Last night the SWITCH team met to talk about the whole redesign of SWITCH. There are two major things going on here one of which I think is super interesting the other is just necessary.
New Content: This is an ongoing thing, and the proposals that are on the table right now include creating curated calls and formulating a research agenda which will perhaps be around the subject matter of the call. It looks like we will only really be able to take on one such task and create a launch for the december issue, however there is a real level of interest in finding another publishing model that doesn’t center around publication dates. The fact is we will probably end up with some sort of fusion between the two models which may be the healthiest option.
New Model: We spent a good deal of time developing a vision statement which is suitably vague but packed with history: “Switch will be a multifaceted entity encompassing research, community and openess.”
The intent of the new model is to open up and facilitate community along the lines of research, scholarship, art and technology. Danielle made a great suggestion after the meeting which I think I am about to go all in on, and that is to reach out to find the experts in this field. To this end I am looking at the book Producing Open Source Software and going to the Free Culture Conference.
I have also begun to research some social networking utilities for a presentation at the technology innovators session on November 19 (I think). It feels to me like these two projects are related especially since I had the realization recently that my work is centered around the social. Perhaps I can fold this all together.
a musing 