Hi,

First time poster, so apologies if I've messed up with any etiquette! As
a brief means of intro, I have longstanding involvement in various
aspects of political activism, primarily related to communications
media, data security, and anti-capitalism. I work full-time as a
neonatologist and recently also completed a PhD in epidemiology /
neonatology. I also have an interest in routine data use and have also
done some epidemiological work related to cycling as a mode of
transport in relation to injury (prevention).

On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 11:03:22AM +0100, John Bibby wrote:
> There was some recent discussion of content for a future Radstats book.
> 
> However, I would like to ask should we go BEYOND the idea of just having a
> book i.e. develop MORE than a book? NB: I am asking for ideas here about
> FORMAT(s), not about content. We are at the pre-brainstorming stage: all
> possibilities neeed to  be considered.
> 
> What extra formats could be considered?  We want a future-proof something,
> that still looks modern, crisp and relevant even in 2025.

I think this discussion is currently avoiding an important question:
what is the point of all this?

That is, I can see various potential objectives:

 * to raise awareness of the issues with which RadStats is concerned

 * to promote the RadStats organisation itself - for example, to expand membership

 * to produce a permanent record of the current thoughts and ideas of RadStats

 * to make a few bucks and earn a bit of prestige... (unlikely, I guess,
   but included for completeness ;-)

Of course, there are many others too, and multiple objectives may
co-exist. I'd suggest that once the purpose is clear, appropriate
formats will suggest themselves.

> Among the additional formats which spring to mind are the following, about
> most of which I know next to nothing:
> * e-publications of various forms, including e-book, pdfs etc which could
> be easily sold on the www (either whole book or individual chapters)

Bah. The thing here is, write the text and it can be presented in many
different ways - book, e-book (of various formats), website, audio-book,
etc. The important thing is the content, not the medium.

> * traditional 'social media': Twitter, Facebook, and what else?

How are twitter or FB "traditional"? I'd consider these like a
television channel - useful for advertising and providing information
about your topic, but not the be all and end all that some people like
to think they are...

> * non-traditional social media: e.g. Meetups, hackathons, RadstatsJams - I
> don't know what all these things mean but maybe I should

Surely face-to-face meetings are the more traditional method of
communicating ideas? My no-nonsense guide to what these things are is as follows:

Meetups / discussion groups - places where you sit around and talk about shit.

Hackathons / RadstatsJams - places where you sit around and *do* shit.

(by the way, does radstatsjams go well with peanut butter? It sounds
like it should...

> * blogs

More writing stuff. As ever, the difficulty is getting people to want to
read it.

> * open data
> * open software

I'm very pro both of these - I think that openness encourages people to
participate, and lets them develop new ideas that may not have otherwise
been possible if the starting point was a "closed" system. Should also
probably add in here "open copyright" or some such - to represent
creative commons, attribution-sharealike type license.

> * lots of other things besides ........ including things that have not yet
> been invented.
> 
> I'd welcome advice on expanding such a list, so we can then brainstorm
> knowing we have tried to consider all eventualities.
> 
> I'd particularly welcome advice from recent book-authors or others who may
> have wrestled with similar questions - the end-question being how to get
> new ideas disseminated as far as possible using all imagineable
> technologies. I'd also welcome contacts in the publishing industry who may
> come up with forward-looking ideas.

So, let's identify the objective and I think the right method will
follow... The difficult bit is the content / substance.

Best wishes,

     -- Andrei

-- 
Andrei Morgan MRCPCH, MSc. (Epidemiology)
https://www.andreimorgan.net/info/contact


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