ThatCamp Philadelphia: Small Scale Publications & Digital Editions

The Stockton family ran a number of sessions at ThatCamp Philadelphia, including Deb Gussman’s session on small scale publications and digital editions.

  • Gussman is doing a digital edition of the works of Catharine Maria Sedgwick.
  • Deb’s steps of a digital project: Strategy and Approach, Scope, Content, Design, Development, Testing, Support.
  • Collaboration is very important. Need to find others who have skills you don’t have.
  • There are no guarantees that apps, websites, etc will work in a year.
  • I suggested the use of emulators ala what is done in modern times with classic interactive fiction.
  • Deciding on what app/website/cms to use can often come from other colleagues/friends.
  • I brought up the work of Cory Doctorow and how, by releasing his work under a Creative Commons license, readers can create versions of his works for different platforms.
  • It is helpful to be familiar with remix culture in general.
  • A great idea from John Theibault: in grant applications, include money for development of emulators for later editions when platforms become obsolete.
  • Creative Commons licensing allows others to care more about the preservation of your work than you do.
  • A lot of Gussman’s work with Sedgwick is coming from Google Books.
  • Theibault’s students digitized Philadelphia’s directories.
  • Back in 2003, I worked on the digitization of the American Weekly Mercury in one of Tom Kinsella’s classes.

Deb leading the discussion.

Adeline Koh, John Thebault, and Rebecca Goldman listen to the discussion.

Weekly Reader

  • The Guardian on interactive fiction, partnerships between authors and game developers, and a little bit of Douglas Adams.
  • Laurie Halse Anderson is interviewed for her new novel Wintergirls.
  • Open Letters reviews a recently Broadway performance of Waiting For Godot.
  • Kathleen Fitzpatrick on the recent collaboration between HASTAG and MLA on new tenure guidelines.

    • Weekly Reader

  • Amanda French’s creative use of Ada Lovelace Day to discuss Mary Shelley.  I really like her argument that Shelley was the first science fiction novelist.
  • Having read a lot of John Barth’s essays in the past year, I found Conversational Reading’s post discussing suggestions for reading his fiction to be quite timely.
  • Emily Short on the role of agency in Interactive Fiction.
  • Lauren Elkin discusses the new collection of Susan Sontag’s journals in the new issue of The Quarterly Conversation.

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