Kat,

I echo catspaw's sentiments from the litterbox. I think that your idea is exciting, and whether it ends up as a book, a CD-ROM, or an on-line book doesn't lessen the excitement for me in any way. I would like to see it as a moneyspinner for Mudcat if possible, so maybe we could use on-line excerpts to tantalise people enough to buy the CD-ROM.

I also agree that if you do most of the work, and it *is* your day job then you should not lose money by the experience, and I also think that you should be recompensed for your labour.

If you had decided to simply take what you wanted from the thread, asking only for permission from those Mudcat contibutors you wanted to include in the book, and if you had published the book yourself, then you would gain from it, and rightly so, because it would be your editorial skills which made it happen in the first place. Being you, you would probably have donated a significant proportion, if not all of the profits (i.e. profits after expenses, including your labour) to Mudcat to keep it up and running.

So, by doing the right thing and not just getting out there and doing it on your own, you are now being buffeted by the winds of pro and contra arguments. But, just hang in there.

We all need to be gently reminded of the advantages and disadvantages, the potential wins, and the possible pitfalls of our scathingly brilliant ideas. And it's better to have it brought out before the project starts rather than after the commitment has been made.

Please just consider this as a cyber-brainstorming session to bring forth all of the relevant issues and actions which need to be considered. It all goes into the normal, healthy project planning process.

(I speak as a professional facilitator with experience in facilitating project planning sessions across large, complex organisations with many conflicting issues, views, priorities and outcomes to consider. The only difference here is that it is happening through a cyber-session rather than all being in the same room together. Just keep reminding yourself - *this is normal project planning behaviour* especially for the feasibility stage, i.e. the "what if" stage which is the most exciting and also the scariest stage.)

Lots of love and good vibes coming at you from across the Pacific, or Atlantic, depending which way you are facing at the time.

Helen, in Oz