Literary Collaboration and Control

Citation: Hill, Benjamin Mako. 2003. “Literary collaboration and control: A socio-historic, technological and legal analysis.” Bachelors Thesis, Amherst, Massachusetts: Hampshire College http://mako.cc/academic/collablit/.  

This project was my final undergraduate project (Division III [1]) at Hampshire College. It was completed in April, 2003 and passed by my committee in the first week of May. The project sought to leverage an analysis of collaborative literary creation from historical, technologic al, and legal philosophical perspectives toward a critique of individualized literary control. It focuses on the way that literary collaboration is affected by social conceptions of authorship, the technological terms on which we communicate, and copyright.

I have received help and advice from a wide range of individuals. At the top of this list are the members of my academic committee:

• James Miller - Professor of Communications at Hampshire College
• James Wald - Associate Professor of History at Hampshire College
• Stephen J. Harris - Assistant Professor of English at University of Massachusetts Amherst
• David Bollier - Activist, Journalist, Consultant, Co-Founder of Public Knowledge

The project has four chapters:

• An Introduction that begins with a story, presents the terms of the argument, and outlines the rest of the project.
• A historical research paper surveying collaborative creation and control in the past. It provides background for the last two chapters and demonstrates the importance and power of collaborative work.
• A technological analysis describing ways that society can utilize existing technology to facilitate meaningful collaboration. It introduces a methodology for the evaluation of collaborative literary technology and demonstrates its effectiveness through several case studies.
• A legal philosophical analysis describing both why collaboration is essential and how society must critique existing systems of information ownership and control in the process of creating, promoting, and fostering a new, meaningful collaborative literary environment.

Finished Document

This is the full document. In addition to the four chapters described above and a bibliography, I've included Software (,) Politics and Indymedia (see this page for additional formats) as an appendix. (Version 1.0 - Updated Wed, 7 May 2003)

Available: pdf | html |html (single page) | txt | ps | ps.gz | rtf | source (tar.bz2) | source (tar.gz)

Related Documents

• Annotated Bibliography: This bibliography contains the diverse collection of books I used on the project. It contains books illustrating examples of collaboration (e.g., biographies of Wordsworth and Pound) with sources on collaborative learning, software engineering, social psychology, and law. (Updated Wed, 7 May 2003)
  Available: html | BibTeX

• Talks and Presentations: I have been asked to present my work on this project several times. I have included the materials for these presentations below. The notes and outlines for the talks below often borrow heavily from each other:

  • The Politics and Technology of Control (2003-04-16) - Delivered at Herb Bernstein's New Ways of Knowing Class at Hampshire College. The talk was given in a seminar over three hours.
    Available: outline w/ links to pictures

  • Presentation to Hampshire College School of Cognitive Science (2003-05-05) - This short (15 minutes) presentation was given to the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College.
    Available: notes

  • Division III Presentation (2003-05-16) - This talk was given as part of the Division III Presentation schedule to parents and visitors on day before Hampshire College's 2003 Commencement. It lasted approximate 45 minutes.
    Available: slides | DocBook XML Source
• Media Release: Each year, Hampshire writes and distributes a small number of media releases on the graduating class' most ambitious and successful Division III projects. My work was selected as one of these projects for the following media release.
  Available: link

Preliminary Papers, Notes, and Documents

Due to the scope and length of this project, I've posted papers and notes at several intermediary steps.

THESE ARE UNPUBLISHED DRAFTS. PLEASE DO NOT CITE OR QUOTE THEM WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM ME. Ask first and I'll be willing to let you do almost anything with them.

• Obsolete - A Meta-History of Collaborative Literary Creation and the Politics of Control - First Draft: The paper is the product of my research into collaborative literary creation and control and is focused in a handful of very high-profile cases. It begins making some of the big claims and major questions that I hope to make and raise in the larger project. There still major shortcomings and organizational issues that I feel need addressing. (updated Thu, 2 Jan 2003)
  Available: poscript | PDF | HTML | SGML source (gzipped)
• Obsolete - Historical Paper - Notes and Outline: This outline forms the basis for the Meta-History linked above. This short outline describes some of the goal for the historical project, and in, the process, the goals of the larger project as well. The second half proposes a particular structure for the project. As always, I welcome any feedback anyone has. (updated Wed, 13 Nov 2002)
  Available: postscript | PDF | HTML |SGML source (gzipped)
• Obsolete - Models of Historical Literary Collaboration: This short paper (~6 pages) explores the nature of literary collaboration employed in the creation of the King James Bible and the short stories of Raymond Carver. I want to use the next revision of this paper to explore the nature of literary collaboration before, during, and after the creation of copyright. The essay will try to demonstrate the persistent nature of collaboration and explore the way that firm control has limited collaboration or changed the way it must be articulated. Currently, I am working on this project as part of a University of Massachusetts graduate seminar on The History of Books and Printing. (updated Fri, 1 Nov 2002)
  Available: postscript | PDF | HTML |SGML source (gzipped)
  Bibliography: postscript | PDF

Proposals & RFCs

The following current version of the project proposal are posted:

• Project Calendar (currently broken)
• Project Calendar (currently broken)
• Division III Proposal - Final Revision (updated Fri, 7 Feb 2003)
• Obsolete - Division III Proposal v1.0 (updated Sun, 13 Oct 2002)
• Obsolete - Division III Proposal v0.1 (updated Sun, 29 Sep 2002)
• RFC for The Software Subproject (updated Sun, 29 Sep 2002)

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[1] During their final year at Hampshire College, students work exclusively on an intensive advanced studies project called Division III. This project began as my Division III project.