[arg_discuss] whitepaper:wiki, next version

[despain at quantumcontent.com]

I think good points are being made all around about this whitepaper. I
also think there have been some miscommunications or misunderstandings.

For one thing, a whitepaper in the IGDA sense isn't an academic or
scientific paper. Reading it as such is bound to be disapointing.

For another, the primary criticism of the paper has been heaped upon one
author and the main editor. Trying to look at this objectively, I can see
where this may have happened just because the critics didn't have time to
spread the criticism around. But it ends up _looking_ like there's
something personal going on. Is there? I don't know, the critics say it's
not personal so I'll have to believe their reports of their motivations.

Also, American English and British English have some funny differences
nobody notices till they're written down. Did we mix usage in this paper?

I don't know. To be completely honest, I haven't read it yet - and I'm one
of the authors. It's just so long. And I'm not sure it'll cover anything
I'm not already familiar with. Speaking of which, that's a very good
reason for not mentioning I Love Bees when talking about use of the phone
in ARGs. Most people reading this paper already know about that famous
example and would prefer to learn about something new. Again, this isn't
an academic paper. The style and audience are different.

Also in the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the authors of the
Business Models section who dropped out. There were several reasons for
doing so (I already had another section, I had no time, etc.) but one of
the ones looming over my head was that I knew whatever I wrote in that
section was going to be heartily disagreeable to many readers. It's just
such a touchy subject, but when I solicited this list for input on the
business side of things I got a big dose of silence.

Which brings up the question of what is this list anyway? And what should
we do with it? I think that's a great topic worthy of its own thread. I
don't know who's still subscribed, and I don't know why there's not more
participation. I don't think we can blame it entirely on leadership or the
lack thereof. We are not sheep. This mailing list is whatever we want it
to be. But I think I'll start a new thread on that topic.

Wendy Despain
quantumcontent.com