Thank you for joining (or at least looking at) Educational Pamphlets. This is a short post just to get the conversation started. A while back I discovered a resource that may be useful for our goal here: http://libertarianwiki.org/Main_Page it is a wiki that is intended as a tool for activism and already has some ready-made articles we might be able to use or modify for our use. Everything on the site is in the public domain. All thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
For a basic design, we should look at isil.org.
They do have some very well designed pamplets, I agree. We should look at them. But I also think we should do our own take on that design. They should not be such that one could be confused for the other.
Well, the pamphlets need to be relatively easy to print, because I doubt anyone will actually go to a pro printing place.
I’ll do some research on this. I’ve been thinking trifold. Is that what you guys are thinking?
Trifold is exactly what I was thinking actually.
Okay, we NEED a pamphlet about recessions first, because we can temporarily use isil pamphlets for other free market issues.
I agree. Recessions and Depressions should be the first priorities.
Is a Robinson Crusue analogy apt?
It can be the best way to simplify everything for people with NO knowledge of economics.
Here is a good one posted by someone named “HeroicLife” [Y]
Sure looks good. He is one of the people who maintains the boards isn’t he? One of us should ask him. I know many Austrians are skeptical about IP but I still would feel better asking a living person for permission before using something.
I’ll send him a message or email.
By the way, can we make sure that the pamphlet is digestible by people on both sides of the Atlantic, for instance can we have one version that uses the word “FED” and another with “ECB” and another with “Bank of England”.
That is a good point. Also,I am pretty sure that not all countries use the same size paper either. In the USA 8 1/2" X 11" is standard for most printer paper. I do not know about other countries.
Yes, the Americans as usual have to be different [:P], the International (ISO 216) standard paper size is 8.3" by 11.7".
But won’t the finished “product” be a .doc or .pdf or .jpg file that would be available for download and printing off the net.
That’s at least how I envisage it.
That is a good blog post, but we have to remember that these pamphlets should be designed for the lowest-possible-denominator in mind. Many people might not draw the connection between “monkeys” and “Federal Reserve.”
Ok, first off, I don’t want to be the leader. But I am an excellent backseat driver. haha
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How is this group organized? Do we need to set guidelines, goals, leaders?
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Is this a commercial project, or a non-commercial project that individuals can do commercially? Obviously the former is more complicated for us as a loose collection of individuals than the latter.
My thoughts.
I was thinking maybe we should provide the resources to create pamphlets in different software. Adobe Illustrator, MS Word, OpenOffice etc. PDF is a good standard export format, it’s universal.
We’ll probably need a revision list and naming conventions for the pamphlets.
Definitely need a list of translation resources.
A list of specific content to produce. Some of the stuff mentioned is way too heady for the average bloke at the mall who gets handed one of these. Just my opinion, but we need to come up with stuff, then try it on the most economically illiterate Ron Paul supporters to be sure it’s quality. Or at least, that is how I might do it.
If it’s possible, it would be good to organize a little, and avoid a hierarchy at the same time. I think we can be a lot more focused if we lay out the goal and the path to the goal, then walk backwards through all of the little tasks it takes us to get to our first pamphlet, where we will probably learn a lot along the way.
Hmm, I live in the United States and once tried to print a standard British PDF on standard US paper over the Internet. Turned out I could not do so. I had to print it on what we in the USA call “Legal paper”. There was a great deal of white space at the end of each sheet and it printed very oddly. I cannot speak for people in other countries or formats. Perhaps others with more knowledge in this area could shed some light on this matter.
OK, I was once heavily involved in my local LP and let me warn everyone of the danger of being “organized”. There is a joke in libertarian circles that “Organizing libertarians is like herding cats.” There is some truth to that joke. Our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. We tend to be very individualistic by nature. In my local LP we spent so much time arguing over what “rules” there should be if any that very little of substance was accomplished. The organization recently dissolved. Let us not worry too much about being “organized” in any formal or conventional sense. I think Wikipedia is our best model. Let us work on what we know best and distribute them informally wherever we happen to live or go. Organizing can be dangerous for libertarians. I speak from experience. Friendships can even be lost over “organizing” in a formal way. Let us not let that happen to us.
PDF is a good format. That would be fine with me. My only concern is that from personal experience sizing may be an issue depending on what country you live in.
Sounds good. I still know some people from my local LP before it died. I might be able to try it out on those people.
I agree.
Yeah, I’m with being a loose affiliation.
It’s just things like what licensing will we use? Up front, maybe we should agree upon some basics like that. Or maybe not.
I’m not into forming a machine or organization either, but it might be good to stress that up front, so new comers dive in, and don’t wait for orders from on high.
A4 is the standard format internationally which is comparable to “letter” size. We could publish PDFs in both.
Since we may, at the very least, quote from info on the LvMI site we should probably use the same creative commons licence that they use so we can be compatible. It may well be a good idea to post the PDF in both U.S. Letter size and A4 for English, French and Spanish language materials. But if A4 is the standard outside North America perhaps there is no reason to post U.S. Letter format for other languages (except maybe conlangs). What are your thoughts?
FYI, I have contacted the ISIL to discuss this pamphlet idea with them and have confirmed that they no longer produce, print, sell, or distribute their pamphlets for various logistical reasons. In addition, many of their pamphlets are 15 years out of date, and many local libertarian groups are running low on supplies. There is a great need for something to fill the gap.