By Russell Leech
Over the years, many new ideas about juggling have entered and been accepted into the juggling community, and more and more of these ideas are emerging as the community grows. One of the best ways to find information about juggling (though certainly not the only one,) is Juggle Wiki, which contains hundreds of pages on various jugglers, styles of juggling, and concepts within juggling. But despite how helpful the wiki and other sources can be, they face a certain critical issue: sourcing. Where is all this information coming from? In this article, I’ll be focusing on the categories “Theory” and “Notation” on Juggle Wiki, but I would encourage readers to pay attention to similar issues wherever they find information. This problem here has multiple facets, with three main categories that I noticed. We’ll go through each one, and discuss possible causes and solutions.
1. Inaccessible sources
Many ideas in modern juggling come directly from the internet, which means that over time, the links to original sources break and websites go down. In cases like these, we know exactly what and where the original source is, but can no longer reach it. Notable examples on the Wiki include Denis Paumier’s Bodymove Notation and Varkor’s Rotation Notation. Both of these have apparently well-documented origins, but the actual documents have become inaccessible.
Ameron Rosvall’s visualization of Denis Paumier’s Bodymove notation
This happens on the internet as time passes, and the solution is simple, though perhaps not easy: to find an accessible version of the original document. They may still exist somewhere on the internet, or otherwise documentation from the original authors might be required. Doing so is important; a wiki is best suited to giving general ideas more than the specific details found in an original document. Additionally, the wiki is fluid, meaning the information contained can change over time. Having the original document can prevent misconceptions from propagating.
2. Lost Sources
Between the categories “Theory” and “Notation,” nine out the twenty-two pages mention no original source at all. That’s a staggering 40 percent! Some of these may actually come from an existing accessible source. For example, the page “dual siteswaps” mentions no author or originator, but Jack Boyce’s ‘Longest Prime Siteswaps’ mentions “a duality transform” that matches the description on Juggle Wiki. In cases like these, we simply have to find the original source and link it to the page. Finding the sources isn’t always straightforward, but juggling has a small enough body of knowledge that it’s not impossible to do so. (The images in Boyce’s paper are all non-functional. Luckily, the paper itself is still accessible)
But there’s more to this problem than misplaced sources.. For example, the “dual siteswaps” page on the wiki defines duals a little more restrictively than in the “Longest Primes” paper. Where did that idea come from?
3. Wiki Publishing
Some pages lack a source not because it has been lost, but because there was no source in the first place. A number of ideas seem to exist solely on the wiki, and some with no listed author. One example is the page on “state machines.” It is a fairly well-made page, and provides a number of cleanly-designed diagrams, yet lists no creator and has no known source.
State Machine Diagram
My best guess is that pages like these appear on the Juggle Wiki because they have nowhere else to go. There’s no outlet where ideas like this can be published, so the wiki itself acts as a platform. This presents a problem because of the fluidity of the wiki. As these pages are altered over time, the sources are gradually lost, leaving little to no record of their original contents. Out of the three, this part of the issue may require the most effort to resolve, because the solution requires building entirely new systems, rather than simply fixing the old ones. Jugglers need a place where ideas like these can be published, discussed, and interacted with by the community, and as long as that environment does not exist people will find alternate (and often inadequate) ways to introduce their ideas to the juggling community. I would urge anyone interested in contributing to such a project to reach out and communicate with each other. When ideas are documented poorly, it is the future practitioners who suffer. The work of historians is slowed and frustrated by poor record-keeping, and practitioners cannot use the resource of the past if they cannot access it. We have the opportunity to support the work of future jugglers right now, and it is imperative that we use that opportunity.
Sources:
“Longest Prime Siteswaps”
Category:Notation | Juggle Wiki
Category:Theory | Juggle Wiki
Bodymove notation | Juggle Wiki
State Machine | Juggle Wiki | Fandom
Dual siteswaps | Juggle Wiki
Russell Leech has been called an obsessive juggler, and enjoys thinking about juggling almost as much as he enjoys the act of juggling. He is very grateful to the juggling community and hopes to contribute as it develops.
Guest Contributor
You can contribute to the eZine, too! Just email us at the link in the Contact Us section at the top of the page...