Aggregating and curating scholarship from, or on, the open web. Is it possible? Why should we do it? And how? Let's get together to discuss and play with this approach to publishing.

Aggregating and curating web content can be a way to identify new projects for formal publication, distribute work related to your own area of expertise, or share important information within a community. We can talk about the why, and then move on to the how. What is the range of sources and various models? What tools are available?

For the play component, I can demonstrate and provide access to a sandbox with our new PressForward plugin (https://github.com/PressForward/pressforward/wiki/About) , which offers an RSS Reader, collaborative editorial tools, and the ability to republish from within a WordPress dashboard. And if there's interest and time, we can choose some RSS feeds and new content in order to create our own curated publication during the session.

Can you think of anything fun and hackery to do with full-ish text of 197 trade books from these authors? Let's use the HarperCollins BookSmash competition as a jumping-off point for brainstorming.

• Rob Bell
• Ian Douglas
• Debra Driza
• Peter Drucker
• Bruce Feiler
• Jeaniene Frost
• Michelle Gagnon
• Kim Harrison
• Eloisa James
• Richard Kadrey
• Karen Le Billon
• C.S. Lewis
• Sarah MacLean
• Julia Quinn
• James Rollins
• Tina Seelig
• Katie Sise
• Kat Von D
• Dan Wells

http://booksmash.challengepost.com/

I'm willing to offer a free hands-on workshop on how to use PressBooks, an open-source tool that transforms WordPress content into publications for print and digital devices, including PDF, web-book, Mobi (for Kindle), and ePUB (for iBooks, Nook, etc.) 

Anyone interested in this session may register ahead of time for a free PressBooks.com account at http://pressbooks.com/wp-signup.php
and ideally, bring a laptop or tablet, or share with another person who has one.

In addition to walking participants through the steps of creating & exporting their own books with PressBooks, I can also share more about:
– how to pair CommentPress and PressBooks for a WordPress-based developmental editing & publishing workflow
– requirements for installing both tools on your own self-hosted WordPress.org site
– how Anvil Academic will offer these tools to authors for open-access, peer-reviewed scholarly publishing
– how to suggest improvements to the developers of CommentPress and PressBooks
Learn more at http://CommentPressBooks.trinfocafe.org

So what's the deal? In exchange for this free workshop, I'd ask participants to visit and comment on our digital book-in-progress, Web Writing: Why & How for Liberal Arts Teaching & Learning. This open-access edited volume explores why & how faculty and students use web-based authoring, annotating, and publishing tools in the liberal arts, and demonstrates a case example of CommentPress and PressBooks. Call for Participation for the Idea & Essay Proposal phase (200-300 words) ends on June 22nd, 2013, but full drafts (1,000-4,000 words) are not due until August 15th. The Center for Teaching & Learning at Trinity College will award $300 subventions to 5 outstanding proposals, with preference given to authors in greater financial need (e.g. students or faculty not in full-time, tenure-track positions). Learn about our editorial process and timeline for the Fall 2013 open peer review and freely-accessible digital publication, possibly with a scholarly press, at:
http://WebWriting.trincoll.edu

I'd love to get together and discuss models for collaborative scholarly publishing initiatives, like those that have been established at places like Michigan, Indiana, and Penn State. How are such collaborations structured? How do these collaborations change the nature of work that the participants (e.g., press staff, librarians) do? How do these collaborations change the missions of the involved organizations? What type of infrastructure is necessary to go the way of collaboration for publishing endeavors at a specific university? How do you rally support for such an initiative? How are tech assets roped in and funded?