Judging the Relevance and worth of ideas part 2.pptx
Why Interfaces Do Not and Should Not Matter for Scholarly Digital Editions
1. Why Interfaces Do Not and Should
Not Matter for Scholarly Digital
Editions
University of Graz
24 September 2016
Peter Robinson
peter.robinson@usask.ca
@scholdigeds
2. Something to read
“Project-based digital humanities and social, digital,
and scholarly editions”
Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 2016
See the link in the Twitter #DSEasInterfaces feed
Google: Peter Robinson Academia
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8. The symposium will discuss the relationship
between digital scholarly editing and interfaces by
bringing together experts of DSEs and Interface
Design, editors and users of editions, web designers
and developers. It will include the discussion of
(graphical/user) interfaces of DSEs as much as
conceptualizing the digital edition itself as an
interface.
– Call for papers, Graz symposium on interfaces and editions, 1
February 2016
Digital Scholarly Editions as Interfaces
14. 1. Your interface is critical to the success of your
edition
2. With the right interface, the edition can reach a
far wider audience
Some truths universally acknowledged?
15. • Reach the widest possible audience
• Have the best possible interface
• Get the grant application right
• Get the data right
• Make the data available to others
Your priorities as an editor
16. 1. Get the grant application right
2. Have the best possible interface
3. Reach the widest possible audience
4. Get the data right
5. Make the data available to others
What you are likely to decide
WRONG
17. A scholarly edition is one where
scholarly attention has been paid to
every word
It’s the data, stupid
29. Ten years, three million editorial acts
• 14223 lines
• c. 102,000 words in each ms/edition. 9
mss/editions: c. 900,000 words
• 98,282 places of variation in the collation
• Approx 2 checks of each decision
30. My interface is your enemy
Me, quoted by Michael Sperberg-McQueen
31. 1. Get the data right
2. Make the data available to others
3. Have the best possible interface
4. Get the grant application right
5. Reach the widest possible audience
What you should decide
32. 1. Editions should be created for and by
communities
2. Editors should lead communities, not projects
3. Editions should be “designed for generosity”
Editors, editions, the community
33. Clay Shirkey: “Design for Generosity”
• Images, transcripts, collations made available
free to all without restriction
• A valid model of texts, documents and works
• Free to all means Free to all
34. Jerome McGann: “In the next 50 years the entirety of our
inherited archive of cultural works will have to be re-edited
within a network of digital storage.”