The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.1070 Saturday, 2 December 2006
From: Eric M. Johnson <
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>
Date: Friday, 1 Dec 2006 08:51:25 -0500
Subject: Call for Advisors: Open Source Shakespeare
Hello, SHAKSPEReans --
Many of you are familiar with Open Source Shakespeare
(http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org), a free site with the complete
works, an advanced search function, concordance, and statistics. OSS
sprang from modest beginnings -- it began life as a graduate-school
project, and it costs less than $100 a year to operate. The site was
released in December 2003, and has gone through several revisions since
then. An announcement on SHAKSPER in February 2004 helped attract
serious attention to OSS, which has continued to grow in popularity.
Last year, about 77,000 people used the site, and this year's total will
be around 170,000. Although the bulk of the visitors are from
English-speaking countries (the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and
Australia, in that order), OSS has attracted a truly worldwide audience,
with significant usage from throughout Europe, of course, but also
Japan, China, Brazil, South Korea, India, South Africa, Israel, and others.
As the creator of the site, I would like to see it continue to flourish,
and I believe the only way that will happen is if I can attract the help
of others. I am not a professional Shakespeare scholar, nor do I play
one on the Web, so I would welcome the assistance of others who might be
interested in helping with an overhaul and expansion of the site. My
goal is to gather an informal group of advisors who could help guide
this process.
You may have already guessed that there is absolutely no money involved
here. I cover the costs out of my own pocket, and OSS has no
institutional support, much less funding. However, because of OSS's
popularity, it might be a good bullet point for a C.V. or resume. If you
actively contribute, I would post your name on the site (unless you
don't want it there). The goal is to attract a range of advisors from
academia and the theatre. Based on my e-mail messages over the last
three years, OSS has a substantial following in both realms.
Here are some developments that we could consider:
+ incorporation of other texts such as folios and quartos;
+ including annotations, possibly contributed by users;
+ expanding the concordance function; and
+ providing more useful statistical analysis.
If someone wanted to act as an editor for the site, the duties could
include expanding the links section to make it more comprehensive, and
editing the texts for errors and omissions.
Down the road, I would like to explore the idea of formalizing OSS,
including seeking grants and sources of funding for its sustainment and
future development. Please send a message to
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if you are interested in becoming an
advisor, or if you simply have a suggestion for OSS. Many thanks for
your consideration.
Regards,
Eric Johnson
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S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook,
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The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>
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