Past Discussed Quarterly: Archiving the Best of Blogs

Alun Salt, one of the Ancient World Bloggers Group and a long time blogger under his own Archaeoastronomy blog, has begun a rather interesting project making access to selected blog entries more generally available and permanent. The project is called Past Discussed Quarterly (PDQ) and it intends to give blog carnivals a publications outlet similar to a conference proceedings or working papers volume. In PDQ as with a more typical blog carnival, bloggers submit their blogs to an editor (or editors), who selects or assembles the links in some fashion. The best of blog carnivals are built around a theme, and some are fascinating glimpses into the range of ideas being bandied about. But the trouble with carnivals is the same trouble with blog entries: their remarkably transient nature. Blogs come and go, the epitome of the ephemeral medium. Salt has an idea on how to resolve this.

Salt's PDQ will be available in three formats, paper, pdf, and electronic. The contents will be released under a Creative Commons license so that it is free to redistribute as long as it appears in a non-commercial venue (NC), that the authorship is credited (BY) and that no changes are made to the text (ND). PDQ will be published four times yearly (Feb, May, August, and November), and each issue will be themed. For example, PDQ volume 1.1 (to be published the end of February 2008) is on Digital Publishing; volume 1.2 (end of May 2008) is on pseudohistories.

The submission and selection process is fairly straightforward. Simply publish your entry on your own blog, and place a PDQ icon on it (available at the PDQ website). Post a note at PDQ; and wait for comments. Editorial selection by a group of six volunteers is to be based in part on the comments you receive; some salient comments will be included with the publication. Peer review is not part of the mix, beyond the selection process.

Eventually each entry will be reformatted and published: high resolution photos will be required and grammar and spelling corrected. The pdf will be free to the download, and for-pay copies will be available from Lulu.

Although there will be issues to be worked out--copyright protections require that the blog text and images be original and available and anonymity is likely to be an issue--I really do think this is going to be an interesting project.

Lots of blog content on PDQ and its ramifications:

• PDQ: The Past Discussed Quarterly home page, which has submission details, etc.
• Blogs and Journals Eoin Purcell's Blog - Comments point to the Tools of Change symposium, which is an excellent lead
• Blogging, Peer Review, and Scholarly Publication - Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, Bill Caraher worries that making blogs more respectable will eat away at their freshness
• The Future of Blogging - Thoughts on Antiquity, Chris Weimer responds to Bill Caraher's comment about the lack of editing making the concept less than readible for busy academics
• Is PDQ a good idea? An academic perspective - Ancient World Bloggers Group, Michael E. Smith feels that electronic publication is likely the most suitable outlet for such work, rather than paper/pdf
• Responding to "Is PDQ a good idea?" - ElectricArchaeology, Shawn Graham comments on the perils of academic gate keeping

I have two comments myself about the PDQ project. First, it seems like an awful lot of work to be done for free, and I don't know how sustainable that will be. Having been in the editorial business as a professional, I recognize that 'reformatting' and 'making sure all the copyright issues are clear' are hassles, pure and simple (particularly when you're trying to create a nice-looking PDF from a text or html document). But, I could be wrong, maybe the technology has improved since I did that. I think they'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

The other thing is a point that was brought home to me when I was trying to assemble a list of commentary on this project. It was difficult to find comments on the blogs without a 'clearing house' location. Yes, I used Technorati, but it really isn't set up to be used for that--not everyone blogging on the PDQ project tagged their blogs with "PDQ" or "Past Discussed Quarterly". What we need--and I suspect that the PDQ website may establish that, is a place where the associated comments can be collected, even if it's just the links.

Having said that, I'm going to support the PDQ project where I can, working on a submission myself for the first issue. Thanks, Alun! I'm definitely looking forward to watching what happens.