[Edu-sig] Things to come

[Steve Morris]

Kirby Urner writes:
 > BTW, I don't consider PDFs all that web-unready (despite 
 > previous poster's remarks).  Just download and print.  Sure, 
 > you can't easily change the text, but not all published 
 > documents are open source code in that sense.  

As "previous poster" mentioned above allow me to comment. I didn't say
that PDF's were web unready. PDF is an excellent format for paper
replacer electronic publishing where copyright protection is the issue
and the author wishes to protect and control content. PDF is a
graphical format which strips all intellectual content from electronic
representation and turns it into a picture. This is a feature if you
want to limit electronic access to the data (editing, searching, copy
and paste etc.) Also PDF is a portable graphical format that can be
represented on any OS and printer.

I am not an FSF fanatic that thinks all intellectual property should
be free. There is a place for protecting access and control of
copyright material. It is an important part of commerce AND
innovation. The creator and/or owner of intellectual property has the
legal right to put controls on that property and this is a good
thing. The point I want to make is that using PDF `IS' a control on user
access and probably shouldn't be used if that is not the intent.

Specifically (although perhaps not clearly) what I was suggesting is
that PDF is a poor format for collaborative efforts where the users
might be expected to modify and enhance the materials (translate to
other formats etc) and perhaps contribute the enhancements back to the
community. Thus it is a poor format for documentation intended for the
public domain or its various sourceware equivalents.

Putting it another way pdf is the documentation equivalent of
distributing software as executables and not source code.

 > As an author/writer, I produce finished products, as well 
 > as works in progress.  The concept of plagiarism still 
 > holds (i.e. if it's not your own work, don't pretend that 
 > it is; credit your sources).

Hmmm... I will give the benefit of the doubt and assume that this
comment was general and not a characterization of people who dislike
pdf file format; even though the juxtaposition made me a little queasy
when I read it. I'm from the old school. I believe that when students
cheat they should be expelled and only allowed back in with reasonable
proof of contrition. Equivalent fate should follow professional
plagarism or other forms of misrepresentation.