December 11, 2009
Bookfuturism
Tim Carmody introduces Bookfuturism.com:
The basic premise of Bookfuturism.com is that it’s like The Daily Kos, TPMCafé, or yes, Young Philly Politics for book and media nerds. Any one can create an account and begin creating content, whether blog posts, book pages, links to important stories, or commentary on another user’s entries. It has no institutional or corporate sponsorship or structure. All it has are a bunch of men and women who care passionately about reading and writing and want to under stand its future, so they can be a part of it.
And, with that introduction, a slew of projects emerged:
It’s a commons, which means it’s a place to share news and ideas and to collaborate on projects. There’s already one project under way — a collection of essays on the future of reading edited by Clusterflock’s Andrew Simone — that’s being developed in partnership with the site. Some of the contributors — I’m one of them — are going to write our entries in public and incorporate feed back from the community before we ship it off to be printed, as a real, live physical book. (Bookfuturists love paper and print. As Robin Sloan has said, books are great techné.) And we have other collaborations already in the works, from meetups to conferences to reading groups. If you’re interested in reading and technology, this will be the place to be.
Yep, you read right: a collection of essays edited by yours truly and Brian McFarland of Suicide Press. My hope for the collection of essays is to create a sustained narrative, without making it too high-falutin’ (read: needlessly academic), by looking at what the reader, publisher, writer, and designer wish to do with print in order to glimpse a clearer view of where we, as a print culture, need to be. This is to be a forward thinking book without romanticism or technogasms: practical, clear, and level headed.
If you are interested in contributing, head on over to Bookfuturism.com and join the conversation or email me.
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Hey, that’s super cool, Andrew. Congratulations. And good work. And there you go making things.
So cool, Andrew. This is wonderful.
Congratulations, Andrew. I’ll look forward to looking in.
Good for you, Andrew!
This is great Andrew~~ congratulations!