Startup project: Palimpsest
A platform for collective works of literature
by Venedictos Kontomichis
Athina Simatou
Michalis Skomvoulis
The basic idea of the start-up project “Palimpsest” consists of bringing together creators of different literature texts and thus aiming to produce collective novels (novels with chapters written by different authors). The logic behind this idea relates to the logic of the collective knowledge creation, as this is to be found in Wikipedia for instance. The difference is that in our case we are not talking of something relatively objective like “knowledge” and “information”, but of the integration of individual talent and inspiration into a framework of collective creation. The value proposition of the Palimpsest project would therefore be the production of literature texts as series of chapters written by different authors. The initial launching of the platform would take place based on a few ideas of possible novels that will be proposed by already established, relatively well-known writers, which later could be recruited as key commentators of the uploaded texts and ideas (developing thus a semi-professional relationship with the platform).
The main revenue streams of the platform could be derived from an entrance fee (possibly on an annual base), that would secure also the commitment of the individuals becoming members of the platform, namely their willingness to take the work of collective creating/writing seriously. Moreover, there would be an entrance fee for the publishers, willing to follow the creation of collective literature works while searching either for new talents or for possible high quality collective novels which can be published as autonomous books. At the same time our intention is to permit a completely free registration for the individual readers, precisely because we believe that the spirit of the platform would reside in developing public’s interest for literature creation. Henceforth, the customer segment of the platform consists of three groups: the writers, the publishers and the public.
In general, the aim of our platform would include the promotion of the free and intersubjective cooperation, hoping to create a collective intellectual capital that will be characterized by high quality and genuine inspiration and not by commercial standards alone. For this reason this platform cannot function on the base ofediting “others” texts, button the base of adding our chapter in an already written text. In they will could transform the spirit of the text,by adding a new contribution to the stream of an already launched, created literature work.
Finally, precisely because we are interested in the interaction and sharing of inspirations between the authors, we would run -as parallel to the texts platform- a “community of commentators”, which will work similar to the “commenting community” of Wikipedia and will help the authors/creators to correct and inspire themselves through the free dialogue between the members of the platform.
