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Kickstarting an eBook on eBooks from the Rural Design Collective

There are so many cool projects sprouting up all over the planet, and they aren’t necessarily in big cities with a gazillion resources. These cool projects have a gazillion dreams and merely need some support.

I just supported one such project running under the Kickstarter program. Not surpising, the project I supported deals with books. eBooks, actually. I posted an image of the project on my sidebar, but it is a bit tiny, so I’m reposting it in this blog post.

Supporting the Rural Design Collective eBooks with Kickstarter

What is the project?

I’ll quote from the site:

This year the Rural Design Collective is making an eBook on how to make eBooks! We will be participating in a collaborative book with software developer James Simmons, creator of notable Activities for working with eBooks on the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO. Our primary audience for this manual is teachers and the goal is to make this an important learning tool in the classroom. In this volume, best practices in digitization techniques will be emphasized. The manual will be developed throughout the program using the open authoring platform at FLOSS Manuals. In addition, we will be offering a hands-on three month program on-site at our headquarters where many of our experiments will be used as case studies for the book.

Teaching teachers? Wow. You hit a big audience that way. What’s not to like?

Who’s the Rural Design Collective?

They are a “not-for-profit professional mentoring program which furthers the education and experience of residents of rural Southern Coastal Oregon who are interested in working with web and/or media technology by involving them in real development projects.”

Read this next sentence carefully.

We are located in Curry County which is one of the economically poorest in rural Oregon, yet home to many resourceful residents and progressive creative people. We focus on work that advances important social causes and/or helps make a difference in our local community.

This reminds me of current discussions in Denmark about the economic balance (rather imbalance) in the distribution of resources in the country. People probably have a tendency to think “rural = poor” per default. Perhaps this is because there are fewer factories or shopping centers or other visible displays of money. RDC shows an awareness that the resources are in the people. This community is actually rich, but not everyone has that perspective. I like the way RDC thnks, and I like their passion. Such love and passion for their local community deserves support.

Visit them on the web at ruraldesigncollective.org.

Do you want to support this project, too? Go click on the image – it is hyperlinked to take you straight to the support page.

As for Kickstarter? Read about them at kickstarter.com. They’re “a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors.”

5 Comments

  1. Lori Meyer
    Lori Meyer 8 August 2010

    Hi, Karen — Your tweet announcing your blog came in just as I was about to shut down my computer…so I’m glad I stayed online a few more seconds to see your new blog. Great start; congratulations! I like the attractive, readable layout. The RDC information is most interesting; thanks for sharing that. I’ve bookmarked the URL and will look at it in greater detail.

    Looking forward to future posts! — Regards, Lori

  2. Karen
    Karen 8 August 2010

    Thanks for stopping by, Lori! My poor neglected blog is now kickstarted (again) and I’ll be much better at posting on a more regular basis – not because I must or feel obligated, but because I want to write and share thoughts, ideas, and experiences.

  3. Anne Gentle
    Anne Gentle 16 August 2010

    Wonderful post, Karen – and your blog design is so green and organic, I love it.

    I too was drawn to the paragraph about rural Oregon and its resourceful residents. I hope they get all their funding, I’m supporting them gladly!

  4. fiverr
    fiverr 21 July 2011

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