British Shakespeare Association Biennial Conference 2005
Contacts | Community / Schools | Booking | Getting here | Accommodation
Programme : Panels - Seminars - Workshops
Seminar - The undiscovered text: Improving online Shakespeare
editions and research tools
Saturday 3rd September 2005, 2.00-4.00pm,
Bedson Teaching Centre G37
Participants | Call for Papers
Participants
Convenor - Eric Johnson
Michael Best, University of Victoria
Adrienne Cassel, Wright State University
Annalisa Castaldo, Widener University
Pavel Drábek, Masaryk University
Gabriel Egan, Loughborough University
Jonathan Gibson, Royal Holloway, University of London
Joseph Haughey, Western Michigan University
Peter Kulling, University of Toronto
Anthony Martin
Sarah Olive, Cambridge University
Call for Papers
Below is the original Call for Papers, as circulated. Please note that the date for submissions has passed and the successful participants are listed above.
Convenor: Eric Johnson (George Mason University)
Shakespeare’s texts appear on scores of Web sites, yet online Shakespeare research is clearly in its beginning stages. The free sites offer only rudimentary search tools, and little flexibility. The higher-quality sites, which are available to paying customers, have their own shortcomings as well. This seminar will focus on Shakespeare research tools and how they can better serve Shakespeare scholars, performers, and lovers.
The convenor is the creator of Open Source Shakespeare (http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org), a Web site with an advanced search engine and concordance to Shakespeare's complete works, among other features. The code and database are free for non-profit use, and the public is encouraged to download and use them for other projects. OSS currently serves between 1,000-2,000 users a month.
Questions and topics
? What are the strengths and shortcomings of current online Shakespeare projects? What do people like to use now?
? What tools do scholars want when they do research? What about other non-professional readers, such as actors or playgoers?
? How should multiple versions of the same texts be collated and searched?
? What is the best way to integrating text versions across different media? (For example: showing a comparison between a passage in a First Folio facsimile and an edited, modern-spelling edition.)
? How should texts be stored in a database to facilitate better text searching?
Participants in this seminar are not required to write formal papers, though
they may if they wish submit short position papers addressing key topics raised
by the seminar, or supply examples of online Shakespeare projects they are personally
working on.
In advance of the seminar, they will receive two things:
1) a package of writings that discuss the literary and technical
aspects of online text projects; and
2) an annotated list of links to online Shakespeare sites that
could be used as exempla for the topic at hand.
Along with materials submitted by participants, these will be used to stimulate
discussion before the seminar itself, with the group conducting an e-mail conversation
that would define the scope and parameters of discussion, and hash out what
does and does not need to be clarified (such as the requisite technical terms).
Contact: Eric Johnson (oss@bernini-communications.com)
