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Post by chrisdessert on Mar 7, 2013 9:54:29 GMT -8
Maybe there should be some direction as to how much more new material we are capable of adding to Freedom. It's quite large and there are alot of new ideas for additions, without much expected to be cut out.
Has there been any limitations set as to how many extra pages could be added to the future edition? That may give us a better idea of how we should handle potential new material. What needs the most focus, what needs the least revision, and potentially chapters that could be economized and shortened.
Just something to consider.
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Post by jimnelson on Mar 7, 2013 10:45:43 GMT -8
It could be that new material would be about the same as could be cut, rewritten, rearranged, etc. at least for a printed version. Certainly books will give direction there. For now we want to collect as many ideas as possible.
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Post by gregggagliardi on Mar 8, 2013 12:57:35 GMT -8
Have we ever polled our readership on Freedom of the Hills to learn how they use it, what they like about it, what they dislike about it, what they would like added or subtracted?
There are lots of climbing books. At some point we need to arrive at a consensus as to what niche Freedom 9 ought to occupy: Encyclopedic reference; handbook/manual; introductory text; primary reference source to consult before moving onto more technical books, etc.
I doubt that it can serve all of the above needs without making the book a monster or a series of volumes. New climbing knowledge and technique is evolving too rapidly.
I kind of like the idea of designing it as a first or primary source for persons new to climbing or just starting out with a special emphasis on the needs of students enrolled in climbing courses, including those enrolled in courses outside of the Mountaineers. I also like the idea of deliberately linking it, coordinating it, to other more technical books published by Mountaineers Books. There is way too much overlap in presentation among all of these books. I say we extract the fundamentals from all of these sources and present them in one place and then direct the authors of the more technical books to start where Freedom 9 leaves off.
I also think that Freedom 9 needs to be linked to a parallel set of multi-media sources, e.g., instructional videos, links to climbing related websites, etc. As I have suggested before it would be nice to create an update website that provides information on new techniques , procedures, equipment etc., that Freedom 9readers can visit to bring themselves up to date with the latest knowledge, thinking and practices in the climbing community at large.
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Post by nicklyle on Mar 14, 2013 22:36:47 GMT -8
Overall I think that FOTH has done a very good job of finding the balance point between intro text and encyclopedic tome. Alpine climbing IS a very broad topic. I believe it is important for basic students to get a sense of the depth of topics that reach beyond the basic techniques they learn in a beginning course. You can't be a good second without understanding some things about leading.
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Post by nicklyle on Mar 14, 2013 22:46:18 GMT -8
The other issue, that of having advanced texts start where FOTH leaves off, is harder to solve. Traditional, dead tree, books tend to repeat introductory material so that they can function as stand-alone texts. An author can't be sure her readers have read the introductory text. In the digital connected world it is easier to envision simply linking advanced texts to basic texts in an ever widening web of interwoven digital texts. There is still the problem of how payment extraction methods would interfere with this utopian ideal.
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Post by nicklyle on Mar 14, 2013 22:50:38 GMT -8
I am a big fan of the idea of parallel multi-media material to expand on or support the text. I think this material, a lot of it in digital formats, is beginning to appear organically out some of the material we are developing for our lectures in the AIARE 1 avalanche courses. I am sure much the same thing is happening in other courses.
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