[1] From: Matthew Gary Kirschenbaum (39)
<mgk3k@faraday.clas.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: 9.564 online & electronic publication
[2] From: Patrick John Coppock <patcop@alfa.avh.unit.no> (96)
Subject: Re: 9.556 CD-ROM dissertations
[3] From: ari kambouris <aristotl@oeonline.com> (20)
Subject: Re: 9.564 online & electronic publication
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 22:43:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Matthew Gary Kirschenbaum <mgk3k@faraday.clas.virginia.edu>
Subject: Re: 9.564 online & electronic publication
> > Still, the most compelling scholarship
> > for me has always been that which is performative, in which
> > medium and message are mutually codependent and expressive.
> > Hypermedia ought not to be perceived as that medium which can
> > only flourish in the absence of the scholar's primary
> > responsibility toward the circumstances of its production.
> > =================================================================
> > Matthew G. Kirschenbaum University of Virginia
>
> This statement does not, in itself, distinguish "hypermedia" from any
> other well written print article that "engages" its reader. The act of
> reading is an act of performance, as is the act of writing. Surely any
> journal or book article is "dependent" on its medium, just as that journal
> (or book) "depends" on printing articles that make it worth reading. The
> term "expressive" is too vague to consider as a defining quality. I agree
> that hypermedia has obvious benefits, and some of them are even scholarly,
> but they are often presented in a fairly uncritical manner, as if we were
> supposed to accept the medium as _a priori_ "new and exciting" when, in
> fact, the majority of its rhetoric has been around for quite a while.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ted Parkinson
> Department of English
> McMaster University parkinsn@mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca
> Hamilton, Ontario
Ted Parkinson is of course right that the printed page can
sustain much of the same codependency of form and content as
hypermedia; nor did I mean to imply that such performativity is
hypermedia's sole distinguishing characteristic, or that it
ought to be accepted uncritically. However, I stand by my main
point, namely that no matter how tempting divisions of labor
might be for practical considerations, the very best examples
of hypermedia scholarship will be those in which the scholar
has had at least *some* role at all levels of the production
process.
Regards,
=================================================================
Matthew G. Kirschenbaum University of Virginia
mgk3k@virginia.edu Department of English
http://faraday.clas.virginia.edu/~mgk3k Electronic Text Center
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 12:00:41 +0100
From: Patrick John Coppock <patcop@alfa.avh.unit.no>
Subject: Re: 9.556 CD-ROM dissertations
Matthew Kirschenbaum wrote:
>In at least some of its possible manifestations, I would argue
>that the opportunities offered by hypermedia scholarship are
>precisely the transcendence of the distinctions between form
>and content that Coppock suggests should be institutionally
>reinforced. To do so does indeed require that a scholar learn
>some of the "production" skills, but I see no reason why those
>skills must stand separate and apart from what we value as
>intellectual labor or achievement--though I am aware that Deans
>may feel differently. Still, the most compelling scholarship
>for me has always been that which is performative, in which
>medium and message are mutually codependent and expressive.
>Hypermedia ought not to be perceived as that medium which can
>only flourish in the absence of the scholar's primary
>responsibility toward the circumstances of its production.
Here I think we are discussing two separate issues: one is whether the act
of "writing" a dissertation etc. is to be considered as one kind of process
in itself, while publishing this dissertation (i.e. making it public for
others in some form or other) is yet another related process, requiring
collaboration with some other kinds of expertise than the first.
Traditionally at least, it seems to me that the academic writing process
has in some way been a separate one; something carried on within the
"confines" of academia, with certain requirements being made on content and
presentation relative to the specific academic field in question, while the
process of developing a dissertation into a book for publication has
generally required at least some degree of subsequent collaboration with
consultants, publishers etc."outside" of the academic world in order to
make it "marketable". Most dissertations made in order to qualify for a
doctorate are after all not generally written as "marketable" products in
themselves, but mostly as symbolic objects specially designed and written
for the institutional ritual of the doctoral dispute. This has obviously
had wide ranging consequences both at the level of form and of content. We
might in fact legitimately talk about "the genre of the doctoral
dissertation" as a separate genre in its own right.
