Seeing the Light

Here's how I'd imagine it would work. Let's say there's a web site at the University of the Ukraine, and it's dedicated to the study of methods of illumination throughout history and prehistory. Call it Seeing the Light. The site is maintained by a couple of graduate students, but many researchers in the field of lighting are aware of the site and regularly contribute links and course syllabi and images and bibliographies. Professor L. from Sydney State University has developed a web site on whale oil lamps; she sends the URL to the web site and requests a review. Seeing the Light puts an index page on its site, and reviewers are requested to investigate Professor L's site and comment on it. The reviewers may give substantive comments, make suggestions, indicate explanatory links, argue with the conclusions, but they must sign the reviews. The reviewers are probably part selected in advance by Professor L and Seeing the Light, and part simply walk-ins from the readership. Professor L may respond to these comments, again signing them. You'd still need an editor to keep everybody honest, of course, and hold the reviews to acceptable levels; the reviews themselves would remain archived on Seeing the Light, and available for viewing by anyone who wants to see them. At the end of the process (maybe during?), Professor L puts a button on her site indicating that there is a "salon review" located at Seeing the Light.

Everybody wins: Professor L gets to improve her web site; the reviewers get to indicate how insightful they are; people who don't know very much about lighting find a reliable source to learn something; and geeks like you and me can read the comments and learn something interesting about the academic process.

And, best of all, the Internet takes one huge step towards becoming the Library at Alexandria.

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