if:book: flight paths: a networked novel

Fresh off the end of a very long, very intense semester, I am not missing a beat. I am starting today on several projects I've reserved time for over the winter break (the online course I'm conducting for UMUC's Center for Intellectual Property, finishing up the work on Mass Digitization), and I've begun to think about my next project, one I think might be a good one for the big D -- dissertation. It seems to go this way so often, as soon as an idea starts to take form in my mind, suddenly I see links, connections, maybe tangents, everywhere. So it begins this morning at if:book: flight paths: a networked novel.

I checked this out and was just amazed to see how closely the experimental, social, creative aspects of this fiction project parallel what I was entertaining in a dissertation (nonfiction) project. Similarly, last night I was revisiting Lisa Spiro's site, Digital Scholarship, to review the impressive project she has begun, to remix her 5 year old dissertation into a work of digital scholarship. It reminds me of how when you buy a new (to you) car, suddenly, you see that type of car everywhere. Maybe it's part of how we seek to be connected, I don't know.

Anyway, this flightpaths project is something I will enjoy watching as it unfolds. We are sure to learn an awful lot from such a courageous undertaking. Siva commented just the other day about this kind of thing -- e-book readers are not "the ball" we need to keep our eyes on -- let's see what we can do with these here computers and keyboards. Let's see, how did he say it...

I say we route around them and use these here devices -- personal computers -- to forge better reading and writing processes.