This is a wiki that shares the development of my book about user participation in cultural institutions.
This book is currently undergoing content review with a planned final release in March 2010. The wiki features the complete draft of the text as of November 3, 2009, which you can access in small chunks via this detailed outline. You can see the weekly updates on the progress here.
At this time, this draft does not include illustrations or photographs. I apologize for the condensed presentation of the text; I am working via both the wiki and a traditional word processor and the two programs are not always aligned when it comes to formatting.
I invite you to contribute to the content review of the text and to help make this book better. Please consider supporting this project by editing and commenting on the completed chapters, which you can find via the outline. For a lower-time commitment activity, please consult this page of (changing) questions for your quick comments. All content review must be complete by December 16, 2009, at which point I will collate your comments into a new revision. The book is quite long and I encourage you to pick a few sections for review rather than trying to tackle the whole thing.
Specifically, I'm looking for:
- questions, arguments, and reactions to the text, both for content and style.
- parts that drag and should be cut.
- parts that are unclear and need more explanation.
- other examples I should consider.
- snappy titles for the sub-sections.
You can make your comments in-line by clicking "EDIT" at the top of any page, or you can use the comment function at the bottom of each page. This is a working draft; feel free to mark it up aggressively. Please bracket or color your in-line comments so they are obviously differentiable from the text (you can also directly edit the text in black if you are feeling bold). Please include your initials in parenthesis when you make an in-line comment so I can follow up with you if need be. There is also an open forum here for you to share any general comments, concerns, questions, or thoughts during this review process.
Oh, and please do not excerpt any of this for use as it is all in an early draft form.
If you want to access the previous version of this page, which featured the updates on the changes to this site, click here.
And thank you. With your help, this book will be a powerful resource for people who wish to make cultural institutions more dynamic, relevant, and community-oriented.
Comments (2)
Patricia Sabine said
at 4:14 pm on Jul 8, 2009
The design and participation page you posted this morning is reading very well and uses potent example to illustrate concepts. Congratulations
hadrasaurus said
at 3:56 pm on Nov 11, 2009
The book is indeed large and it is a little difficult to follow in this online format (My guess is that the printed version will be easier for some readers). Each section could probably use some transition text/ orientation text, very brief summary of what was just covered, and a promise for what is to come.
Many readers will skim headings and summary points to find parts that are of particular interest to them even once they are inside the main text and away from the outline/table of contents. Some readers will be looking for guidance on what are the tree most important ideas in this section.
I imagine that some of the visual "furniture" of an illustrated book will provide these wayfinding guideposts, but the text should support that too.
Overall, your work is a fairly sequential development of the ideas being presented. Some readers will want a sense of how far they have gone and how much further there is to go. The abovementioned items should help them too.
Since the book is part underlying concepts, part examples from field and literature, part cautions or warnings (lessons learned, tips, etc.), and part "how-to" or "homework" assignments. It may be useful to distinguish among these these.
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