Issues in Creating Digital Arden

Issues in Creating Digital Arden

Brad Scott

Digital Publishing Consulting

School of Advanced StudiesUniversity of London

18 January 2010

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Brad Scott

1990-2001: Routledge: Digital publisher 2001-2008: Semantico: Account director 2008-present: Consulting

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Overview

Outline of the three digital versions of Arden Challenges and issues that shaped them Doing digital publishing today

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Digital Publishing

Purpose of product Balance between teaching and research Benefits/advantages to publisher and user Measurable

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Digital Arden

First ideas about 20 years ago Matured with the digital universe Ambitious and innovative

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Timeline

1986 1987 1988 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006 2009

Initial plansArden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

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Early plans

“From the base of the Ardens, should we consider trying to “corner” all Renaissance drama?”

“One approach with the Ardens would be to offer a menu of the contents: the text with options to include specific variants; the option to use different “levels” of notes; a choice of the material from the introductions and appendices; and the content of the corresponding Critical Heritage and Critical Assessment volumes.”

John von Knorring, 1992

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Early plans

Multimedia “opens up enormous opportunities, particularly in the performing arts. Arden texts linked to historic filmed and TV performance”

“Most important, from our point of view, is Internet.... Internet links together some 1 million computers in the U.S. alone... Internet is not currently available for commercial, money-generating products.”

John von Knorring, 1992

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Arden CD-ROM

Texts and Sources for Shakespeare Studies Arden 2 Images of First Folio and Quartos Onions Partridge Bullough Bevington bibliography

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Arden CD-ROM

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Arden CD-ROM

SGML DynaText browser Sophisticated synchonised frames Many aspects of user experience emulated by

other versions

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Arden CD-ROM

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Arden CD-ROM Direct Costs

Data conversion30%

Software21%

Permissions7%Image data capture

1%

Text data capture16%

Academic advice2%

Manufacturing1%

Routledge editorial

7%

Demo disk3% Proofing/testing

10%

Other2%

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Arden CD-ROM

Costs limited scope: bible; F/Q transcripts Generated considerable debate

“This is not the future of 21st century Shakespeare”

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Timeline: Ownership

1987 1988 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006 2009

Initial plans

Arden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

Methuen Routledge Thomas Nelson

Thomson Learning

Cengage Bloomsbury

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Arden Online

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Arden Online

Arden 2/3 Online-only content Illustrations of the plays in performance Arden.net Utilised source data from CD-ROM High film rights

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Timeline: Technology

1986 1987 1988 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006 2009

Initial plans

Arden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

SGML

Beginnings of HTML

MosaicHTML2 CSS1

HTML3.2 HTML4

XML Google

HTML4.01 XSLT1

IE5 dotcom crash

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Mosaic: 1993

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Timeline: Technology

1986 1987 1988 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006 2009

Initial plans

Arden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

SGML

Beginnings of HTML

MosaicHTML2 CSS1

HTML3.2 HTML4

XML Google

HTML4.01 XSLT1

IE5 dotcom crash

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Google: 1998

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Timeline: Technology

1986 1987 1988 1991 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006 2009

Initial plans

Arden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

SGML

Beginnings of HTML

MosaicHTML2 CSS1

HTML3.2 HTML4

XML Google

HTML4.01 XSLT1 WAI

IE5 dotcom crash

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Dot com bubble

NASDAQ Composite Index

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Timeline: Market

1988 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2005 2006

Initial plans

Arden Shakespeare CD-Rom

Arden online

Shakespeare Collection

Voyager Macbeth

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare

Literature Online

OED Grove Art

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Arden Online

Immature online market Heavily biased to library consortia Individuals and small institutions hard to reach Inadequate bandwidth for many users Rapidly evolving web technologies

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The Shakespeare Collection

Gale's Shakespearean Criticism First Folio, Quartos Prompt books Dictionary of Literary Biography: Documentary Series:

William Shakespeare (Gale) Twayne's English Authors: William Shakespeare William Shakespeare: His World, His Work, His

Influence Encyclopedia of the Renaissance Other reference content

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The Shakespeare Collection

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The Shakespeare Collection

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The Shakespeare Collection

Most successful digital incarnation of Arden Mature technologies Established sales models and channels to

market

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Main challenges so far

Conceptualising the purpose Rights Archiving Technologies Corporate environment Digital publishing process

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Thank you

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