The Stoa: a Review for Digital Classics

Thoughts on impending changes at Wikipedia.

In a must-read article, the CHE reports details of the Google contract with the U of C libraries. Among other things, it seems as if the goal is to scan as many as 3000 books per day. So — will the Classics-related holdings be done within a week or two? Maybe a little longer…
More:

Under the contract, the university agrees to pay for pulling and shelving the books, bandwidth and hardware to store digital copies, rooms in which to do the digitization, and transportation of materials to those rooms, among other things. Google will cover its own labor, hardware and software to do the scanning, space in which to do scanning, and transportation to its spaces, along with other costs.

Both the university and Google will get digital copies of the scanned works, but there are some restrictions on how the university can use its copies. The university can offer the digital copy, whole or in parts, “as part of services offered to the university library patrons.” But the university must prevent users from downloading portions of the digital copies and stop automated scanning of the copies by, for example, other search engines.

Entire works not covered under copyright can be distributed to scholars and students for research purposes, but there are limits on in-copyright material. The university retains a right to distribute no more than 10 percent of the collection to other libraries and educational institutions for noncommercial research. Before receiving the digital copies of works, other institutions have to enter a written agreement with Google regarding the use of the copies and provide indemnity to Google.

Nothing too earth-shattering here, perhaps, but I’ve always been oddly fascinated by the sight of very large objects being moved carefully through urban landscapes.

Dan Cohen’s blog entries at Digital Humanities are few but roses.  Here’s yet another great post.  An excerpt:

When I was in graduate school, the Russian historian Paul Bushkovitch once told me that the key to being a successful scholar was to become completely obsessed with a historical topic, to feel the urge to read and learn everything about an event, an era, or a person. In short, to become so knowledgeable and energetic about your subject matter that you become what others immediately recognize as a trusted, valuable expert.

As it turns out, blogs are perfect outlets for obsession. Now, there’s good and bad obsession. What the critics of blogs are worried about is the bad kind—the obsession that drives people to write about their breakfast in excruciating detail.

Yet, as Bushkovitch’s comment entailed, obsession—properly channeled and focused on a worthy subject—has its power. It forges experts. It stimulates a lifelong interest in learning (think, for a moment, about the countless examples of “retired” professors still writing influential books). The most stimulating, influential professors, even those with more traditional outlets for their work (like books and journals) overflow with views and thoughts. Shaped correctly, a blog can be a perfect place for that extra production of words and ideas.

Some very nice 3D recreations of Egyptian buildings and artifacts have been built and showcased in the Themiskyra land in Second Life (the user-led MMORPG). See a Flickr gallery of some of the objects at https://www.flickr.com/photos/pathfinderlinden/sets/72157594214266172/ or teleport straight to Themiskyra from https://slurl.com/secondlife/Themiskyra/72/241/35 (Second Life software required.)

There was some talk of a Roman theatre project moving their 3D buildings into SL at one point, but I’ve never seen it in there. Any news? There’s a lot of scope for this sort of thing.

I see new pictures of the Bookdrive DIY at the Atiz website since last time I looked.

And speaking of book-scanning, there’s this from Peter Suber:

Bob Thompson, Search Me? Washington Post, August 13, 2006. One of the longest and most detailed accounts I’ve seen on the background of the Google Library project and the copyright controversy it has spawned.

The website for the 2007 Classical Association Conference can be found at:

https://www.ca2007.bham.ac.uk/index.htm

This is being held at Birmingham (England)  12 – 15 April 2007.

If you look at the Call for Papers you’ll see that one of the categories is Digital Classics (originally it was Digitising the Classics – that’s still how it appears on the CA website – so that’s an improvement). The Digital Classicist has proposed two panel sessions at this conference. If anyone would like to participate please get in touch or alternatively put in your own proposal.

Simon