ARRL License manuals do a good job with the foundation of amateur radio, far beyond any of the study guides one finds for free on the Internet. If ARDC (or anyone) is willing to make us whole on the free distribution of these publications, this shows the quality of our publications and provides a smoother, better guided entrance into amateur radio - and the value of the ARRL. I wholly support this initiative as described by Director Norton and look forward to details. Mickey Baker, N4MB Palm Beach Gardens, FL *“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead." Robert K. Greenleaf* On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 8:50 PM Richard Norton via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> wrote:
1) With respect to concerns about money loss, I am of the belief that ARDC is offering to make this a no-cost program to the League. If we know how much money it cost to produce the manuals, and how much we have made over the past few years, I hope we can come up with a total cost that ARDC can agree to.
2) Regarding other requirements, here is a message that falls into that category. Given that the manuals are expected to be downloadable without charge, I'm not sure a "Creative Commons Share Alike" license would have any significant impact.
---------------------- From Phil Karn -
Oh, one additional comment about the study guide "buyout".
After talking about it with the other board members, there is sentiment to require that the guides be provided under a "Creative Commons Share Alike" license. That's a form of "open source" license commonly applied to literary works. It's analogous to the better known GNU Public License (GPL) very popular for open source software. There are various versions, but they all require attribution of the original authors and permit people to freely redistribute and enhance the work. The right to do this for the current edition(s) would extend beyond the current 3-year question pool cycle, though it would not cover your next editions unless we negotiate that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license
Share-alike <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share-alike>
Share-alike
Two currently-supported Creative Commons licences have the ShareAlike condition: Creative Commons Attribution-Sh... <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share-alike>
3) There is another issue that I feel should be considered. There are other license manuals and study programs that lead to ham radio licenses. This includes Gordon West, Ham Test on Line, and a number of others that you can investigate through Google or any search engine.
If the League offers this for free, it is likely to have a big impact on the competitors products. I do not know if the League's offerings are superior to that of the competition, but do know of a number of groups that use other programs.
I'm not sure my sense of fair play feels that tax-free organizations should be providing products for free that will put competitors out of business.
Consider how you would feel if ARDC decided to distribute Gordon West's manuals for free.
----------
For this proposed program to work, we need to come up with costs and contract terms that satisfy both ARRL and ARDC. . I am hopeful that that it can be worked out.
73,
Dick, N6AA
On Monday, December 30, 2019, 06:28:18 AM PST, rjairam@gmail.com < rjairam@gmail.com> wrote:
I also share Howard’s concerns.
Also, does ARDC funding come with any terms and conditions? We should be wary of anyone who wants to shower us with their unlimited funds, as going down this road likely means being beholden to certain things. Trust, yet verify.
Ria N2RJ
On Sat, Dec 28, 2019 at 11:12 AM Matt Holden <mtholde@gmail.com> wrote:
I share Howard's concern about license manuals. I'm unsure we can replace that revenue. I like the direction discussions are heading regarding scholarships. I hope ARDC shows interest in supporting the ISS contact program. 73, Matt Holden KØBBC Director, Dakota Division, American Radio Relay League
On Mon, Dec 23, 2019 at 10:58 AM Michel, Howard, WB2ITX (CEO) < wb2itx@arrl.org> wrote:
Hi Dick, ODV,
Thanks for opening these doors Dick. We will definitely look into the license manual option. But I must caution the Board. The license manual is our bread and butter. Book sales are generally significantly down except for the license manuals. Unless we can maintain our current paper-edition margin on the "free" electronic copies, this may be very costly for ARRL.
73, Howard, WB2ITX On 12/22/2019 11:48 PM, Roderick, Rick, K5UR via arrl-odv wrote:
Thanks, Dick. I really like the License Manual idea.
73 Rick - K5UR
-----Original Message----- From: Richard Norton via arrl-odv <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> <arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> To: ODV <arrl-odv@arrl.org> <arrl-odv@arrl.org>; Arrlf <arrlf@arrl.org> <arrlf@arrl.org> Sent: Sun, Dec 22, 2019 9:32 pm Subject: [arrl-odv:29189] Two Proposed ARDC - ARRL Foundation/ARRL Programs
This is sent to both the ARRL Foundation Board and ARRL Board because I believe the information is of interest to both.
As has been reported previously, ARDC, Amateur Radio Digital Communications, has significant funds to be used for Amateur Radio, and I have been working with them to hopefully have ARRL play a major role in fulfillment of their objectives that align with those of the ARRL.
As has been reported recently, past ARDC president, Brian Cantor, WB6CYT, recently passed away, and Phil Karn, KA9Q, is the new president.
Phil and I talked this week. We now have two proposed areas of initial interaction between ARDC and ARRL. These are preliminary concepts. They require more detailed definition and of course, acceptance by the ARRL or ARRL Foundation Board as appropriate, and also the ARDC Board before becoming final.
*1) ARDC and ARRL Foundation - Enhancement of ARRL Foundation Scholarship Program.*
We propose that ARDC fund upgrading each of the existing ARRL Foundation scholarships to the $5,000 level. This will require interface with the sponsor of each scholarship to agree to the changes. Credit to ARDC should be given. The name of the scholarship might be changed to reflect ARDC's participation. For example, the Joe Smith Scholarship might be renamed the Joe Smith - ARDC Scholarship.
Someone connected with the ARRL Foundation will have to look at the terms for each of the scholarships, and get in touch with the sponsors for approval. There has been talk in the Foundation Board about possibly getting hard to meet requirements changed. This might also present a convenient opportunity to change a geographic requirement to a geographic preference.
ARDC appears to be comfortable with covering administrative costs associated with this program.
The project concept is now forwarded to ARRL Foundation President, David Woolweaver, who will direct any further action.
*2) ARDC and ARRL - Providing free user download copies of ARRL License Manuals*
We propose that ARDC cover the costs of providing the ability to download copies of the license manuals via the Internet without cost. ARDC would cover production costs plus some possible offset of lost sales revenue. In our initial discussions, the League would still be able to charge for printed copies if desired.
This is expected to reduce the cost of entry in Amateur Radio.
At this time, it is proposed to fund a single three-year License Manual cycle. The program might just initially
a) fund the Technician class manual, or b) also the General class and possibly c) the Extra class manuals as well.
Costs of providing the the three manuals should be provided. The final funding decision will be related to the costs.
Again, this program requires more detailed definition, acceptance by ARRL management and/or Board, as well as final acceptance by the ARDC Board.
This potential program is now forwarded to CEO Howard Michel, and Bob Inderbitzen, who has been designated to work on this type of activity.
3) ARDC is interested in funding other ham radio activity, particularly things related to education. The education can be for young people, leading to careers, or can be continuing education, advancing knowledge of technical aspects of communication.
Phlil Karn and I have discussed other possibilities. We expect to continue our discussions.
These potential programs obviously represent a significant amount of money, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Let's see how we do with these starters.
If anyone has comments or any other ideas, please let me know.
Thanks.
73,
Dick Norton, N6AA
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