Algebraic Geometry in the Time of COVID

Here is where things stand, as of evening Friday July 3, 2020.

For those already involved, here is where everything is (as of today).

• You’re free just to watch, but participants are (intended to be) organized into small working groups, often with strangers, so they can work on problems and discuss the materials.   The working groups are assembled in to groupoids.  There are some shepherds who are helping to keep things organized; and there is one shepherd associated to each groupoid,
• The notes we’ll base things on are here.  When referring to something in the notes, please don’t refer to page numbers (which migrate over different versions), but instead a section number (e.g. 9.1.2, second paragraph) which are now quite stable, and ideally even the date of the version.
• On wordpress (here):  announcements.  You can get email updates by “following” this site (there should be a button for that a little bit to the right and above this).
• The pseudolectures will be on Saturdays, 8-9 am Pacific time.  They will appear in this youtube channel:  https://tinyurl.com/agittoc-youtube .   (If you can’t access youtube, please let me know, and you can watch on zoom with the shepherds.)    After the pseudolectures, I’ll take down the youtube link, and then soon repost an edited version (cutting out the beginning and end irrelevant bits).  The slides for the pseudolectures will be posted in approximately realtime on dropbox.   (For example, the slides for the second pseudolecture are here:  https://tinyurl.com/agittoc-2020-07-04-slides .)  Links for everything will be posted in zulip (see below) in the #agittoc announce stream.
• A number of things are happening zulip — in the “working group” streams, working groups are doing what they feel like together.    (Some people prefer not to be in working groups.)  In the “groupoid” streams, people discuss what they feel like in larger fora.   In another stream, people ask questions and discuss while watching the pseudolectures.
• There are other places and resources available for use, that some people are taking advantage of — some are using Erik Demaine’s coauthor for discussions and for working on problems.  Some people are discussing on the Algebraic Geometry Syndicate discord (in the #agittoc-general channel).
• Summary:    There are a lot of things to potentially play with in this experiment, but all you need to is to “follow” this wordpress site (for announcements), and be on zulip to talk with your working group and groupoid, and to get links for the pseudolectures.

For those who want to get involved:

First, do three things.

(1) “Follow” this wordpress pseudoblog for updates:  There is no email list for this course; instead, I’ll announce things here, and you can get email notifications by clicking “follow” (which should be a button you can see to your right).

(2) First form:  Fill out the sign-up form, which is available here.  (If you can’t access the form because you can’t access google where you live, just let me know.)  This just lets me know a little bit about you, and how involved you might want to be.

(3) Second quick form:  Fill out a second quick form here. (At some point I’ll just combine the two forms if I have a chance — which means in all honesty I won’t do it.)  It asks for your AGITTOC#, but if you fill it out right away, just write down your name instead of the #, and I’ll figure it out.

When I get a chance, I will write to you about three things:

• to tell you your “AGITTOC number”, which is basically a line in the spreadsheet I have of participants.  (The “shepherds” also have access to this sheet.)
• I’ll also send you an invitation to the Algebraic Geometry Syndicate discord, which you are welcome to accept, but needn’t (we’re not using it in an essential way right now.)
• And I’ll invite you to zulip; once there, you can temporarily subscribe to one of the groupoids.

When I have even more of a chance, I’ll add you to a working group, and let you know (and add you to the working group’s stream on zulip.)

Questions:  If you have any questions, you can ask them either here in a comment to one of these posts, or else on the Algebraic Geometry Syndicate discord in the #agittoc-general channel, or else on zulip in your group or groupoid.   (Probably zulip is the best).  Then I or (hopefully) someone one else will answer them.  (Others are usually much faster than I am at answering.  And also please answer others’ questions!)

This is going to be a time-killer for me, so I’m going to concentrate on doing things in bulk and in batches.  You can email me, but don’t expect a timely response.