A first thought as to the meta significance of the project.

As I begin to get my head around Andy's vision of a github collaborative ebook project I start to appreciate how academically significant this project is on a meta level. That is, the very nature of the ebook we produce must be unfinished, forever ongoing. The same also applies (and more obviously) to the Wiki - we cannot hope to produce a comprehensive Wiki dealing with all aspects of McDougall's life, thought and context. We would have to dedicate our lives to such a Wiki, and then others would carry on the work after us. What we are doing with the Wiki is rather building up information that seems relevant: we only add what seems relevant. But that means that others can always introduce new information that seems relevant, which in turn perhaps demands some modification, however minor, of the ebook. So this is the process by which we will actually proceed in writing the ebook; but it is a process that can never be finished. So while we will in practice decide to leave things 'for a while', that is, accept a version of the ebook as in practice finished, in theory and in reality there can be no final version.

All of the above can sound of only minor interest, facts about writing a book in this way of no great relevance beyond the project. It can sound this way indeed - until one reflects upon the fact that no book written by humans can claim to be the last word. I think there is perhaps a deeply ingrained cultural illusion - generated by the significance in our culture of the bible - that a book can (and often is) perfect, complete, whole, finished. And it is because that illusion is so ingrained that we see this ebook, the unfinished nature of which is written in capital letters on its cover, as the oddity. Actually, the ebook simply renders visible the real state of affairs, showing up our ingrained and established idea of the book as an illusion.

In a nutshell, the McDougall content can be quite interesting; but the real value of what we are doing is redefining the very nature of the book; or rather, showing what a book really is.

-- sounds grandiose; but it seems also a mere statement of fact.