New Project Examines Close Reading and Web Collaboration

Mac Slocum
October 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Listen

On Nov. 10, Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook will be read and discussed by seven readers in a new experiment that explores "close reading" and the mechanisms of online conversation.

The project is the brainchild of Bob Stein, founder of Institute for the Future of the Book. Stein outlined the project's goals in an email announcement:

Fundamentally this is an experiment in how the web might be used as a space for collaborative close-reading. We don't yet understand how to model a complex conversation in the web's two-dimensional environment and we're hoping this experiment will help us learn what's necessary to make this sort of collaboration work as well as possible.

The seven readers will discuss the book through margin notes and a group blog, and a public forum will be available for others to join the conversation. Further details are available through the project site.

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2 Comments

Marina Z said:
November 1, 2008 4:49 AM

you may find http://is.gd/6exM useful for this task

bowerbird said:
November 6, 2008 10:49 PM

what's with the shortened u.r.l.? i like to
have a good idea of where i'm clicking to.

anyway, this is for a link to "show document
dot com", which is cool in an alpha-ish way,
and might be just the kind of simplicity that
_some_ entities are looking for. but it won't
stand the type of heavy interaction that they
have in mind over at if:book. (besides, they
built their own tool to do it.) but thanks for
the pointer, marina, and keep working on it!

-bowerbird

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