From: Ted Striphas <striphas@indiana.edu>
Date: August 2, 2011 11:00:10 AM GMT-04:00
To: "Jonathan Sterne, Dr." <jonathan.sterne@mcgill.ca>
Subject: Re: revised ijoc essay

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks very much -- not only for the provisional acceptance, but also for agreeing to let me post the dossier of materials to D&R(W).  

Intrigued to hear that you find social networking to be coercive.  Do you mean that in the sense that you feel compelled to share information you might not otherwise share because of social pressure? Or is it something else?  For my part, I don't think the experience of social networking ought to be reducible to Facebook.  But, yes, that's a larger question about interactivity that we need to have some day.....

Take care, Jonathan, and thank you again for everything.  When's the MP3 book due out, by the way?

--t

On Aug 2, 2011, at 10:41 AM, Jonathan Sterne, Dr. wrote:

Hi Ted,

Thanks for the revised piece.  It's much improved.  I am happy to send it along for final acceptance.  And you're welcome to post it on the wiki.  Though it raises another interesting set of questions for me, anyway (if the roles were reversed), which is that I don't want my drafts to be public, just as I usually don't consent to videorecording of my talks and having them posted on the web.

More substantively, I'm not really convinced by the social networking part of the argument.  As a technology, I find it even more coercive than email, much as I love reading my friends' status updates on Facebook.  But that's part of a bigger discussion about interactivity.

Thanks again for writing for the issue, and have a great vacation.

Best,
--J

Hi Jonathan,

Attached please find my revised essay for IJOC--per your suggestion, now called "The Visible College."  I'm pretty sure everything's in order here; it's certainly in much better shape compared to the last draft I sent you!

A couple of things about the piece: first, I took your advice and reframed it completely.  I basically jettisoned the first two sections, save for a few stray sentences and ideas.  That cut about 2,000 words.  I then developed the essay completely around what was section three (about 1,500 words).  I added about 1,500 words in the form of framing, transitions, and conclusion, which brought the piece to around 3,000 words total, excluding the notes and references.  All that to say, it's a very different essay than the one you read back in June/July, and to my mind it's much better for your heroic editorial intervention.

Apropos of that and the main argument of the essay, I have a proposal for you.  Would you mind if I posted our email correspondence about the piece, in addition to your edited version of the first draft, to my Differences & Repetitions Wiki/project site (http://www.diffandrep.org/wiki)?  It would be odd, I think, to have made the argument I've made and then to turn around and essentially hide all of the backstory--especially in the case of this essay, which transformed so radically due in no small part to your labor.  Would you be open to my doing that?  For whatever it's worth, I think this is one of those pieces where it's important to "practice what you preach," at least to the extent that I'm able.

Thanks again for all of your patience and input, and do let me know if you need me to make any last changes.  I'll be away visiting family from August 4-13 but should be checking email here and there along the way.

Take care & all the best,

--t
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOK + BLOG: The Late Age of Print | http://www.thelateageofprint.org
TWITTER:  http://twitter.com/striphas

Ted Striphas, Ph.D.
Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Communication & Culture
Indiana University
800 E. 3rd St., Room 239
Bloomington IN 47405 USA
Office: (812) 856-7868
Fax: (812) 855-6014

< Return to "The Visible College" Dossier