[Reader-list] Penguin's Wiki-novel

[Vivek Narayanan]

My thoughts on the penguin wiki novel project: This is certainly not 
going to result in a literary masterpiece the first time round, nor is 
that what we should expect.  However, the possibility seems real that 
if, over the years, we are able to socialize ourselves into this other 
kind of authorship, we could actually get better at doing it, and 
understand what it requires of and reveals about us.  It would not, and 
need not, replace the dominant current model where (as I understand it) 
a single author accepts the final responsibility (and yes, the glory 
too) for the content of a text; but it would create powerful new 
possibilities and definitively dissolve the line between reader and 
writer.  These kinds of experiments have been going on, in one fashion 
or another, at least since the early years of the twentieth century; but 
this is the first time such a thing has been initiated by a major 
publishing house.  (Granted, it brings them publicity, but at the same 
time the potential for large-scale involvement is great.)

The question is, what are the possible models (structures, protocols) 
for how it could work, and what would be the results of different 
models?  If the initial attempts will inevitably goofy, how could we 
approach it with serious literary intent?  If the original wikipedia 
idea finds refuge in "factual accuracy", how would aesthetic conflicts 
be resolved in the wikinovel?

V.

Brief article about the project in an Australian newspaper:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/penguins-novel-wiki-project-kicks-off/2007/02/02/1169919507857.html

Ethical guidelines page for wikinovel:
http://www.amillionpenguins.com/wiki/index.php/Ethical_guidelines

Blog-- Penguin editors' notes on the novel in progress, thinking about 
the project as it goes along:
http://www.amillionpenguins.com/blog/