Now what is interesting about hypermedia publication, especially if one
thinks about this kind of publication via World Wide Web, rather than on
CD-ROM, is that there seems there is as time goes on an increasing temporal
convergence of the two processes mentioned above. The audience for such a
document published via WWW is, potentially at least, enormous, and highly
diverse, and more or less "instantaneously reachable", seen in relation to
a "traditional" dissertation which is generally initially made available
for a rather limited, quite specialist academic audience, and then
subsequently, if one can find a publisher etc., "marketed" for somewhat
larger audience. Obviously this process of convergence will have
consequences for the doctoral dissertation genre per se. My contention is
that these consequences and the many practical issues (the kind of skills
necessary to do this kind of publishing well, the tools available for doing
it etc.) involved in this convergence , particularly at the university
institutional level, are still rather poorly understood at the present
time.
This brings me to the other issue which is the issue of the possible future
institutionalisation of hypermedia publishing in the humanities, and the
role of the academy/ university in this connection. To requote Matthew
again:
>To do so does indeed require that a scholar learn
>some of the "production" skills, but I see no reason why those
>skills must stand separate and apart from what we value as
>intellectual labor or achievement--though I am aware that Deans
>may feel differently.
This is indeed a key issue in my opinion. If indeed there is such a process
of convergence happening, which I do not doubt (and it seems to be going
quite fast at the present time), then what kinds of resources and
facilities should academic institutions be providing in order to guarantee
the quality of the growing numbers of products of this kind of publication
over time? There seem to me to be many issues involved here. To name a few:
* developing adequate understandings of the consequence of the convergence
process mentioned above through research programs focusing on this
particular area
* developing methods and norms for assessment of hypermedia documents that
are able to take account of both form and content issues, and the complex
relationships between these in relation to various fields of humanities
studies
* providing instruction at as early a stage as possible in all humanities
students' academic careers in the use of the necessary tools and methods of
production, and in evaluation of the efficacy these tools
* providing easily accessible facilities for all students so that they can
gain practical experience of all aspects of publishing activities of this
kind, and develop a critical awareness of the limitations and potentials of
present hypermedia systems as a medium of publication
* developing better two-way communication between commercial organisations
developing software and facilities for hypermedia publishing and
university-based "end-users" so that students' and others' experiences can
be more quickly fed back into the development process in order to improve
the tools and systems being developed.
Patrick
______________________________________________________________
Patrick J. Coppock tel. +47 73 59 08 71 (office)
The Norwegian University of tel. +47 73 59 88 70 (lab)
Technology and Science tel. +47 72 55 50 91 (home)
Dept. of Applied Linguistics fax: +47 73 59 81 50
N-7055 Dragvoll, Norway e-mail: patcop@alfa.avh.unit.no
coppack@bo.nettuno.it
WWW http://www.hf.unit.no/anv/wwwpages/PJCHome2.html
"A person divides people into buyers and sellers, and forgets
that buyers are also sellers. Will his grammar change if I
remind him of this?" L. Wittgenstein, 22.11.1931
______________________________________________________________
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 09:22:58 -0500
From: ari kambouris <aristotl@oeonline.com>
Subject: Re: 9.564 online & electronic publication
In response to my posting on CD-Rom dissertations, Andrew Armour wrote:
>It is worth remembering that although CD-ROM drives will go the way of 5-1/2
>inch FDDs, we will always be able to read HTML pages, just as we can still
>read WordStar files. Encoding is not really the problem. And whether the
>student decides on plain ASCII or full hypertext, graphics, VRML and Java is
>irrelevant. Just as long as it is accessible on-line.
I find the key phrase here to be the last. The possibility of being
"on-line" simply does not exist in all the different institutions where
research is taking place. Of the 15 archaeological research institutes in
Athens, for example, only 5 were on-line as of the beginning of this year.
In two cases, on-line means having access to e-mail and not being connected
to the entire WWW. The need to disseminate new and innovative research
via dissertations to these unwired sites is real and cannot be overlooked.
As a participant in a discussion group that "meets" electronically, it is
easy to assume that everyone is connected and comfortable using the
internet as a resource. I don't think that we will see the demise of
portable media any time soon. As always, improvements in the technology
and stability of various kinds of storage media will continue so that
people who aren't connected will still be able to take advantage of these
resources.
Ari Kambouris