I wouldn't say that I object to this idea, but I do share some of the concerns that malachi has brought up.
I should say, though, I have spent more time looking into designing lately; reading over ODS, looking at various blogs (
Wolf's blog has been a huge help) and other sites to get a better idea of how to design something. It's not only helped my understand the process of designing a model (albeit, mostly box-pleated CPs so far), it has also given me a new appreciation for the effort that goes into it.
It's mostly down to the Christmas Book that lead me to go in that direction, though, since I don't have any models of my own to diagram. So there is definitely some good to come from it.
I'm sure it will also entice some designers to either clean up their models for the release of diagrams and/or to release diagrams which they otherwise might not have drawn in the first place.
Again, the book should lead to positive results, too, even for those not involved.
But, as malachi says, there may be a few who withhold diagrams, knowing that the book is coming out. There may also be a few who hastily diagram a model - or worse, hastily design a model - just to get in the book.
I know I would hate to spend many hours and lots of effort perfectly a model and creating a nice folding sequence, then creating crisp, clear diagrams, and then find out that the book contains many poorly diagrammed, badly sequenced models.
Of course, this is hypothetical; I don't expect this would happen! But there may be some discrepency between the quality of models/diagrams which would seem to favour those who put less effort in (though, I still admit that even "less effort" would not be a small amount).
Overall, though, I think the idea is a good one. Aside from the good things I mentioned at the beginning, it's also nice to give something back to the creators. This is where I disagree with malachi. It's true that there are many more folders than designers, which should go some way to showing how difficult it is to design compared to "simply" folding a model. And there are plenty of examples where designers will publish diagrams and/or crease patterns freely without a second thought about it. Some designers even go so far as to document the process of creating a model and how to transfer an idea into the end result.
Therefore, I don't think that a book, released once a year, is likely to threaten anything.
I also think it makes a nice Christmas present for those who have put the extra work into origami.
I suppose everyone will be motivated in different ways; some might hold onto diagrams they already have, some might draw new diagrams, some might design new models. For me, I was motivated to learn how to design.
Hopefully, the positives will outweigh the negatives in the end, and maybe, in January, there will be more diagrams available to the rest of us.
I would like to finish by saying that this wasn't meant to be a rebuttal to malichi's post, and it wasn't my intention to incite an argument over people's motives or actions and it was certainly not my intention to insult or offend anyone, it's just my thoughts and opinions.
But shouldn't it be called "Winter Holiday Season Origami Book"?