User talk:Simon/Editing
Snippet:
Description of task
In November 2018, I experimented with a timed writing task using Etherpad, a collaborative realtime browser-based text editor. Etherpad automatically assigns authorship colours to users, and I wanted to explore how a text that I was writing, reading and editing over a specific time period could be visualised.
Method
The method was to write for one hour. I begin by writing a text about what I was doing (writing, reading and editing). For time constraints, I established writing periods of 3 minutes, and a rest period of 2 minutes. After 6 iterations, this shifted to 5 minutes for both respectively. I kept writing and opening up new private tabs in my browser to give each iteration new authorship colours. These are lost when exported, so I recreated the text and authorship colours to make visualisations.
Isolated iterations
Each iteration is isolated in the following visualisations:
21:10-21:15
21:15-21:20
21:20-21:25
21:25-21:30
21:30-21:35
21:35-21:40
21:40-21:50
21:50-22:00
22:00-22:10
The authorship colours with text removed:
The experiment showed me that editing is a way of writing, kind of like making growing a tree while making furniture from it. Whatever is written is there to be pruned and shaped into pieces that are joined together to form a supportive text structure. Etherpad makes this visible with its authorship colours, all the more so when it is used as it has been designed; collaboratively.