Douglas Rushkoff is thinking about turning his PhD dissertation into a Wiki and is looking for participants.
“The recent hubub about Wikipedia makes my thesis – that our current media are more biased towards collaboration than sole authorship – all the more relevant. I’m also trying to prove that the biases of our collaborative media extend to everything else we do, as well, from the creation of value to the creation of currency.
“That’s why I’m wondering if there’s a way to turn the dissertation, itself, into something of a collaborative project. A Wiki, if you will, where I take input from everyone who is interested, and offer full credit as well as whatever the ‘gift economy’ we’re in allows.
“The dissertation thus *proves* itself by its very existence – and ends up challenging the values of the cultural institution underwriting its legitimacy.”
I’m going to be watching this one and will definitely be considering participating.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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