Dear Authors and Friends of Carsharing,
Well, there is indeed progress. This is not exactly a military operation,
but step by small thoughtful step we do indeed advance. The result is, I
think you will now be able to begin to see, is going to be worth both the
effort and the wait.
If you check into the Consortium at http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/, you
will see that under DRAFT CHAPTERS there are now lodged the first ten draft
articles. Lower down on that same page you will see a list of outstanding
pieces that have been variously discussed in the past, at least some of
which we anticipate will make their way here to our grubby ink-stained
editorial offices before http://www.ecoplan.org end of the month.
And since this is such an organic, non-mechanical operation (in case you
haven't noticed), there may be some of you authors who will want to take
advantage of this opportunity to see and place their piece in their emerging
context. With this in mind, I have placed these first ten pieces in the
rough order in which I think that should appear, as well as bundling the
whole lot in two zipped files for easy downloading. Perhaps you will want to
have a look at your article in its context, which may provide an opportunity
and incentive for you to make a few changes, both in order to allow us to
avoid unnecessary redundancy and repetition, and perhaps to point up some
things that may be made more salient and relevant b this broader context.
You will see and decide this for yourselves.
One of the more outrageous laggards at this point is your servant, who hopes
to have something to add within the week. One of the reasons that I have
held off on this (in addition to pure sloth) is that I see my role as not
only that of providing some of the deeper historical context to this, which
seems reasonable seeing that we have been looking at these projects for
close to three decades now, but also in an attempt to sew the whole thing
together in some useful and interesting way. That we will see shortly.
And to those of you who have volunteered to provide reviews and comments,
now is the time. My hope is that you will take one or two of these pieces
and let at least the author and your editor have the benefit of your
comments and suggestions. And should any of you wish to have a whack at the
whole thing, that would be a huge help. As to how you make your comments,
do it as you wish. One handy way for those of you who have it is the
annotation facility that is build into MS Word (your most un-neighborly
software provider).
Finally, as we draw near we still need your counsel and help in finding the
one missing piece in this puzzle -- some group or person who will be willing
to underwrite a very large print run of this special edition. Printing and
binding costs run about a Euro per copy, and we are hoping to print five or
ten thousand in this public service role. There should be a Ministry,
Foundation, agency, city or even an individual who would be eager to make
this happen. Can you help us find them and make our case?
We would like to be able to distribute the special report not only to our
faithful subscribers, but also and for free in support of carsharing
programs, projects and groups anywhere who might need them. Our idea is that
they can be useful both for their information content, but also as a certain
"mark of authority", which can help the nascent carshare group go down to
the local city hall, public transport operator, media and other eventual and
much needed partners and, with confidence, slap the Journal down on their
desk and say, "You see, we could do that here....."
And they could, you know.
Eric Britton
P.S. You may want to change your bookmark for the consortium to
http://www.ecoplan.org/carshare/index-2.htm, since we have added a general
cover page in an attempt to set the context for first time visitors.
ecopl@n ___ technology, economy, society ___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, F-75006 Paris, France
[log in to unmask] URL www.ecoplan.org
Tel: +331.4326.1323 Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4)
24 hour fax/voicemail hotline: In Europe +331 5301 2896.
In North America +1 888 522 6419 (toll free)
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