At some point, we have to lay down the vision for Booki. Now might be as good a time as any… Booki is a new approach to publishing. It is in simple terms, a kind of social network for publishing. Actually, I find the analogy of the social network fits quite well when trying to communicate what Booki does. Take a well known social networking site… take your pick… you probably use one or more. In these environments, people gather and share information about themselves. They chat with each other, keep each other ‘posted’ on what they are up to, share opinions and communicate what they are interested in etc.
All in all it’s great fun. Social networks are after all very social – however, mostly that’s all they are. Isn’t that a little sad? Wouldn’t it be nice if all that energy was put towards something useful…something that might change the world?
Imagine taking all that energy in a social network, putting it into an environment that is just as much fun, just as social, but directing the energy towards something productive. Imagine an environment where you chatted with others, met new people, kept them up to date with what you are up to, discussed opinions, had fun… except all this activity was focused on and around making and publishing books. Real books, ones that you could show your friends and tell them you helped create. Imagine spending all that time you currently spend on a social network, except that you find yourself helping someone write a free text book for kids who can’t afford books, or working to improve someone’s novel, or helping write a cook book on Mexican cooking, or a book on fixing Schwalbes.
That is exciting, that is the new world of publishing, that is what a social network can do, but none did… until Booki…
This is the environment we are building. We have come a long way towards our goal – Booki is functional and pretty stable – but we still have a long way to go. The Booki development team is making fantastic progress and the good news is – it’s free software and that means you can help us get there faster. If you would like to help us revolutionise the world by bringing social networking to publishing… then welcome aboard 🙂