Social Book

Despite the technical problems some of us encountered with Socialbook, I enjoyed the concept of the exercise, as well as the exercise itself. At the very least, Socialbook and the process of publicly and collectively annotating upset and complicated the traditional approach to annotation and marginalia. Annotations and marginalia are often considered a private exercise: the notes are personal, relative to questions concerning individual projects, usually not to be seen by others. Indeed, outside of annotations and marginalia being reviewed by an instructor (I had to do this in high school, and the instruction was always: more, more, more), annotations and marginalia are only seen by others reluctantly, when one asks to borrow a book and the owner of the book says, "Sure, but please--please!--pay no attention to my stupid notes and questions in the margins." Interestingly enough, when I have borrowed books, I have found these supposedly "stupid" annotations and questions in the margins to mirror my own, or to assist in my reading of the book.

Thus, at the risk or potenial--or perhaps inevitability--of some reserve and embarrassment, Socialbook actualized a dialogue regarding nuanced points, questions and concerns between each other as we read. Indeed, it not only demanded a close reading to a large degree; it also demanded a conversation regarding our various close readings. Moreover, it moved the concept of annotating and marginalizing from an exercise done alone, in private, individually and into the collective and communal. This group effort "knotted up" the annotating and marginalizing, and in a productive manner.

Surely, there are some glitches that could and should be worked out on Socialbook--and even more so, perhaps some features could and ought to be added. The concept and experience of collectively and communally annotating and marginalizing in a digital space, however, should not be wholly abandoned. In fact, I may find such an approach inherently more rewarding than the typical format of a loose and general seminar discussion concerning a given text at large.