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1. Guidelines: Introduction
Much about the editions will be the same as those prepared for print: the same high standards of scholarship, the same activities involved in arriving at the modern text, and the same kinds of supporting discussions on the text. But there will be a number of ways in which the Internet Editions will differ from print.
1.1. Copyright
The general aim of the Internet Editions of Shakespeare is to create scholarly texts and tools for the educational community. You will, if you choose, retain copyright for materials you personally create for the site; all, however, will be freely available for downloading and use for educational and non-profit uses.
All texts posted on the site will be accompanied by the following notice:
© Copyright [Editor's name], [date]. This material may freely be used for educational, non-profit purposes, so long as due credit is given. All other uses must be negotiated directly with the holder of the copyright.
While you retain copyright on the separate texts you put on the site, the actual edition (its links, format, and any interpretative software associated with the site as a whole) will remain the property of the Internet Shakespeare Editions.
1.1.1. Changes to the text on the site
Electronic texts are capable of continuing refinement and improvement; thus the text on the site will never be in a "fixed" or final state. While the original editor is willing and able to act as consultant, all changes proposed in the text or its supporting materials will be approved by him or her before being posted. In the event that the editor is not available, the Coordinating Editor reserves the right to seek alternative advice.
1.1.2. Acknowledgement of collaboration
It is the policy of the Internet Editions to give full credit to all those who have worked on any text, including research assistants.
1.2. Hypertext
Hypertext is the name given to the capacity that an electronic text has to link one passage to another directly by a click of the mouse. The effect of this kind of linking is often called "non-linear" or "lateral"; it would, however, be more accurate to call it "multi-linear," since each individual passage is itself linear.
1.2.1. Multilinearity
The effect of hypertext's multilinearity is twofold when it comes to the way you can develop an argument or organize data.
a) It is extensible
Your basic document can be extended by detailed but separate discussions of points that might otherwise impede the linearity of your basic document. This function of hypertext is very like the traditional discursive footnote, except that it neither requires rooting around in the back of the book, nor cramping space at the bottom of a physical page.
b) It is a network
Since the "footnote" becomes the center of the reader's attention once it has been loaded by the computer, it is itself capable of being interconnected to other materials, either its own further annotations or other materials of many kinds.
1.2.2. "Good" hypertext
The effective use of the power of hypertext involves rethinking the way you write. Here are some guidelines.
a) Keep it compact
Since there is the opportunity to attach further discussion or documentation to any stage of your discussion, you should make every attempt to keep the primary document as tightly constructed and worded as possible. Remember that your readers will have to wait for the text to be loaded, and may be paying for the privilege in connect time. At all times avoid large files. Think of your primary document (the textual introduction, the survey of criticism, etc.) as the backbone of your argument, with details fleshed out in separate mini-essays. Paradoxically, this means that the electronic medium both gives you the power to present a briefer, more cogent base discussion than the print medium, and, at the same time, allows you far more freedom to support that argument by detailed discussion.
b) Make a click worthwhile
Noone wants to wait for a document to arrive if it is a simple line reference or a two-line comment. For this reason, you should include in-text references as much as possible, branching to other documents only when they will be worth the wait. Where you refer to an internal section of another document, make sure that you indicate the section as well as the document as a whole so that the browser will locate the specific passage. More detail on how to do this is provided in the separate sections below; see especially section 6.1.
c) Use headings wherever possible
Your Internet reader is not sitting in a comfortable armchair before the fire. She or he will want to locate information quickly, speed-read it, then download or move on. Thus you should use headings wherever possible in order to direct your reader to the section of your work that is of interest. The table of contents will be generated automatically from your headings. The tradition in Humanities disciplines does not generally include the use of headings; think of them as brief topic sentences, and divide your discussion accordingly.
d) Create fluent links
Try to avoid the rather clunky formulation "For more information, click here" and others like it. