Lessig invites readers to rewrite 'Code'

Today's San Jose Mercury News has a story about how author Lawrence Lessig has invited readers to update his seminal book "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace," first published in 1999.

Further nudging outward the boundaries of online publishing, Stanford University Professor Larry Lessig will put his 1999 book ``Code'' online today and invite Internet users to help him write an updated version.

A noted copyright expert and proponent of free software, Lessig is putting the 297-page treatise about technology, culture and regulation on the Web in the form of a ``wiki,'' a site that can allow people to freely edit its contents. The law professor will take the contributions at http://codebook.jot .com and edit them into a printed version of the book. ...

Lessig is the latest in a string of authors -- often from the technology world -- to open up their writings to the public. Former Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor published chapters of his book ``We the Media'' online as they were written and sought feedback. And East Bay author J.D. Lasica allowed online readers to edit chapters of his book ``Darknet: Remixing the Future of Movies, Music & Television.'' ...

I'll be eager to see how this latest example of collaborative authorship turns out.

Cross-posted to Darknet.