Working Paper Group?

So I know it's a terribly busy time of the semester, not to mention a crazy stressful time for those of us on the job market -- but I'd like to put forth a proposal. One of the things I had in mind when I started this blog was that it could be a uniquely safe and supportive place to share working papers -- particularly papers that one might be nervous sharing in other contexts (as in: you don't know if the paper is a total blind-alley, etc). Anyway, I was just now thinking that it could be really cool to get a weekly or maybe bi-weekly informal Cocoon Working Paper Group together -- with all of us really -- to discuss a paper-in-progress. Basically, the process would be:

1. Someone volunteers to share a paper.

2. We share it here on the blog, perhaps through a password protected site (so that the paper is *only* available to fellow Cocooners).

3. We discuss the paper with the author in the comments section, with an emphasis on *helping* the person make it a better paper.

I suspect that if we got this sort of thing going, it could be really awesome (I know many of us struggle to get feedback). Any volunteers to go first? If you have a paper you'd like to share, just let me know and I'll set things up as described above. First come, first serve!

Comments

[Mark Alfano]

This is a terrific idea, Marcus. I think people are understandably reluctant to post works-in-progress on the web for all to see. What if a job search committee found your w-i-p and thought it was rubbish? Even if you yourself eventually abandoned the project, it's still on the internet with your name attached to it. So password-protecting the file sounds like a good idea to me.

I hereby volunteer a guy with the initials MA (namely, Marcus Arvan) to post the first paper. ;)

[Marcus Arvan]

Thanks Mark, but I'd like to give someone else the opportunity to go first. If no one else volunteers, I'll thereby reconsider and accept your kind nomination. Glad to hear you like the idea!

[Moti Mizrahi]

Great idea, Marcus.

David and I are working on a paper together and we could use some feedback. So how should we do this?

[Marcus Arvan]

Moti: Awesome! There are a number of ways we could do it. Here's one possibility. Either you and David, or I, upload a password-protected version of the paper to SSRN, and set the paper there to "privately available (distributable by me)". Then, when we post a link to the paper here -- when we announce it -- we could direct readers of the post (i.e. Fellow Cocooners) to contact David and you for the password, provided they promise not to distribute the paper or the password to anyone else.

How does that sound? (Quick question: SSRN requires PDFs. Do you know how to password-protect them? I'm pretty sure it can be done, but I only know how to do it with Word files!)

[Marcus Arvan]

Here's another possibility that might be easier. You or David upload a password protected version (could be a Word file) to your personal website (if you have one), and then just do what I mentioned above. Either of these possibilities appeal to you?

[David Morrow]

Here's another option: We could create a Dropbox account for the Cocoon, into which you (or we) could upload the paper. Depending on how we structure the Dropbox folder, we could either post a link to the file here or have people email us to get the link. That way the file isn't publicly accessible online, no one has to worry about password-protecting the file, and the papers are always in the same place. If it sounds like a good idea, I can go ahead and set one up.

[Marcus Arvan]

Sounds great to me, David. Since I don't know how to set up a Dropbox, if you wouldn't mind doing it, that would be great. As soon as you get it up and running, we can get the working paper group started. Looking forward to reading the paper!