Winter Solstice has just passed, and there's a saying in Cantonese, "Winter is more important than the New Year". I wish everyone enjoyed spending the festival with family and cherishing the time together.
Last week's article received a lukewarm response, which was expected. Serious and lengthy articles usually do so, especially as the end of the year approaches and the festive atmosphere prevails. It's good enough that people open and read the emails. This week, I've learned my lesson and will talk casually about my views on publishing, and more importantly, give you all a small gift.
I often talk about publishing, but I've never really defined what publishing is. It seems like a concept everyone understands and agrees upon, so it seems odd to seriously define it.
However, some old concepts change over time and with technological advancements. In the past, publishing referred to the process of editing text and images into books, newspapers, magazines, applying for ISBN or ISSN (International Standard Book Number, International Standard Serial Number), layout designing, printing a certain quantity, and then distributing them to communities or other regions and countries. Today, the traditional publishing industry still largely understands it this way. But if we focus not on the process but on the effect of "publishing concepts or stories for the public to read," using e-books would be much simpler and cheaper. Even opening an app on a phone and posting a few sentences can be seen globally, with some apps having a "publish" button right next to the text box. The threshold has indeed been significantly lowered, but is pressing an emoji key and letting the world see it really "publishing"? Thirty years after the internet has entered the public sphere, what does "publishing" really mean?
There's no standard answer to this question, but since I'm involved in publishing, I need to have my interpretation to know what to do. To me, as long as the creator sees their output as a "work" and hopes it will be "distributed" and "preserved" (in Cantonese both pronounced as lau4 cyun4), it's "publishing." In other words, length, format and method are not the main points; the purpose is what matters most.
For example, if Alice writes a long article and prints it out to send to specific friends, that's not publishing but a private letter; if Bob uses Instagram to casually post stories that automatically disappear after 24 hours, that's expression and sharing, but not publishing; if Carol also uses Instagram but takes photos deliberately and accompanies them with thoughtful short phrases, publicly posting them with the hope that her work will persist, then in my mind, Carol is publishing.
I remember the last time I attended the Hong Kong Blogger Conference was in the Spring Festival of 2018, which might also have been the last session. At that time, many bloggers at my table had already stopped updating or even closed their personal websites, switching to Facebook or Instagram, not to mention almost six years later today. Although I am more old-fashioned, only writing articles and books, and still advocate that creators maintain an open personal website (open means having a specific URL, accessible without logging in), I agree with this broader, non-conventional definition.
In this context, decentralized publishing fits well into the objective definition of publishing: If you are willing to organize your content well, spend a few dollars to put your text on IPFS, and put your book's metadata on the blockchain, allowing your work to spread horizontally to more places and vertically to future generations, then you are publishing. Not everyone has to become a creator, but if there are any barriers to this, I hope they are not due to technical, commercial, or political reasons (Confused voice: I thought we were going to keep it light and not go into lengthy discussions?).
So, as a creator, how do I publish my personal works? Focusing on practice, and enjoying being a guinea pig, I experimented with decentralized publishing at the end of last year. I released ‘Moneyverse: how investment works in the multiverse in the form of an NFT book, introducing this method to the publishing industry. Starting a year and a half ago, I've been publishing my weekly articles and extended readings of old articles in a decentralized manner. This article happens to be the 100th one. 🥳
As always, I will give the NFT of this article to my paid subscribers, not only as a keepsake but also as a means to ensure that if my website is taken down for some reason, subscribers can still read the article through the NFT and decentralized storage. Moreover, unlike a website that collapses and is rebuilt with a previous backup, the nature of this decentralized storage is like a clipping service, published concurrently with the original, ensuring authenticity, but not disappearing with the closure of the original website.
Browsing my personal website, ckxpress.com, the oldest article was written at the end of 2003, which is 20 years ago. There are a total of 951 posts that haven't been archived on the blockchain, including columns from HKEJ (Hong Kong Economic Journal), Ming Pao, and Apple Daily, as well as a plethora of musings. Before the era of social networks, I often published posts with just a sentence or two, similar to what later became Twitter or Facebook statuses, but they weren't confined to any specific social network. Any internet user could subscribe via RSS, creating their own stream of information. It was an open and wonderful era. Of these 951 posts, most that I consider works have been included in The Road of Games, The Dao of Games and The Sociology of Blockchain: Reimagining Money, Media, and Democracy, three books published in print or traditional e-book format. Last year, I planned to republish each of them as NFT books, and after a year's delay, I'm finally getting to work.
I'll start with the oldest, The Road of Games, which records my story of starting a mobile game business in 1999 and the first decade of that journey, with many events occurring not just in Hong Kong but also in Mainland China. Very few people have seen this work, almost all of them are old friends. As I organized the documents and reread them, some parts are almost unbearable to look at; I can hardly imagine that I wrote those words, and I feel so embarrassed that I wish I could exercise the right to be forgotten as advocated by the EU and just delete them. However, I just said that publishing is about turning outputs into works that are distributed and preserved, so for the sake of consistency, I’ll just pull through.
Optimistically speaking, feeling embarrassed when rereading old works is normal; otherwise, it might mean there's been no progress over the years. Old works are like yellowed photographs, capturing a previous version of oneself, forcing you to acknowledge the outdated hairstyle or the cringy pose; or alternatively, they compel you to reminisce about the times when you had more hair, were youthful and bright-eyed, with ambitions almost spilling out of your embrace. Whether you're the former or the latter, focusing on your thoughts, capturing and preserving them, is probably what publishing means to an individual.
If you are a paid subscriber to the web3dom, please accept this small token of my appreciation without any cost, as a thank you for your support. Just respond to this article or email me directly at kin@ckxpress.com before January 31, 2024, and I will send you the The Road of Games NFT eBook + paperback. Yes, it's a traditional paper book, quite “out of character” for me, but I still have a few copies from the stock. I may not have much sentiment for Christmas, but I am pleased to be able to give this gift to everyone.
If you are not a paid subscriber but are interested in my past works or simply want to have a look at my embarrassing past for a laugh, you can purchase the The Road of Games‘Game NFT eBook + paperback on Liker Land. It is priced at USD19.9 with free worldwide shipping (unless you live in Antarctica). A smarter way to purchase, however, is to subscribe to this newsletter for an annual fee of USD60 before January 31, 2024, which, in addition to the original benefits, also includes the gifted NFT book + paperback.
In addition to organizing my personal works one by one, I am also assisting other authors and organizations in republishing, particularly those works that have gone out of print for various reasons or never had the chance to be published at all. These will be announced in the coming months. If, like me, you choose not to exercise the right to be forgotten and decide to let your works be preserved and disseminated, please contact me. I am more than happy to help with publishing, consider it a service of HKDCL.
Once again, I hope everyone had a warm Winter Solstice and a Merry Christmas.
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