Thinking Long Term about Digital Editions (A Roundtable)

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Stanford Univ.

Organizer Name

Benjamin Albritton

Organizer Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Presider Name

Georgia Henley

Presider Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Paper Title 1

Global Medieval Sourcebook

Presenter 1 Name

Mae Lyons-Penner

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Stanford Univ.

Paper Title 2

Scholastic Commentaries and Texts Archive

Presenter 2 Name

Jeffrey Witt

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Loyola Univ. Maryland

Paper Title 3

Digital Rolls and Fragments

Presenter 3 Name

Joe Stadolnik

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. College London

Paper Title 4

Musical Editions

Presenter 4 Name

Jennifer Bain

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Dalhousie Univ.

Start Date

10-5-2018 10:00 AM

Session Location

Sangren 1740

Description

A print edition of a medieval text can last for longer than a century with no loss in usefulness or accessibility. By contrast, born-digital editions can last 3-5 years, if we're lucky, before the cracks start to show and the user interface begins to look dated. Many digital projects are often obsolete or in need of serious maintenance after a decade. How do we start to bridge the gap between the stable and accessible print edition and the comparatively fragile and ephemeral digital edition? Are there new paradigms emerging in the making of critical editions, like crowdsourcing or new modes of presentation, that point to a radical rethinking of the edition as a dynamic and flexible experience of the text, or are digital approaches confirming traditional editorial methods with the goal of the presentation of an approved, curated text that will endure for generations?

This session presents participants who are actively engaged in the creation of digital editions, or who are actively maintaining an existing project, to discuss aspects of the digital edition related to sustainability, long-term use, strategies and methodologies to avoid premature obsolescence, and online permanence in an era of scholarly mobility and geographically distributed colleagues.

Benjamin Albritton

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May 10th, 10:00 AM

Thinking Long Term about Digital Editions (A Roundtable)

Sangren 1740

A print edition of a medieval text can last for longer than a century with no loss in usefulness or accessibility. By contrast, born-digital editions can last 3-5 years, if we're lucky, before the cracks start to show and the user interface begins to look dated. Many digital projects are often obsolete or in need of serious maintenance after a decade. How do we start to bridge the gap between the stable and accessible print edition and the comparatively fragile and ephemeral digital edition? Are there new paradigms emerging in the making of critical editions, like crowdsourcing or new modes of presentation, that point to a radical rethinking of the edition as a dynamic and flexible experience of the text, or are digital approaches confirming traditional editorial methods with the goal of the presentation of an approved, curated text that will endure for generations?

This session presents participants who are actively engaged in the creation of digital editions, or who are actively maintaining an existing project, to discuss aspects of the digital edition related to sustainability, long-term use, strategies and methodologies to avoid premature obsolescence, and online permanence in an era of scholarly mobility and geographically distributed colleagues.

Benjamin Albritton