Open publishing - Definition and Overview

Open publishing is a process of creating news or other content that is transparent to the readers. They can contribute a story and see it instantly appear in the pool of stories publicly available. Those stories are filtered as little as possible to help the readers find the stories they want. Readers can see editorial decisions being made by others. They can see how to get involved and help make editorial decisions. If they can think of a better way for the software to help shape editorial decisions, they can copy the software because it is free and change it and start their own site. If they want to redistribute the news, they can, preferably on an open publishing site.

Internet sites run on open publishing software allow anyone with Internet access to visit the site and upload content directly without having to penetrate the filters of traditional media. Several fundamental principles tend to inform the organizations and sites dedicated to open publishing, though they do so to varying degrees. These principles include non-hierarchy, public participation, minimal editorial control, and transparency.

Examples of Open Publishing

• Independent Media Center
• TearItAllDown (http://www.tearitalldown.com/)
• Kuro5hin (http://Kuro5hin.org/)
• Slashdot
• Discordia (http://www.discordia.us/scoop/)
• Wikipedia

External Links

• Open publishing is the same as free software. (http://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html) - the document which popularized the term within the Indymedia, the first wide spread use of the term.
• Center for Communication & Civic Engagenment on Open Publishing [1] (http://depts.washington.edu/ccce/digitalMedia/publishing.html)
• Analysis: The Rise Of Open Media [2] (http://slashdot.org/features/00/06/19/1714239.shtml)
• Three Proposals for Open Publishing [3] (http://dru.ca/imc/open_pub.html)