“In Good Faith” Draft

As I indicated when I posted a draft of a new chapter on consensus, I’ve been busily working on transforming the dissertation into a book manuscript. I now have a draft that I am fairly comfortable with, including the following changes since the dissertation:

  • improved pre-20th century sources, though
  • removed historical chapter 3 altogether;
  • added a new chapter on consensus decision-making;
  • use Chicago foot notes.
  • make use of epigraphs from WikSpeak and Laws of Wikipedia. (These “laws” have played an important role in the dissertation, and I have long planned on using them in the book manuscript as epigraphs.)

That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s amazing how much time editing, honing, rewriting, amending, and implementing responses to feedback takes. (John Broughton has been particularly kind in sharing comments.) I feel as if I’m at the top of the S-curve now: making small changes that don’t significantly change the word count, but hopefully significantly increase the quality. I’ve posted the introduction here. The first few pages are similar to the dissertation, but the chapter diverges thereafter. I welcome suggestions, particularly from those with some experience with book publishing (i.e., does it work overall as a book?) or those with substantive expertise (e.g., documentalist history, evolution of Wikipedia cultural norms).

Comments !

links

social