michael mcdermott said:

I am simply suggesting to the other volunteers that they trade value for value.

well, that sounds like a great suggestion to me...

Feedback and testing are valuable commodities, which is why software shops are willing to pay for them.

tell me, what value would you place on the feedback which i have received thus far? i am _very_ curious...

You, on the other hand, want to receive something (testing & feedback) and give nothing in return.

actually, i don't give a flying freak, not in the slightest, for any testing and feedback i might receive from here. perhaps you didn't hear, but i have been offering to collaborate for 7 years now, and have had no takers, and didn't expect one now either, but if jana wants to jump in, then i'm more than amused to entertain us all. as for what i'm prepared to "give in return", it might well end up being nothing. or it might end up being something. we'll have to see how the thing ends up. but i don't see how i can offer this service to the world at large without also making it available to p.g./d.p. too. (believe me, if i could, i would; but i just don't see a way.) and, in case you haven't noticed, p.g. hasn't been able to offer such a conversion service itself. the closest that they can come is what rfrank is offering over at fadedpage.com, which involves an ftp-upload and then an ftp-download, so i don't think it's quite in the same ballpark, although i _do_ commend roger for helping to move the ball forward a bit.

Open source (code / testing for software) and commercial products (money for software) are both better trades than the one you seem to propose.

i invite you to pursue those avenues as well, if you can find any. (if you can, please come back here and tell us, because i'm sure plenty of people would want to know.) as i said, i will be moving forward on this project anyway, because the world at large has awoken from its slumber, and soon pressbooks.com will be opening its doors and offering a similar service... if you think that maintaining a wordpress blog and writing the chapters of the book as blog entries is "a similar service". i don't, but you might. and hey, if you do, you might wanna check out "anthology", which is another service that _offers_ a similar capability, although you will probably find they come up a bit short. or, you know, you can wait for marcello to get caught up. in the meantime, though, i'm not worried about getting all the testing and feedback i can handle, and a lot more. do you know how many authors out there are just itching to have a simple way to create .html and .epub and .mobi? i can assure you that when i offer 'em a free tool to do it, they will _jump_ at the opportunity to give me suggestions about how they would like to see the program improved... and if the people on this listserve want this little project to end, all they have to do is let 24 hours pass quietly...

If you want a run for your money on the other hand...

i _do_ want that, mr. mad computer scientist, i do. give it your best shot... i'll be waiting... -bowerbird