The Institute of Classical Studies now hosts the Digital Classicist Wiki, a community-edited database of information, questions and commentary on projects, tools, methods and other resources relating to the digital or quantitative study of the ancient world. The site includes nearly 3000 pages edited by 250 registered users, and receives irregular but frequent contributions as well as an organized monthly editing sprint, when editors gather to improve the coverage of specific themes. Since the site moved to its new home at the ICS in 2020, a larger editorial board has been convened, with a brief to manage engagement and strategy for the Wiki.
On the first Tuesday of every month (probably the second in January), the editors and various other volunteers meet in an IRC chatroom for two hours of editing, during which people can discuss changes and issues, ask questions, request an editing account from one of the administrators, reserve pages, and otherwise feel involved and engaged while conducting what is otherwise solitary work editing a wiki page. Participants are invited to take part in each month’s theme, which helps to bring in new communities and collaborators, but may also work on any area of the site that is of interest to them (or even just press Random Page and see what can be improved). For instance, currently Hannah Hungerford, a masters student at KCL, is undertaking a summer placement funded by the Roman Society, to work on improving the connections between the DC Wiki and library catalogues and review venues, helping to set up links in both directions.
In the next few months, sprints are planned on the following themes:
- October 6, 2020: Prosopography and onomastics, person and name catalogues
- November 3, 2020: EpiDoc and digital epigraphy and papyrology
- December 1, 2020: Clean-up: look at old and flagged pages
- I would like to propose a sprint on Hittite and Cuneiform projects at some point in the new year, to be announced
We welcome new volunteers, whether you plan to attend a sprint or just add pages for your favourite projects from time to time. We are also very happy to receive suggestions for pages to be added or improved, even if you don’t want to edit them yourself, and we welcome suggested themes for future sprints from the digital classicist community. Contact any of the Administrators to discuss anything you have in mind, or make suggestions on the Digital Classicist discussion list where they may be taken up by others.
