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Lessig Revises Book With Public Wiki

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the new-ways-to-weave-words dept.

Silent_E writes "Always wanted to see your words in print? The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Lawrence Lessig is revising his book 'Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace' using a wiki-based, public discussion. The proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated. . All royalties are going to Creative Commons, plus the advance. "

3 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Collaborative book writing by FreeLinux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lots of technical books are collaborations. That's why so many suck! It's hard to read when the writing style changes from chapter to chapter, ideas do not carry through the book as they should and writing skills vary dramatically.

    I much prefer a single author.

  2. Questionable by Ganellon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While this may seem like a compelling idea, I suspect editors will be in much higher demand than contributors. I don't believe this is a successful strategy in producing a coherent volume, since paid authors have a hard enough time getting their works published. Accepting submissions from all comers, particularly those professing some "expertise" in the given subject, is bound to lead to massive quantities of unusable material.

    1. Re:Questionable by truthsearch · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lessig is quite intelligent. He knows what he's doing is an experiment. He also knows we'll never really know if such a thing is a good idea until someone tries it. While some technical documentation is written this way a book such as his probably has not.

      Also, with a wiki a few good editors could go through what's entered and edit as desired. I'm sure Lessig will have no problems finding an editor or two to help.

      You're quite possibly right, but I hope you're wrong.

      --
      Developers: We can use your help.