[FM Discuss] scribn the bazaar

[Joshua Facemyer]

(Pa)trolling he previous installments of this discussion, I came across 
this statement from Adam, which I'd like to discuss:

> i would rather think about the topic on the level that Bob Steim from
> the 'Future of the Book Institute' puts it - books are a place where
> readers and writers meet. With books this meeting is very asynchronous,
> but we are in an interesting position to see what happens when we change
> the temporal scale of this meeting. so...books (/docs) have a value in
> their own right, but they might also have an additional value when seen
> through the light of Bobs insight. this is the kind of concept i would
> rather we pursued when discussing 'value'

Realizing that all docs/books (presuming their quality and validity) 
have inherent value is important, and I think sums up nicely what I have 
always thought the base concept of FM is.  When we did that first sprint 
in Paris (what memories!), I remember wondering whether all the time, 
effort and money we had put into it was really going to be "worthwhile" 
- i.e., was there even one person who was really going to read this 
manual, much less find it useful?

However, at some point I realized that it is definitely worthwhile 
simply from the point of view that someone *might* read it and find it 
useful.  That's an important point to remember when considering the 
scope and goals of what we are doing.

What makes FM great, and what makes my participation in FM great, is 
that there is absolutely no pressure (except maybe socially, but even 
then not generally) to "produce".  (Though, admittedly, this makes it 
easier for me to be "too busy", etc.  However, it also makes it more 
likely that, when I work on FM, I'll be giving it my best effort, rather 
than just working for the numbers - some sort of "repayment".  Which 
makes me want to forward the idea that few people should ever get paid 
for doing anything on FM.  That's a different discussion, though :)

Yes, we want lots of "products", we want FM to be as popular as it can 
be for its market, etc.  But those considerations are only secondary to 
the main goal of producing good works so that people have ready access 
to the content that will help them.  That is the simple "value" of FM 
and all her content.

Redirecting this idea to the technical aspects of FM, I think an 
important part of the booki implementation would be a super-easy reader 
feedback mechanism.  Something which allows a reader to NOT log-in and 
still make a comment, attaching it to a particular word or selection of 
words, chapter, manual, etc.  This would be super cool.  Want feedback 
from readers?  Give them the ability to do it easily.  That would bring 
the "meeting point" between writers and readers as close to reality as I 
can imagine it, in this context.

What I have in my imagination is something similar to "notes" in a word 
processor.  The user selects text, clicks a button on the side that says 
"leave a note for the author" (or something), then types in the popup 
and hits enter.  Done.

The author can edit a chapter and click "view readers' notes", which 
will pop a bunch of little cartoon-like "speech-bubbles" pointing to the 
selected (now highlighted) text.  The author can click and move these 
around the workspace (to see what he's doing).  Better yet, they will 
also automatically move out of the way of the cursor's vicinity so he 
can see several lines above and below where he's typing.

When he's done with the note, he can delete it (it has, of course, a 
little "x" which actually means nothing, but we all know its semantic 
meaning is "close this silly cartoon speech box").

Of course, there could also be "author notes", "maintainer notes", 
whatever groupings one would like to make.

If we want a really cool collaborative authoring-with-feedback platform, 
I think this would be an absolute killer feature.

JF

PS - I think FM is becoming a woman!  Let's make her smart and 
beautiful.  And dangerous.