Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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Demos (a grow<strong>in</strong>g digital encyclopedia about Athenian democracy extensively cross referenced with
Perseus), 600 Diotima (an <strong>in</strong>terdiscipl<strong>in</strong>ary resource on women and gender <strong>in</strong> the ancient world), 601
Metis (a repository of QuickTime movies of Greek archaeological sites), 602 and Suda Onl<strong>in</strong>e (a
collaborative onl<strong>in</strong>e version of the Suda). 603 The website notes that many projects at the Stoa are
closely l<strong>in</strong>ked with materials and tools from Perseus and it is closely affiliated with the Digital
Classicist website and community.
The Digital Classicist 604 website has been established as a “decentralised and <strong>in</strong>ternational community
of scholars and students <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> the application of <strong>in</strong>novative digital methods and technologies to
research on the ancient world.” While this site is not officially hosted by any <strong>in</strong>stitution it nonetheless
serves as a web-based hub for communication and collaboration among digital classicists. Every
summer the Digital Classicist hosts a series of sem<strong>in</strong>ars 605 at the Institute of Classical Studies <strong>in</strong>
London where practitioners present cutt<strong>in</strong>g-edge research on the use of computational methods <strong>in</strong> the
study of antiquity. The largest component of the Digital Classicist website is the wiki, however, which
was created by Gabriel Bodard and other practitioners who were <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> the “application of the
digital humanities to the study of the ancient world” (Mahony 2006). This site aimed from the
beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to br<strong>in</strong>g scholars together to support collaborative work<strong>in</strong>g and thus formed partnerships
with the Stoa Consortium, the CHS, and the Digital Medievalist blog. 606
The Digital Classicist wiki 607 was thus created as a central location to l<strong>in</strong>k the diverse scholarship <strong>in</strong>
the various areas of ancient studies and even more important, sought to “fill an important gap <strong>in</strong> the
exist<strong>in</strong>g scholarly documentation by creat<strong>in</strong>g concise, reliable and critical guidance on crucial technical
issues for scholars who may only be <strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> a basic <strong>in</strong>troduction to such issues with l<strong>in</strong>ks to
further resources if they wish” (Mahony 2006). The website also meets two other important needs of
digital classicists, who accord<strong>in</strong>g to Mahony and Bodard, require a space for both build<strong>in</strong>g
communities and work<strong>in</strong>g collaboratively:
The most strik<strong>in</strong>g and successful aspect of Digital Classics is its sense of community and
collaboration. Digital Classicists do not work <strong>in</strong> isolation; they develop projects <strong>in</strong> tandem with
colleagues <strong>in</strong> other humanities discipl<strong>in</strong>es or with experts <strong>in</strong> technical fields…They do not
publish expensive monographs dest<strong>in</strong>ed to be checked out of libraries once every few years;
they collect data, conduct research, develop tools and resources, and importantly make them
available electronically, often under free and open license such as Creative Commons, for
reference and re-use by scholars, students, and non-specialists alike (Mahony and Bodard 2010,
Introduction, 2).
Anyone can jo<strong>in</strong> the Digital Classicist wiki by simply apply<strong>in</strong>g to one of the four editors for an
account. One major component of the wiki is a directory of more than 90 digital classics projects
organized alphabetically. The length of project descriptions can vary, and not all descriptions are
l<strong>in</strong>ked to active websites. Additionally, a FAQ has a list of 45 articles on best practices <strong>in</strong> digital
classics and <strong>in</strong>cludes diverse topics, from “Concord<strong>in</strong>g Greek and Lat<strong>in</strong> Texts” to “Sanskrit, typ<strong>in</strong>g and
600 http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/home, and for more on Demos, see Crane et al. (2006).
601 http://www.stoa.org/diotima/
602 http://www.stoa.org/metis/
603 http://www.stoa.org/sol/
604 http://www.digitalclassicist.org/
605 http://www.digitalclassicist.org/wip/<strong>in</strong>dex.html
606 http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/
607 http://wiki.digitalclassicist.org/Ma<strong>in</strong>_Page