Hi, carterza. Vernon's intention was to close the page. Then Kaushal Modi asked
us to bring it back, and offered the notes as his contribution. Even so, I
wrote him an email asking whether the Della-Vos group could use his notes. You
can check his answer at the github repository, under the tab about issues. His
answer was: "Of course! I'd be happy to help however I can."
As for Vernon, I asked him the same question as you: Why doesn't he subscribe
to the forum? The fact is that he does not like to deal with computers.
Besides, he lost the password of his email account.
Your third question is about chapter 11, anthropology of money. The members of
the Della-Vos group have different interests, and they consider that a
programming language is just a tool for achieving their diverse goals. One of
these interests is anthropology of money. Therefore, when Vernon received the
chapter about anthropology of money, he checked the English and added it to the
book. In any case, the author of the chapter on anthropology of money promised
further material on money. Let us hope that her material becomes something
coherent/relevant.
You may ask, "Why the Della-Vos group accepts people whose interest is money?"
Unfortunately, most members of the Della-Vos group need grants for doing their
research in areas such as medicine, biotechnology and materials physics.
Therefore, it is good to have members in the group, who like to write grant
proposals.
Della-Vos is not the first collective pseudonym. A very famous one is Nicolas
Bourbaki, the collective pseudonym of the French mathematicians who wanted to
publish a series of books about set theory. Thus, the Della-Vos group is just
copycatting the Bourbaki group.
