In today’s San Jose Mercury News, Michael Bazeley has this: Authors open texts online for others to edit. The article is based on interviews with me and Christian Crumlish about open-source book editing. Michael asked about both my Darknet blog and Darknet wiki, where readers have helped edit the upcoming book Darknet: Remixing the Future of Movies, Music & Television. Excerpt:
“I realized the underlying theme of what I’m writing about is that we’re entering an era where creative people are sort of losing control of their work, and it’s not all bad,” Lasica said. “I wanted to experience that. I didn’t want that experience of a big media conglomerate where you say `Take it or leave it.’ ”
There was a more practical motivation, too. Lasica’s reporting covers a variety of industries, from video gaming to moviemaking. And as he candidly admits, he is not an expert in those areas. The Web site allows industry experts to review his work and offer corrections or insights before the printed copy hits the stores next spring.
“I really do believe . . . that the audience knows more,” Lasica said. [The … was: as Dan Gillmor likes to say.]
The wiki experiment is over now. I’m putting the finishing touches on my manuscript this weekend — after two long years of research, reporting and writing — and I’ll be submitting it to my editor on Monday.
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.
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JD's New Media Musings: Open-source book editing…
Very intereting article. An unfortunate analogy by Crumlish at the end, though, I think. Sort of reiterates the suggestion at the beginning of the article…
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Yeah, though I don’t blame Mike for quoting me like that. I’d probably have done the same.
I think the analogy is actually accurate (but not especially salespersonlike), in the sense of the “don’t look at me!” feeling people have when trying to do something creative.
It did provide full circle for Mike’s lede, though, it’s true.