Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Working Post: Editing in the Digital World

Working Thesis Statement 
Editing is generally seen as a field dealing in print media, but as more and more companies, sources, sites, and people are taking to the web and modern technology editing is changing. What does this mean for the need for editing and editors?

Preliminary Exploration
I started looking at the relationship between editing and the digital world awhile before this class when I first started thinking about getting a job in web based publishing and editing. I took internet publishing as an initial interest in this topic and talked about it on my personal blog with a post about a website that I coded as an editing portfolio. This class has gotten me interested in looking much further into this topic. I started getting interested in the relationship between I guess "non-technology" things and digital culture with my posts about BYU and technology (found here and here). I started to realize that this was my opportunity to start curating information that was not only going to be helpful in me finding that future job in web based editing, but would also help me get my final paper written for this class (win/win right?). So, I started out with Dan Gillmor's book We the Media and did a preliminary book review where I started to question some ideas, a book review where I reflected on these ideas post reading, and a video book review. I have also been using diigo to curate articles on this topic.

Relevance
a. to digital culture: I think one of the most important things you realize when you study digital culture is how much it is changing things: for the better, for the worse, for who knows what. So, I wanted to zone in on one specific aspect of this that is relevant to me.
b. to a specific audience: I think its really important for editing students to know what is happening in terms of editing and the digital world. As more and more text is in the digital realm, it is important for editors to know what this means for them.

Format
I would like to create a blog/wiki about editing and the digital world, their relationship with each other, and what the digital world means for editors. If this is a no go, I will be writing a paper...

Outlet
If I do a blog/wiki I would see what I can do to get it shared around the editing department and involved in some of the editing communities that I have found.

So, if I end up writing a paper I found several calls for papers for publishing/writing/editing conferences and some that are focused on the relationship between these and digital culture.
12th International Conference on Books, Publishing, and Libraries
IFLA World Library and Information Congress
ACES National Conference 

Curation 
curation for analysis: I have been looking at a lot of editors blogs, types of editing that is happening online, and web editing jobs that are available
curation of secondary sources: I have been collecting articles about technology based editing on diigo.
curation of community: I have been following some people on twitter talking about this topic, joined editing groups on Google+ and linked in, and joined editing forums that allow editors to ask and respond to questions about the current state of editing.

Social Proof
Most of my social proof is coming from these communities I have joined which are all buzzing about what relationship the digital world and editing have. I have also chatted about this with fellow editing minors seeing if they see their editing career going in a print based or web based direction.

Next Step
Now that I have some content and ideas going, I need to start getting even more involved in these communities, start asking question, and start actually writing my paper and getting this all figured out and formed into some cohesive thoughts and ideas.




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