[Air-l] case studies of mailinglists

[David Wiley]

Quentin,

You should consider the possibility that whoever told you that keeping 
your thesis offline was a good idea may be wrong. My first book, some of 
which was based on my dissertation, pre-sold over 500 copies by being 
available online in free full-text, which is good for dissertation in a 
field as narrow as instructional technology. (See 
http://reusability.org/read/). It continues to be freely available 
online, and people keep buying the book because either (a) they don't 
want to read 350pp on their monitor, and/or (b) it costs about the same 
to print the whole thing out as it does to buy the book.

Seems like the only reason not to put your thesis online involves 
"information hording" of some kind...

Just my $0.02 worth of experience,

David

Quentin (Gad) Jones wrote:

>I'd like to read more.  Is the PhD online anywhere?
>
>
>I haven't put the entire thesis online yet because I have just started a
>new job and because I am thinking through advice I have received not to
>put the entire work online (It is 250+ 10 point single spaced).  I am
>also thinking about turning it into a book.  
>