Letters to the Editor

I have a great idea for saving money on paper costs. I would like to see an electronic version of the Linux Journal. It would save paper, ink, printing costs, and lots of trees. The only thing to figure out is how to distribute it. You could encrypt it with the subscriber's public key, or something like that. I am sure that something could be worked out.

I have been surprised that publishers have not moved into the electronic market yet. The potential for selling information is tremendous.

The primary reason that I am interested is because I am blind. When I get my journals, I have to find someone with the time to read me the articles I am interested in. Since almost no one has time, it usually involves paying someone by the hour to do this. $5.00 per hour can get steep.

I would be willing to work with anyone who be interested in doing this. I have a lot of ideas on security, making sure the magazine gets to the intended subscriber, and other issues related to electronic publishing.

I am willing to donate my time as I hope that as more things are made usable by me, it will increase my money making potential. I will be able to generate more income and spend less to keep up with the “printed” media.

I hope someone takes a serious look at this note and that it does not go to the great black bit bucket.

Thanks in advance for your time. I look forward to hopefully working with some one on this.

—Kelly Prescott kellypre@linkup.com

Right now, we are working on distributing it via our WWW site.

We are in the process of writing a markup language for Linux Journal that is similar to HTML and will allow us to do many different kinds of distribution, including paper, WWW, and potentially other kinds of electronic distribution. You are not the only blind user to have contacted us, and we would like to be able to meet your needs better.

Controlling distribution is not a big issue. Most profits come from advertising revenue, even though we have some of the lowest ad rates in the industry. The more subscribers we have, the more advertisers are interested in buying advertisement.--Editor