Today's the day!
We're super-excited. We said a week ago we'd tell you why today.
At the CSEG-CSPG conference last year, we hatched a plan. The idea was simple: ask as many amazing geoscientists as we could to write something fun and/or interesting and/or awesome and/or important about geophysics. Collect the writings. Put them in a book and/or ebook and/or audiobook,... and sell it at a low price. And also let the content out into the wild under a creative commons license, so that others can share it, copy it, and spread it.
So the idea was conceived as Things You Should Know About Geophysics. And today the book is born... almost. It will be available on 1 June, but you can see it right now at Amazon.com, pre-order or wish-list it. It will be USD19, or about 36 cents per chapter. For realz.
The brief was deliberately vague: write up to 600 words on something that excites or inspires or puzzles you about exploration geophysics. We had no idea what to expect. We knew we'd get some gold. We hoped for some rants.
Incredibly, within 24 hours of sending the first batch of invites, we had a contribution. We were thrilled, beyond thrilled, and this was the moment we knew it would work out. Like any collaborative project, it was up and down. We'd get two or three some days, then nothing for a fortnight. We extended deadlines and crossed fingers, and eventually called 'time' at year's end, with 52 contributions from 38 authors.
Like most of what we do, this is a big experiment. We think we can have it ready for 1 June but we're new to this print-on-demand lark. We think the book will be in every Amazon store (.ca, .co, .uk, etc), but it might take a few weeks to roll through all the sites. We think it'll be out as an ebook around the same time. Got an idea? Tell us how we can make this book more relevant to you!
Matt Hall
The book is now for sale! You can order it from our Amazon eStore!
Reader Comments (6)
Congratulations, sounds pretty exciting! Now start counting the milliseconds to June 1st...
Congrats Matt & Evan - even though I was pretty sure I knew what the teaser was about I am still mightily impressed. On my Christmas wishlist it goes.
since it is CC licensed, where can we access the content online?
@Christoph: Thanks! It has been a great journey. And yes, it was really a countdown to a countdown.
@Richie B: Christmas?! No way, as one of our biggest supporters, I'll make sure you get one sooner than that! But you should definitely get copies for your team.
@ Daniel: Yes, the content is free-as-in-freedom... But for now not free as in beer. We will be bringing most of the content of the book online, in time. I only hope the online part is easier than the physical book! We'll announce its release here of course.
Congrats Gents, this is a huge feather in your cap I would say. Can't wait to give it a read
Sounds cool. Anyway to get pre-sale copies to give you some amazon ratings before the official release?