Tomi's 22 reasons on why Inclusive Planet rocks the world!

This post is a file which was uploaded by Tomi a week back, we couldn't resist sharing it as guest post from him on the Inclusive Planet channel!
22 reasons Inclusive Planet rocks the world!
Don't ask what inspired me to come up with this... It just ... happened as I thought about school exams. I suppose there's no real "value" to each number, these are just 22 reasons. So don't think that #22 is less important than #1 lol, because I don't like judging that way.

22. It's something new for the blind that not just those in the US can use.
21. The team is very funny, friendly, and provides great support when it's needed with fast responses. I like teams which are professional yet can remain laid back at the same time. This is one of them.
20. I can use the site very well on my Windows mobile phone and note-taker, as well as even on my old windows 98 machine that's like running a very ancient processor.
19. Because it's so inclusive, I can meet so many people around the world. By doing so I can learn more about their culture, hobbies and interests, as well as help them out with their needs.
18. It's like a hybrid Facebook and Youtube. I can add friends and create channels. Nice mix that really adds a great touch to the site. (you can add friends on Youtube too, yes I know, but there are minor cosmetic differences, such as that feed with all recent activity)
17. I can see what type of things friends are reading and learn more about their interests through that as well.
16. As a technology enthusiast and reviewer, I can post my product reviews and have people comment and view them.
15. It's truly a project driven by the heart for the people and by the people, without interest in commercial gains. (Of course donations are always I think vital to any organization, but I don't get any nags telling me to donate or lecturing e-mails about it. Community support and effort is truly a donation too, and that's what is needed.)

14. Member spotlights and guest blogs truly involve direct user interaction, unlike with services where you just submit your comments/feedbacks and cross your fingers that they'll work on it.
13. I can upload files in virtually any language. Whether that be a book from the free Hungarian Electronic Library or some random Spanish story I found online.
12. Oh, and I can upload manuals too! Wow, the next person won't need to browse google for that iPod Touch manual I uploaded, they could just do a search on Inclusive Planet and find it.
11. Ok, I gotta say it, it's free. No yearly subscription, no monthly fee - and I think and hope that it'll remain that way.
10. On that same note, it's a friendly community. Not one where I feel isolated or totally weird because I believe in philosophical topics dealing with quantum physics or which view the Earth as a living entity. These things are still frowned upon by mainstream society... Yet countless works exist which talk of it and which I could discuss with like-minded individuals if I wanted to.
9. No need to scan or proofread books, or if I scanned in something, no need to have that proofread. I'm sorry, but that's a major downfall of many mainstream services for the blind: It takes forever to have a volunteer proofread the book you added.
8. Inclusive Planet is not just about sharing materials others might find valuable. It's also about the Right to Read Campaign and demonstrating the collective power of a community to change WORLDWIDE copyright laws. In a way it's sad that the blind (in most cases) have to rely upon illegal sources to get a book, simply because their preferred book site doesn't have an electronic copy due to the publisher not granting permission or giving the book away in an electronic format we could use. I think the right to read campaign will raise more awareness for publishers to understand the problems the Visually Impaired can face and act upon it by providing UNIVERSAL permission through a copyright law.
7. Have I mentioned the time when Inclusive Planet saved my hard-drive format? The day previous I forgot to make a backup of so many files I have... All of those valuable books, notes, and recordings... Were lost in a great deluge of a windows reinstall. Thanks to the website, if I ever need any of them, I could simply re-download what I lost, rather than having to google for it all again or re-write them. Sure, I've only uploaded a fraction of my things, but it's still better than losing it all!
6. The website layout is just wonderful. It's universal, and although many VI websites try to be this way, often times it comes with a price of more website content download. I'm sorry, but I'm on a 28.8 kbps dial-up connection sometimes at home. Even on that, the Inclusive Planet website loads pretty fast.
5. Back to the whole worldwide thing. Any visually impaired person living around the world can join. There is no "specific" target as to which countries can join. And that means when I submit something, someone from Nepal, Spain, India, or wherever can download that same file and appreciate what I've read.
4. It's growing faster than any other website I know. Soon, the content on Inclusive Planet will bypass the amount of content on some of the more major blind websites for book/file resources. We're around 17000 now, that's not that far from let's say 50000, considering that it all really began 4 months ago. Maybe 5?
3. I can invite my friends to join, and together we can have a blast studying together, perhaps reading the same books... It doesn't have to be a friend of myne. Let's say Joe lives in the UK and he is studying Physics. It just so happens that his and my class are both learning about Projectile Motion - a topic filled with graphics. Maybe me and him could sit down at our desks, skype each other, and through notes and files found on Inclusive Planet, study together. That's sort of my future vision of what is to come.
2. With that I will lead into the Accessible Class Notes project. Again, let us propose that Joe is studying Projectile Motion and has a massive volume filled with information about it. He could scan 20 pages in, share it on a channel dedicated to physics or accessible class notes, and in minutes I could be reading what he scanned in and commenting on it. In the process, I might even be able to do OCR on his work - that is, "proof-read" it and let others know of mistakes or problems with the text. Talk about "interactive proofreading".
1. And last but not least, *insert drum roll here*, I feel more independent knowing that I don't have to beg the sighted for a particular resource, be up all night scanning or having to wait weeks until a publisher mails me an electronic or worse yet, print copy of that book I need. The community is so vast (and growing remember) that I could submit a request or ask on a channel for my book or study topic and have it in a few hours or days time. I suppose I would still need to ask ahead what we're going to be doing next, but that's still better than doing any of the above mentioned tasks.

Posted by Tamas Geczy http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/en/view_quick_profile?un=user/1334

Link to original file http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/en/book/449147