Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 759.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 07:39:15 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk>
Subject: sustainability?
To the extent I hear what urban planners are talking about these days, I've
noticed the term "sustainability". This, it seems to me, bespeaks more
wisdom than "innovation". Sustainability concerns should also be high on
the agenda of those who deal with electronic resources. Beyond the
technical questions (which are hard ones, to be sure) is the one I'd like
to raise here: how do we keep things such as the Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy going financially and editorially?
Let us for the purposes of argument grant that this is a resource without
which a significant number of philosophers, their students and others would
suffer. Let's say it's a must-have. Who, then, makes sure it continues? Who
makes sure that the editor is replaced when the current one goes off to do
something else? Do we hit up our hard-pressed libraries for the cash? Do we
want funding agencies to decide whether and how an academic resource
continues? Consider, for example, an essential resource in Middle Eastern
studies.
A proposal for you to challenge. Returning to the example of philosophy,
organizations representing this discipline through the national academies
world-wide, take charge. Even if the Stanford Encyclopedia were not
good (which it is), let us say that some such resources reach the level of
quality at which they really should be a product of the disciplines to
which they belong. Is it reasonable to consider that somehow the
collective members of these disciplines could see that they are not lost?
Comments?
Yours,
WM
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Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
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