Re: [ba-unrev-talk] virtual book club?
O boy! Just the kind of post I could have only dreamt about. (01)
I just purchased five books, which added to four others, I want to dig into and
write reports about. Those reports will be slanted (mined, really) to bring out
those aspects that may prove interesting, maybe useful, to augmentation. My
problem is low reading speed (eyesight, letters are getting too small) and
concentration. But your call puts fresh life into concentration. (02)
Let me exemplify the slanting idea. Most of use can't very well give a
peer-level review of a book in some specialized field, often not even in the
field of computing (who can competently argue with Kurzwel?). What we CAN do is
write an essay type report focusing on what should interest us relative to
augment, tough problem solving, way people work, computer education in schools,
searching, etc., but doing so with due respect for the integrity of the
author's field, i.e. avoiding out-of-context writing. (03)
I would also hope that some people might pick, instead of a book, an important
thread from our discussion group. The recent post by Ping is a nice point of
departure. How about a general article on the kind of graphing she is talking
about? I have seen various variants, but am lacking in appreciation in what
developments have occurred. Noticed also her use of CRIT. Interesting to have
an article on the various "water-cooler" softwares around (CRIT, our D3E,
others) where people attach comments to web pages; again with a view of how
things develop and what choices we have. This kind of thing would help give
leading-edge computing a public face and have much educational value. When
preferred, someone might put a draft essay on a pre-publication, narrow-circle
forum on Bootstrap to give things a chance to refine a little in some
discussion, before putting it in the journal proper. (04)
What I am looking for is writings addressed to a generally schooled public. As
said elsewhere, I want Fleabyte to be a meeting ground between the public and
the specialists. Consider field of neuroscience: here, most of us would be
member s of the public, yet the field is right next to computing technology. (05)
Henry (06)
Eugene Eric Kim wrote: (07)
> Would anyone on this list be interested in participating in a virtual
> Book-Of-The-Month club? Over the past few years, I've read a number of
> worthwhile books that relate very strongly to Doug's work and mission, and
> I have a stack of books that I plan on reading. I would enjoy discussing
> these books with people on this list.
>
> My thought is that once a month, we pick a book, read it by a designated
> date, and then discuss it on this list. We'd keep things relatively
> informal. However, if Henry is interested and authors are willing,
> some of the discussion could easily be republished on Fleabyte as book
> reviews.
>
> If you're interested or if you have book suggestions, drop me an e-mail.
> I'll post the results on this list.
>
> -Eugene
>
> --
> +=== Eugene Eric Kim ===== eekim@eekim.com ===== http://www.eekim.com/ ===+
> | "Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they |
> +===== can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin ===========+ (08)