Shel Israel’s Global Neighborhoods Overview Up for Comments
January 1, 2007 by Des Walsh
Filed under Social Media
Via a link in New Communications Review, I picked up that Shel Israel, who with Robert Scoble co-authored Naked Conversations, a book famously shared in draft form with readers of the eponymous blog, is similarly sharing the development of his new book, Global Conversations Neighborhoods- tagline How Social Media are moving power from institutions to people.
A few days ago he posted Overview 3.0 for comment.
I find this approach, of writing a book with the involvement of blog readers, quite fascinating. I can see the potential content enrichment and marketing advantages – there are comments on the blog that show that some people have made up their minds to buy the book, on the basis of what has been provided so far. On the other hand, having just completed co-authoring an audiobook, Big Biller, I frankly find it a somewhat daunting concept to have people (other than a co-author and a select few trusted experts in the field) commenting along the way, rather than on the final, completed work.
Maybe that’s a reflection of some past experiences of mine, where collaboration on reports and other documents seemed to lead too easily to watering down or obfuscating a line of argument, in order to accommodate a lot of different points of view. I do understand that a case could be made quickly that the process could actually strengthen an argument.
According to the Overview 3.0, the author is very optimistic about the power of social media to help create a better future for all:
The author concludes that despite the significant troubles of the world today, and the numerous threats to a free internet, despite the fact that the powerful tools of the internet are available to bad guys as well as good, there is great hope in the new tomorrow through the decentralization of influence via the internet.
I’m intrigued – is that observation based on a body of objective evidence, or is it an expression of faith? I suspect the latter. Nothing wrong with that, if indeed that is the case, but as a blogging optimist I’m keen to have as much objective evidence as we can muster to support that kind of belief.
Anyway, I have great respect for anyone who is prepared to chance his or her arm and have people comment on a book as it takes shape.
Thanks for commenting on my new book project. You mentioned that you’d be hesitant to show your book-in-progress to anyone but a small group of experts. In fact that is precisely what I am trying to do. Those experts are readers. There will be hundreds of them over the course of the project. Some will comment only once–related to a point that makes them most passionate. Others will elect to comment almost daily–but the will be very few in number. These are a self-organizing group of experts. They are not bound by loyalties to me and they can be brutal in their honesty. I recommend it to any writer because of the results this process is likely to produce. Naked Conversations was the first project of this nature and I can assure you, it helped us write a much better book.