Penguin the famous publishing house is taking the wiki experiment a bit further with the launch of A Million Penguins, a collaborative attempt for a crowd to create a novel, whereby anyone can log on and contribute.
Penguin's argues the project is not a pure piece of marketing spin, but a social experiment to see if a novel can be created in a team atmosphere. Visit the About page of the project's site and they point out that open source software is "rarely written in a vacuum" and that most scientific research takes place as a collaborative exercise, including peer review. The novel though, has always been a very individual effort, coining the term "everyone has a novel in them." And masters of the art like Roald Dahl have crafted their works on their own in the garden shed, and as Penguin point out, James Joyce famously said the artist forges in the "smithy of [his] soul".
A Million Penguins will discover whether a collective voice can create a "believable fictional voice" and will the plot have a coherent threat. They also cite the fact that just getting the ball rolling.
So far the initial chapters seem to be a story about the story of a novel being collaboratively created, all well and good for a wiki, not the sort of thing you'd pick up even in a three for two offer at the large bookstores.
It is great to see traditional publishers experimenting with Web 2.0 technology and looking to create new content in new ways. Have a read yourselves at: http://www.amillionpenguins.com/wiki/index.php/Welcome
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