get Guido Van Rossum's program to convert Texinfo to HTML and rewrite it in gcc or g++. Van Rossum's program is written in an object-oriented interpreter called Python, which you can get at the same ftp site: ftp.cwi.nl. o Write a C program to convert Texinfo to SGML/Hytime so it will run on your system. (After we agree on the standard :-) o Get ARC-SGML and information on Hytime from ftp.ifi.uio.no and write a character-oriented or X11 hypertext browser. o Write an HTML server for Texinfo or some other dialect of TeX, i.e. a program which can scan documents and answer a query, not just convert them. o set up a linux system (when SLIP runs on Linux) and figure out what the minimum system to run TeX, GNU EMACS with info, a SLIP connection to the World Wide Web and still drive a postscript laser printer is. Happy Hunting, John Goodwin jgoodwin@adcalc.fnal.gov ============ Copyright (c) 1992 John E. Goodwin Permission is hereby granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the FreeLore Bulletin provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. From: jgoodwin@cns35.fnal.gov (John Goodwin) Newsgroups: alt.uu.future Subject: PUBLIUS FreeLore Tract II. Who Needs FreeLore Keywords: FreeLore, FreeLore Tracts, Publius Message-ID: <19DEC199220320201@cns35.fnal.gov> Date: 20 Dec 92 02:32:00 GMT Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, AD/Controls Lines: 193 NNTP-Posting-Host: cns35.fnal.gov News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41 I enclose an article from by good friend PUBLIUS, who does not yet have access to a computer. ======= FreeLore II. Who Needs FreeLore? ======= In my previous article, I wrote of FreeLore, useful information that in an electronic format, and available at little or no cost to the user. Now it might seem, in an age when an electronic connection to anywhere on earth is inexpensive, when it is less expensive to print a book on a laser printer than to buy it from a publisher, if the book contains the slightest degree of technical information, that is to say, if it is at all useful; or when newspaper articles could as easily be faxed and viewed on a computer as pur- chased at the local kiosk, that there would be a great deal of high quality information available in the public domain, and that if one wanted, say, a textbook on French, it would be available more or less for free. And yet, my friend, this is not the case. Now it will no doubt seem reasonable to you that some men and women wish to be paid for their work. And no doubt it is reasonable. Yet there may be some, perhaps even yourself, who wish to make some contribution to the good of humanity. And can there be any doubt that humanity would be served if some of us were to reduce to electronic form the knowledge that we already possess? And even more, if we made it possible to easily view this information, not to mention find it in the first place? Yet think of the magnitude of such a task; what a thankless job it would be to, say, type in all the extant works of Aristotle in your own translation, or all of Milton. Or would you write from scratch a textbook on Computer Science, and receive no compensation for it? Who would do such things? And for that matter, how useful would it be if it was merely an ASCII transcript without page numbers, footnotes, marginalia, indexing, diacritical marks or a guarantee that it could be read by any program other than a text editor? Here, my friend, we come to the nub of the issue: What sorts of information should there be in the electronic public domain that isn't there now and What format should it be stored in? Of these issues there has been much discussion. And befitting our type we have most frequently mentioned the kinds of FreeLore that would most benefit us directly, namely o Computer system documentation; and o Traditional School subjects at the college or graduate level. But to these we could add many others, things that ought to be in the electronic public domain, yet for one reason or another are not: o Traditional School subjects at the pre-college level; o Survey of current knowlege (encyclopedia); o Language dictionaries; o Text of pre-1900 public domain world literature, marked up so as to be useful; and o Public-domain electronic newsletters, formatted so they can be printed, and subsequently xeroxed, faxed, pinned to bulletin boards, and be otherwise mistreated, and still look nice independent of the user's system. When, a few centuries ago, books became so inexpensive that nearly anyone, certainly any school or library, could own one, the whole world became a university. Now the price of information has dropped again. Anyone with access to a public terminal and a little knowlege can get the information they need at 10 cents a page, not just the information that book publishers decide is profitable given market rates, but (and here is where you come in) they can get it only *if we make it available to them in the electronic public domain*. We can empower poor school systems that cannot afford the latest textbooks; we can empower people who live miles from the nearest university library. Now do not get me wrong. I do not disparage those who sell information for a price. They serve a useful purpose, one that could not be accomplished by volunteers or well-wishers. And even you, kind-hearted soul that you are, I am sure that you ask to be given your daily bread for your day's labor. How else could you eat? Yet, how much greater glory is there in doing for free what others demand payment for? For such a person will gain the thanks of all the world, not merely a day's pay. There is but one minor detail we must confront: that there are some who would take the fruit of our labour, and sell it for profit; they would, as it were, reap where they have not sown. But such men are easily confounded: Do you not have, as author of your works, a copyright? Then keep that copyright, but allow others the freedom to copy your materials, saving only that they respect your copyright and steal not your works for their own profit. Let us agree to say that such works, copylefted as some have called it, are in the `quasi-public domain,' that is, it is as if they are in the public domain for all purposes except those of theives and profiteers. The tasks before us are staggering; they are the great task of bringing to humanity the promise of free information; and they must be done by us or persons very much like us, since no one else has the knowledge needed and no one else will do them for us. WE AND NO OTHERS. Yes, the market will see to it that there is fancy software for viewing information and fancy printers for printing it. We do not have to worry about that. But the information will never be more than is already available for free at the public library, given that an even more restricted market will purchase it. What sort of promise of freedom is this? I can assure you, if you want to buy a scholarly edition of Milton, or an electronic textbook on French, or a subscription to your favourite journal, you will pay your last farthing. Yet we do not have to accomplish all these things for our efforts to be worthwhile. Others will write the textbooks; others will edit the newsletters. If we but show the way, others will follow, secure that they are part of a great movement to win for the quasi-public domain the riches of the past and present. We have only to show them the way. You and I are on the vanguard. We will lead; others will follow. Therefore, friend, to the grindstone. Let us fashion tools that will ease the burden; but let us not tarry too long, for the task beckons: We have the World to serve. PUBLIUS ========================================================= John Goodwin (in propria persona, nec pro Fermilab) JGOODWIN@ADCALC.FNAL.GOV ----- (Advertisement) Future and Past Numbers of the FreeLore Tracts: FreeLore I. What Is FreeLore? [Publius] FreeLore II. Who Needs FreeLore? [Publius] FreeLore III. What Is to Be Done? [Publius] FreeLore IV. Public Domain Markup and the Public Good [Publius] The purpose of the FreeLore Tract series is to promote discussion of the direction of free information resources, especially those used for educational purposes, and to encourage the production of useful, free software and educational materials. If you wish to contribute to this series, send your article to the above email address. We reserve the right to edit for style, format, and content, and to reject articles not congruent with the goals of the series. ----- Copyright (c) 1992 John E. Goodwin Permission is hereby granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the FreeLore Tracts provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.