Re: Google docs story

I've actually been using Google Wave for another project and I'm pretty excited about the manner in which it assists in collaboration of that nature. Incidentally, the project we're working on involves an improved means by which political blogs can "talk to each other" and thereby facilitate the transfer of crucial info, with this to be coupled with a campaign intended to get the more reasonable bloggers to collaborate in an effort to confront the mainstream media regarding its general failings (like employing incompetent columnists simply because those columnists are prominent). I'm actually writing a piece tonight that will be appearing on Vanity Fair's website a bit later this week in which I'll be announcing the project, which I'm working on with the blogger Charles Johnson and a friend of mine who specializes in information technology. We're still early in the development of this, but the software's already been planned out and we hope to launch the whole thing by April when my book comes out, as the epilogue consists of a sort of manifesto related to the project. So, in conclusion, I dig Google Wave.

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 7:23 PM, Hayden Taylor <hayden.t@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Barrett,
That's pretty funny. I guess that's the risk of crowd sourcing.I have thought a lot about version tracking for my own material. If you want to investigate the free google approach more, both Wave and Sites might be options, though clearly sort of unconventional. You probably know this, but Wave is like email/IM/docs/everything mashup. Conversations appear almost like IM boxes descending the page. What's cool is that each person can edit a certain box/statement, even if they didn't write it, and each writer's avatar then shows up in the corner of the box. You can also play back all the changes like a movie. So I could imagine this working so that each paragraph gets a box and people can continuously edit them.

Anyway, thanks for replying and I'm looking forward to version 2.

Hayden

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Howdy, Hayden-

I'm going to just start a new version of it at some point in the near future, as the first person to add another paragraph composed what I think may be the worst piece of fiction writing I've ever seen. I mean, it was really, really, really, really terrible, and I don't have the heart to erase it or whatever. I'll go ahead and invite you to the Google Doc in case you're curious.

I'll probably start the new one from one of my more widely-read outlets so that we'll have more people upon which to draw, and perhaps implement some sort of voting system so that any further horrid contributions can be gotten rid of without me having to hurt anyone's feelings. I've got about four or five people who have expressed interest thus far, so will let all of you know when the next one gets started.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 12:10 PM, Hayden Taylor <hayden.t@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi. I read about the collaborative story idea on Bushwickbk.com and
I'd like to be a part of it. Sounds fun.

Thanks,
Hayden