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Would anyone be interested in seeing a "Rap Genius for academic papers" to address the third paragraph of parent comment? To those who aren't familiar with Rap
by vargas84 13y ago
Would anyone be interested in seeing a "Rap Genius for academic papers" to address the third paragraph of parent comment? To those who aren't familiar with Rap Genius, I basically just mean a place where academic papers can be annotated and explained in plain language by the community. Would you read/contribute?
- anonymousDan 13y agoI would find that interesting. Like others above have noted, a lot of papers are written for reviewers, and not with the intention of making it easy for non-experts in the field to understand the concepts involved. It would even be useful to be able to post questions/comments about the parts you don't get and have people direct you to relevant background reading.
- charlieflowers 13y agoI think that would be fantastic. I have envisioned that kind of thing often. Something like "autodidact.stackexchange.com" (which doesn't exist), for example. The best explanations could be voted up. For bigger topics, it would not be explanations you're voting on, but rather "learning roadmaps" -- a recommended set of materials in a recommended order that is designed to help one grok the topic. For academic papers, perhaps people could vote on two dimensions: (1) papers you'd like to see explanations for, and (2) particular explanations that were effective for you. And yes, I would read the hell out of it, and yes, if there were areas I could contribute, I would do so.
- voltagex_ 13y agoLearning roadmaps would be huge, especially for programming languages. e.g. "I want to create an IRC client in XYZ language" simple i/o -> client-server/sockets -> simple parsers -> simple client (it's been a long day, this example sucks)
- countrybama24 13y agoYes. Although the field of "academic papers" is significantly broader with a smaller user demographic than hip-hop, but if you could pull it off I would be an avid user.
- vargas84 13y agoI appreciate the quick feedback - I myself would love to use such a service. Just to clarify, I don't have the development experience to build this myself yet (I just switched to CSE from Finance this year) but if anyone else would be inclined to give it a shot, I'd love to help. Otherwise, free idea!