apologies for the delay in responding to your very kind invitations to participate in some discussions here. I am very interested in collaborating with your good selves to further this whole discussion and research field of meta-patterns or as I call it meta-studies. my interest in meta- comes out of my social science background. My Ph.D. was on organisational transformation and I did a meta-theoretical analysis of many different perspectives on organisational change. In the course of doing this research I of course came across many repeated patterns of thinking as well as patterns in enacting those perspectives. hence, my particular interest in how theoretical and meta-theoretical positions are enacted to shape concrete environmental and social realities. there are many branches of this meta-layer of research (from Ritzer's sociological metatheory to Lakoff's conceptual metaphor to general systems theory to Lessem and Schieffer's integral research) and these branches are broad and deep but largely unacknowledged. I think that the study of meta-patterns, meta-science, metatheory, whatever one may call this field is one of the most important emerging branches of a 21st century science. I am currently working on a book called "Big Picture Science: An Introduction to Integral meta-studies". (The "integral" here does not refer to Wilber's Integral Theory but to a much older and more open stream of intellectual and scientific thought that has explored the science of metapatterns and metaconnections, e.g. see Solovyov's - "The philosophical principles of integral knowledge" published in 1877).

At a time when the globe is in the grip of some very distorted and partial "big pictures" I see it as critical that science also develop frameworks and methods to deal with a critical approach to the development and improvement of big pictures in all their different forms - educational, economic, environmental and ecological, developmental political and so on. My thinking is that this journal could be an excellent forum for finding, critiquing, researching, exploring meta-patterns as they emerge in both theory development, theory testing but also in the area of practice and the physical and emotional encounter with the empirical and the practical.

I have links with different individuals and scholars who have worked in the area of exploring metapatterns from Systems theory, Wilber's integral theory, transdisciplinary studies, Cybernetics, interdisciplinary approaches, boundary crossing research, etc. I'm sure you also have many connections with scholars who are interested in this kind of research. So I'm sure we could call these connections to generate submissions for a possible first edition of "Meta-patterns". could I also suggest an idea for a symposium where we might generate some enthusiasm for this project and for a longer term agenda for developing this kind of research and avenues for publishing. The thought does cross my mind that, as Tyler will be in Australia in 2014 that we might perhaps aim for having a symposium during your visit. Just a thought.

As you can see I'm very enthusiastic and willing to put some effort into working with you to create some opportunities in this area. This topic of meta-patterns and meta-studies in general is where I am most keen to make my very modest contributions to intellectual thought and research. I also get the sense from your messages that this is true at least some degree for both of you.

• Such a journal should be widely available and free as an e-journal.

• Where should the journal be situated? We can of course start one (a) as separate section on this site, (b) as a separate site on wikidot, or (c) as a separate site on a journal-hosting site (this option costs money). We could start with either "a" or "b", but we may need to have a new master administrator for option "b", if I don't move one of my wikidot sites to someone else (I'm maxed out at 5 wikidot sites).

• What sort of editorial structure do we want? Do we want co-editors and an editorial board, along with potential reviewers, which could be open to the community. I know of one journal that just sends out review requests to everyone of the email list. However, we would need someone to keep track of reviewers and the quality of reviews. We'd also need to have thank you letters sent out every summer (to help with annual reviews).

• Do we want blind reviews or not? Over the past year or two, considerable disagreements have arisen about the efficacy of blind reviews. Maybe, it could be an option for submitters.

• What kinds of style(s) do we want for manuscripts and actual articles? Do we want consistent font, size, etc? Do we use APA, Chicago, etc?

• How do we want articles to appear? Do we want an index page with each issue, then separate pages with abstracts and a link to a PDF? Should the PDFs follow the traditional style of a journal with volume, issue, and sequential page numbers? Or, should articles appear as they arrive with a more free-form approach?

• Do we want to include multimedia, as well as traditional articles, or some fusion? As an "educational" site on wikidot, we get a considerable amount of storage space (I think something like 20 GBs). If artwork and video files are kept reasonably small, the site can accommodate a lot of files. However, do we want to use separate sites (even YouTube) for video files in particular?

• Do we want thematic sections? … with separate editors?

• What criteria do we want to use for publishability? These criteria can be used as guidelines for the review process.

• Should we leave copyright (register the copyrights) with the authors of articles? Should we use the Creative Commons? Where do we get the money to do this?

• Do we want "comments" areas after each article where members can discuss articles?

• What should we name the journal?

• How do we divvy up work loads?

• What other features and issues do we need to think about?