Wiki Writing: The Future
May 6th, 2008 | by Brad King |As I work on the book, I’ll be interviewing loads of people — if all goes well. Along the way, there is absolutely no chance that I am going to get every fact correct. I know it. It’s impossible no matter how hard I try.
So I’m launching experiment number three (the first is the blog, the second is the NING group): a PBWiki so that my sources can read the short profiles I’ll be writing on each of them.
The idea is simple: give people an opportunity to correct the flaws in my factual reporting. I’ve made it clear to everyone I’ve spoken with that I won’t be changing the general format of the book; however, if I get something factually incorrect — or worse, if I’ve shaded what they’ve said in a light that doesn’t match what they meant, we’ll correct it.
Along with that, I’ll make every interview I’ve recorded available on the site.
It’s as transparent a writing process as I can reasonably manage, and possibly one of the more open attempts at book writing that we’ve had.
How will it end? I have no idea. There will surely be lots of conversations with folks as I flesh out their stories.
It occurs to me, though, that for feature stories and long-lead stories, this should be an absolute in journalism.
