Talking about the project

Me to Robin Sloan.

This:

What the book ended up doing, more than anything, was it re-connected me with that campus, and that town, and that place, and the people.

This:

I started thinking about somehow putting her words and my words together into a physical item that some might call a book. That got me to thinking about what else might fit into that physical item some might call a book. So we collected more words from others who have written things, on message boards, in e-mails, whatever, about this topic that ties together this small and admittedly niche-y but very passionate community that for many people has become sort of this important point of contact.

And this:

Another thing, and this, I guess, is more an issue of philosophy than anything else, but I want this to be not only FOR the community but in some sense BY the community and OF the community. It already is, kind of, in that the words are written by a variety of people who care about Davidson the town, Davidson the college, and the basketball team. But what are some ways I could get even more people involved? I think the more the better. I want people to feel like they're part of it because they ARE part of it.

Robin to me.

This:

Really, in some ways an ideal setup for a project, because you have a defined community of interest already. And it's not just current staff and students of Davidson, but the whole Davidson diaspora. Very cool.

This:

I liked this part of your email the best: "But what are some ways I could get even more people involved? I thinkthe more the better. I want people to feel like they're part of itbecause they ARE part of it." That seems to me like the big organizing principle here. And so really, you want to sit down and brainstorm: what simple, easy thingscould LOTS MORE people in the Davidson community contribute? Photos?Memories -- just a paragraph or so each? Documents, like tickets, flyers, news clippings? It becomes a matter of collecting and curating ... and you'd have to figure out an effective way to reach out to lots of people, and ask them for this stuff. But I think it's the right thing to do. I agree with you; the more contributors, the better. And even a very small contribution -- a photo, a few words -- can make a person feel like a co-creator.

And this:

You could incorporate real-world events -- probably a good idea, actually. Maybe they're connected to things like games or tailgate parties or other things. You use them as a way to solicit ideas and memories from lots of Davidson basketball fans at once.

Thoughts?

How it starts

Last month when I was up in Davidson for a long weekend Bill Cobb and I got into my rental and picked up Claire Asbury over at the senior apartments and drove the hour or so up to Morganton to spend the afternoon with William Robertson. Sound strange? It wasn’t. It was great, I thought, in part because sitting at that table was the Class of 1975, the Class of 1984, the Class of 2000 and the Class of 2010.

Us.

Not long after that I got in the mail a package from Bob Cordle, Class of 1963, recently elected as an alumni rep on the Board of Trustees. In the package was information about and a game-tape DVD of Davidson’s stunning football win on Nov. 5, 1960, at Virginia Tech, then known as VPI. The 50th anniversary of that win of course is a year away.

“If Davidson can beat VPI,” Observer sports writer Herman Helms wrote that week, “doesn’t it prove something that people too often forget, that underneath the uniform, behind the ribs, built into the anatomy of every football player there is a heart. And the legs and the arms and the body are capable of some surprising things, if the heart so commands.”

Us.

And then comes the postcard from Stephen, Class of to be determined -- emphasis, though, on the determined.

“To the Davidson Family,” his note began.

So. A new project. Claire and I have collected from over the last two years some of our favorite pieces of writing from Davidson-related blogs including our own and from DavidsonCats.com and from e-mails we’ve gotten and other sources, and we’ve dropped them into one chronologically arranged document. The pre-edited version runs something like 100,000 words. It reads like a story because that’s what it is. We want to put it all between two covers and call it a book. Bob McKillop has agreed to write a foreword.

What’s the next step?

The next step is you.

Here’s the thing: The old way to put out a book is to go off and think and write in relative seclusion and then to emerge with a finished product you hope some people might actually buy. This feels like it shouldn’t be that. And it doesn’t have to be. Not anymore. Robin Sloan, for example, wanted to write a book, and now he is, thanks to patrons of his project, who get to follow along as he writes for them, thanks to them. Some say Imogen Heap is changing the way music is made and sold -- her fans aren’t just fans, they’re followers, and practically co-creators.

With our project, then, and this is where you come in, we want to add to what we already have by asking for contributions from you. We want to increase the us.

Send us your pictures. They can be pictures from the last two years. They can be pictures from before that. They can be pictures you’ll take this season. Send us your words. They can be words you’ve already written. They can be words you want to write just for this. And send us your ideas. What do you want to see this become?

We’ll collect on Flickr and Facebook. We’ll promote on YouTube and Twitter. We’ll track the progress of the project here.

At some point, maybe in time for the holidays, maybe early in the second semester, maybe even heading into March, we’ll put the best of it between two covers. Maybe we’ll do that through Kickstarter. Maybe we’ll do it through something like Lulu. Maybe we’ll do it through a more traditional publisher. Maybe we’ll go with something local.

The project, whatever we end up with, and also whatever we share and see and learn and read along the way, is about us, and for us -- most importantly, though, by us.