[GSBN] Is it time? - Natural Building Magazine
Mark Piepkorn
mark at buildinggreen.com
Mon May 26 21:51:07 UTC 2008
I've floated the idea of Natural Building Magazine past some GSBNers
over time, including Judy and Matts, Joyce, David E, Bruce K, the
Bills, Lars, and others.
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/
This isn't a public announcement. Yet. I'm writing to see what
thoughts this august body produces. (The GSBN list is underwritten by
TLS, and is its de facto - if underutilized - advisory board. Is it
sacrilegious for me to be posting this here? I hope not. See
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/TLS/
Feel free to respond offlist if you don't feel comfortable posting.
If warranted, I'll set up discussions somewhere.)
The seed for Natural Building Magazine was planted over a decade ago
when I was editor of TLS, during a conversation I had with Carol
Venolia (who had already stopped producing the seminal Building With
Nature newsletter by then), Cob Cottage co-founder Michael Smith (who
still irregularly produces the Cob Web newsletter), the inimitable
and indomitable Bob Theis, and others, at a gathering of natural
building practitioners convened by Ianto Evans in Oregon. The feeling
was that a publication providing depth and space for all natural
building techniques and materials would be an awfully good thing to
have around. Something visually enticing, usable, inspiring, robust.
There was speculation that Natural Home (then in development) might
be it. It wasn't. But it's opened some doors.
Despite the increasing numbers of books on natural building hitting
the market, I haven't been convinced that there's enough of an
audience to support a regularly-published "all-comers" magazine.
(People tend to have pet materials and techniques that they latch on
to.) But I think the time might now be right, and I'm looking to you
(admittedly biased) people for reassurance, caution, advice, and
ideas about the prospect of a "continuing education" magazine for
people who already have at least a fairly good clue about natural building.
I've been devoting time and thought to how this magazine might work.
There are no funds backing it - just time and thought. See
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/basic-plan/
It's not connected to any company or organization.
I imagine a reader-written print publication like TLS, Countryside,
Back Home, Owner-Builder, and Whole Earth and Mother Earth in the old
days. I'd like to see some combination of the best aspects of
publications like Find Homebuilding, Green Building Magazine
(formerly Building For A Future), Owner-Builder, the Journal of Light
Construction, Energy Design Update, Environmental Building News, TLS,
and classic books like Shelter, the Whole Earth Catalog, all of Ken
Kern's books, and the spirit of Art Boericke's. I'd like it to have a
strong visual aspect, to be "magazine-like"... to be smart,
applicable, inspirational, somewhat radical compared to other
building magazines (but mainstream-accessible), on-topic yet eclectic. See
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/home/
Why reader-written? Because that emulates natural building itself.
(And what's a little editorial schizophrenia among friends?) There's
still a symbiosis between professional practitioners and
owner-builders in natural building; I hope it stays that way.
Self-builders bring their daring, professionals bring their wisdom,
and everybody shares their personal expertise. See
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/reader-writers/
Why print? Because I don't want it to be what the internet has
become. I want expectations of it to be higher, and the contributions
better thought out. That said, I also acknowledge that the future is
digital. But as high as the failure rate of niche print publications
is, the failure rate of niche web publications is even higher. The
economic models of both have disaster looming around every corner,
but having been involved for several years in both web development
and print publication, my sense is that print presents a better
opportunity for near-term success for this idea, even though it bears
a higher price tags in just about every way. (Many years ago, David
Eisenberg told me, "You can't be sustainable for the world if you
can't sustain yourself." By extension, a publication - digital or
print - can't be sustainable for the world if it can't sustain itself. See
http://www.naturalbuildingmagazine.com/practical-details/
To be sustainable, it needs people to participate, both as readers
and writers.)
Having made the argument for print, the first issue - Issue 0 - will
be a free download... a combination proof-of-concept, sample issue,
and working-out-the-bugs process. Want to help set the tone for
future issues by contributing the sort of articles you'd like to see
down the road?
There are still important details to be worked out.
Mark Piepkorn
www.potkettleblack.com
The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.
- Kilgore Trout
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