Crowdsourcing Small Pieces – An Invitation

David Weinberger’s 2002 ‘Small Pieces Loosely Joined‘ outlined what was important about the web, offering a framework for understanding its far-reaching effects on our lives and societies. The accompanying ‘kids’ version made the ideas accessible to a younger audience. I used it with my students for quite a few years and it was effective in helping them stop and think about something that they were beginning to take for granted.

Seven years later it feels slightly dated although the principles and central message still ring true- for me at least. A collaborative spruce-up with up-to-date examples and links could breathe new life into it and create a contemporary resource for use with young people.  To this end I created SmallPieces09, loading the manuscript to WordPress installed with the excellent CommentPress theme, that allows comments to be posted on a document – paragraph by paragraph. The hope is that folks (young and old) will read the book and post suggestions, ideas or rewrites directly on the smallpieces09 site to help bring it refreshed into 2009.

Dave Weinberger is happy with this crowdsourcing approach to updating his book. I’m also delighted that Clarence Fisher has already led the line with some excellent suggestions on the SmallPieces09 site. Why not get involved with students or individually and take part in producing an effective resource for the educational community? We would value your support!  http://smallpieces09.org