Yo! We’re going to create an amazing professional-grade free ebook which will teach new musicians how to join and participate on Steemit. You can help. The goal is very simple: We aim to increase the number of active musicians on Steemit. Musicians are one of the best target demographics for this blockchain as they really need new sources of income. We can help create the bridge that connects great musicians with the potential of the Steem blockchain. The first step is to set up an online “public repository,” ala GitHub, but for text and images in a book rather than code. After some Googling, I found a great service for this: [PenFlip](http://penflip.com/).

How a Public Repo Works

If you aren’t currently involved in any Open Source projects, you might not know how repositories work. Luckily our text-based repo is much easier to work with than a coding one. https://i.imgur.com/QEmejwR.png _{GitHub is the most famous open source platform… but we are using PenFlip instead.} You start by opening up a PenFlip project. Then you post your own contributions as proposed edits and/or new files in the project. You can, for example, submit a new image to go on the first page of a chapter. Then I can look and approve it if it is good, or I could leave you notes on how to edit the image more before we add it to the book. The system is designed to allow anybody to contribute anything they want, with a thin layer of management on top (me) to curate those contributions and only allow professional level work to “merge” into the final product. It’s easier to see it than to have it described to you… so here it is: [STEEMIT FOR MUSICIANS EBOOK REPO](https://www.penflip.com/heymattsokol/the-musicians-guide-to-steemit)

Photos of the Repo

Here are a few photos that demonstrate how PenFlip works: Here’s some of the home page of the project. You can see the basic description and the start of the file list beneath it. https://i.imgur.com/M0V8JIq.png This is the sidebar with some info on the project’s current status: https://i.imgur.com/J4DHa3t.png And here’s the main editor interface: https://i.imgur.com/ZiKJ3XV.png As you can see, the platform is easy to navigate. It takes a few minutes to click around and get familiar with exactly what button does what… but it’s not hard to grasp it all. This is my first open source book project, and I suspect it’s most of yours too. We will absolutely learn as we go and that is OK! This is a good place to start, if there end up being any weird issues or limitations I will be able to port the project elsewhere.

Next Steps from Here

I have the first few chapters of the book already written. I will share them starting on Wednesday next week, after xmas is behind us. As soon as the chapters go up, we will have an immediate need for *images*. My hope is that we will be able to come up with at least one great image for each chapter. Visual designers, this is your chance! Let me know in the comments if you’re interested in creating some imagery for this project. I will guide anybody who contributes on how to use PenFlip and, more importantly, how to submit their contribution via utopian.io so you can earn hefty rewards in the $20+ range for each contribution.

Feedback is Good

Feel free to share any questions or concerns in the comments. We are still in “soft launch” phase and have some room to adjust/maneuver and change the project to be better. Once January 2018 hits, it’ll be full speed ahead. One other note - I am actively reaching out to LOTS of people to try and get activity on this project. If you have any tips on steemians who should be involved, let me know either in the comments or via a direct message on Steemit Chat! Thank you for your help, this is going to be an awesome project. https://steemitimages.com/DQmYuuW18gWNZPLC1A53SoZ6CHMYTPL4rraFh4gcJ5DYDKf/follow_heymattsokol.gif https://i.imgur.com/hgkeIwR.jpg?3 *This is a Sndbox project. For more info on Sndbox check it out: http://sndbox.co*