It looks like there’s been a hub of collaborative creative writing activity happening on the web this weekend!

A group of writers have set themselves up with the task to write and publish a book in just 24 hours using online tools to work together.  The group has been using Google Docs to write and edit the document, as well as using Skype and face-to-face conversation to communicate, and have been updating us on their progress through their twitter profile.

The 24-hour book project

The group consists of one lead writer and ten other participants, and they also opened up part of the book on Google Docs to invite contributions from the wider public.  As well as this, they’ve been gathering photos, illustrations and other snippets of media for use in the book or inspiration over on their Ning platform (Ning enables you to create your own social networks).

The final book will be available online and in hard-copy (produced by web-based print-on-demand services) and sold at £4.99 a piece, with profits going towards future collaborations.

Briefly looking at the elements that contributed to getting this project going.  The team:

1. agreed on the focus of the story (“based around a group of city centre allotments and the story will explore ideas of shared and private space and the real and imaginary barriers between a range of different city characters”)
2. identified the desired outcome (an online and printed novel)
3. gave themselves a clear deadline within which to complete the project – they have a launch party on Monday 5^th October.
4. clearly outlined the tasks that need to be completed – writing, editing, proofreading, images, publishing etc – and who will do them – lead writer, participants, professional volunteers and the public.

(Check out Bracket’s toolkit for collaborative projects to see how it matches up)

And the intellectual property?  The group have been careful to inform the public contributors that they must own any material they submit, and will retain ownership but give permission for it to be used within the project.  The book itself will be distributed under a Creative Commons license.

A great example of what online creative collaboration can achieve!