I need some help. I have had an idea for a book bouncing around in my head for a long time. Although I am fairly good at writing shorter pieces of work, I am not, as my wife could verify, a very organized person. Therefore, I've come to realize that, although it may be possible for me to write the type of book I want to write on my own without any help, doing on my own be a very long and inefficient process. However, there are couple of things that have happen that have inspired ideas to make this project work. One of these things was a textbook for a class that I had a few years ago in a course about computer programming in the Java language. The textbook was the second edition of Thinking in Java by Bruce Eckel. What inspired me about this book was not so much the subject matter but the fact that Mr. Eckel published his Book on the Internet at the same time or before he published it in print. Furthermore, he allowed anyone free access to the book without charge and yet he profited from sales of the printed version of the book. Publishing on the Internet first allowed him to use the various comments and criticisms of the visitors to his website to improve the quality of his book. Another thing that is inspired me is the fact that there are tools on the Internet to ease the process of collaboration. One of these tools is Google Docs. A document in Google Docs format can be set up so that persons who have a link to it can make comments or edit it. That is where some of you who read this, come in. Following are the links to the beginnings of my writing of the book, an outline, and the Google Drive folder that contains them. If you click on the link for the folder, you can view the documents in it. To add comments to either the Introduction or the outline, you need to click on the link for each document.
The Outline document also links to the Introduction. As the work progresses, the headings in the outline will be links to documents that will represent parts of the book.
What I want to do is first make the case that the United States America is on an unsustainable path that is a result of its straying from the principles upon which was founded and accumulating more debt than it will ever be to repay, because of promises the various politicians have made that over the long run cannot be kept. I want to come up with some ideas for slowing down or preventing this destruction, or for re-creating a new United States of America based on nearly the same set of principles on which the current United States of America is founded. In other words, what I have in mind is sort of an America 2.0. I am therefore asking whoever reads this to read my paper and look at my outline and what I have written so far and to give me constructive criticism. Add comments and make suggestions. When this project becomes fit to publish I tend to publish it at least as an e-book and perhaps a printed book as well. My wife suggested asking other people to write chapters in the book, which is something I am considering, especially considering that one of the points that I want to make is that all viewpoints should be considered and respected. If anyone wants to be a collaborator, either to add content or to edit, contact me. Comments about what content should or should not be included and suggestions about how to improve organization are also welcome.
The Creative Commons license at the bottom of each document is to allow anyone to share copies of the documents as long as the license at the bottom is included as part of the copy. In other words, share them with whomever you want as long as I am recognized as the original author and I reserve the right to be the only person to make commercial use of them. This may seem trivial now, but the importance of it will grow as the work grows.
