We present here what we hope proves an exciting opportunity for Kairos readers, both teachers and students alike. Ed Barrett and Dan Stevenson of MIT have proposed "a concise handbook for teaching principles of effective digital communication over the Web that will directly address the specific needs of [the] growing audience of university course instructors and students." What follows, for your consideration and comments, are their full proposal as presented to MIT Press, as well as an outline of the chapters for the handbook with links to the MIT course upon which much of the handbook has been inspired.
Barrett and Stevenson have placed their proposal in here in the hopes that Kairos readers who teach web design, or who are thinking about teaching web design, or who are students in web design courses, will offer them feedback and questions about their book and the elements of their course that will inform the book.
We at Kairos hope to be able to follow this project from this stage until the book's publication. Along the way, we hope to include sample responses to Barrett and Stevenson's work as well as their thoughts on those responses. As the book progresses and MIT sends full manuscripts out for review, we hope to invite reviewers (who are willing, and with support of MIT Press's editor-in-chief for this project) to share some of their comments with Kairos. We will also seek to include, as appropriate, reflections on these reviews from Barrett and Stevenson and their editor. We hope as well to bring the editors and reviewers together in a Kairos/LinguaMOO discussion to explore the process that goes into taking a book to print, the review and editing process, and how authors, editors, and reviewers collaborate along the way to help shape a final product. And finally, once the book is published, we hope to have it reviewed by a number of people, those who were involved in the review as the book evolved, those who've followed the book's progress in Kairos, and those who will be reading the book for the first time. If you have any questions about this special Pre/View or ideas to contribute, please feel free to write to our Reviews Editor, Nick Carbone. Responses to Barrett and Stevenson's proposal and chapters outline should be sent directly to the authors. Now to begin, we turn you over to Ed Barrett and Dan Stevenson, as they explain in their own words more about their book, tentatively titled The MIT Web Site Design Handbook: A Guide for Educators and Students of Web Design.