Background Reading
Background reading refers to seminal work on the topic of interest. These can include seminal books, other literature, or other media that provide critical original thought, overviews, and insights on history, design, and applications of the given subject matter. To search academic literature, see Literature Review.
To document Background Reading - a list of resources should be created and subsequently rated by upvoting using Disqus, which can be embedded in the wiki.
Contributors can upvote the best resources using Disqus by clicking on the vote up or down button. The responses can then be sorted by the most upvoted contribution. Further, the different choices should be summarized with a paragraph of key take-home points.
The Background Reading has some overlap with Industry Standards and Patent Search.
Procedure
- Search. If you have no idea, start with Wikipedia or Google - and identify relevant books, writings, websites. You know that you are done when the resources begin to repeat. Use Appropedia. See Literature Review. Add popular searches Amazon or Bookfinder have many titles, and reviews may indicate seminal works. See How to Find Seminal Literature. Search Wikipedia. There is a What Links Here tool in Wikipedia.
- A historical approach is useful. Search various History of Technology books to understand how technology evolved.
- Use Disqus to list all your entries as responses to a quastion, such as "What is the seminal work on peak human performance?".
- Embed the Disqus thread in the wiki.
- Crowd-source the selection of results. Use Minds or Facebook posts to direct people to vote on the titles listed in Disqus
