Principles of Online Publication
Richard A. Koenigsberg

Nicholas Carr observes that a printed book is “a finished object.” Once inked onto the page, its “words become indelible.” The finality of the act of publishing has instilled in writers a desire to perfect the works they produce—to write with an “eye and an ear toward eternity.”

In the digital marketplace, on the other hand, publication becomes an “ongoing process rather than a discrete event.”

Beginning as a traditional author, publishing books and (refereed) papers, I gradually moved to publishing my work online. It took  seven years to develop, refine and solidify a methodology. My special thanks to Orion Anderson, Nadine Akhund and Alexander Chirila for their invaluable assistance.

Best regards,

Richard Koenigsberg

LIBRARY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE:
Principles of Online Publication

  • Scholarship is part of the flux of reality, not separate from reality. Scholarly publications participate in the fluidity of reality--and help to create reality.
  • Writing on the web does not allow for knowledge of an ending. Nothing is final. Change is a constant. Writing transforms consciousness.
  • The essence of writing on the web is contained within the idea of granularity: conveying information and ideas in smaller bits; bytes. One doesn't need to say everything all at once. Like life itself, writing on the web--publishing through the Internet--involves an ongoing, never-ending flow. 
  • Iteration: successive refinement or understanding.
  • Curation: selectivity: filtering information. Choosing to publisher only the best articles, papers and essays.
  • Internet = immediacy of communication. Thousands of people read an LSS publication the day after it is published.
  • While printed materials have a certain fixity, texts published via the Internet have a much more fluid character.
  • It’s an attention economy. Without attention (on the web, or anywhere), it is difficult to establish oneself as a scholar. The first step is creating or establishing an audience for an author’s work .
  • Real life = real time = impacting reality.
  • Ideas need to be re-iterated.
  • Short bites: a series of messages. Bringing people from one psychic place to another.