Papers and posting

As we approach paper-writing time I hope to use this blog as a clearinghouse for information, further readings, links to learn@uw. I've been gathering articles on the subjects people seem possibly interested in, but over the next few days I'd like to get a general sense of what you intend to write about. These will inevitably cluster around a few issues and a few major writers (though to be sure anything you are interested in writing in is possible) so using a blog for collaboration could be very helpful. I'd like to target specific posts to the issues people are interested in so please let me know as soon as you've decided on a topic. We can then get a discussion thread going.

Settings, privacy

I've set this and my other blogs to be as stealthy as possible. Search engines will look in vain, blogrolls will see us as a blankness. So even though there can be no expectation of privacy in a public blog, we are as invisible as it is possible to be. My large lecture course blog has been up and running for a few weeks now and has been free of snoops and intruders. And I can't imagine caring if anyone does come across this, hope you feel the same. It's not as though I'm hoping this will turn into a dear diary space for the expression of our innermost thoughts. So please feel free to post uninhibitedly, if we do this right it might turn out to be a worthwhile workspace.

To begin

This is the third of the course blogs I've set up this term, all of them experimental. You can check our my longer running one at history439blog.blogspot.com, aimed at my large lecture course. This one will be smaller and is intended to provide you with a space in which you can ask questions, post interesting materials or ideas, or see if anyone is working on similar problems. If you want suggestions for further reading, or to alert others to something you've come up with, this is the place to do it. Email will remain the best place for housekeeping chores or something you'd like to keep between you and me, but feel free to use this space for sudden ideas, random inspirations, or surprising discoveries.