I’ve very pleased to report that The Transition Handbook is now available online and under an open license at Appropedia

This is particularly heartening for me because I can claim my own small part in making it happen, which helps me to sleep at night…

It all started with a short blog post about one of the most sampled drum breaks in history, known as the ‘Amen break’, frequently used as sampled drum loops in hip hop, jungle, breakcore and drum and bass music.

Finn Jackson (not actually sure its the one I’m linking to there?) was the first to comment on that post, beginning with:

Many thanks for a very interesting and quite novel way to spend 20 minutes. For me this video actually has quite a LOT to do with the Transition Movement! :o)

There are three interwoven themes here: innovation, copyright, and business.

Rob Hopkins who penned the blog post about Amen Break responded positively:

Thank you Finn, that was quite beautifully put! …. The Transition idea as a funky sample, I rather like that!

Neil L then waded in and mentioned Creative Commons, quoting their homepage:

Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

We’re a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free.”

Then I went in for the kill:

Yes, Rob, the transtion idea is a damn funky sample!

Now, to ensure it spreads even more virally than it is already doing so, please (re-)release the contents of Transition Handbook (and this blog) using Creative Commons (or similar) license.

…

I’d REALLY really love to see the contents of Transtion Handbook book re-published on a wiki (mediawiki probably best, or perhaps just put it on http://appropedia.org) where people are free to remix it as they see fit (so long as the remixes/ copies they make carry the same freedoms).

…

lets open source the Transition Handbook so that everyone can get to hear what a funky tune it is!

A week later I got an e-mail from Rob (which I trust he doesn’t mind me sharing):

Dear Josef

Greetings. Sorry that your comment only just appeared on the site, somehow it got put in my spam folder, and I don’t often check through that. I am intrigued by the idea of making a wiki version of the book. I would love to hear more thoughts on how it would work and what would be the advantages of doing so. What kind of format would it appear, and how and why would people add to/change it? Wouldn’t it just become a great deal of work moderating it? I like the idea that the book itself becomes updated in an ongoing fashion by those that have been inspired by it…. but I am puzzled by the practicalities of it and the work it would entail. Any illumination or examples you could point me to would be much appreciated.

Best wishes and thanks

Rob

I sent a lengthly reply but started with:

In short, I’d recommend contacting the people at Appropedia about it.

A couple of weeks later, Rob was reading Charles Leadbeater’s We Think and then in his Transition Network structure proposal he wrote:

Host the collaborative rewrite of ‘The Transition Handbook’ using a wiki approach, with the original book serving as the basis for a gathering of tools, stories, experience and insight from across the Transition … The new web platform will be designed with this as a central aspiration

This really made me smiles and then three days ago Rob wrote a blog post entitled “WeThink”, and an invitation to participate in the collaborative rewrite of The Transition Handbook

And here we have it: The Transition Handbook on Appropedia 🙂

Please, go and chip in to help make it the most successful wiki-book-edit ever!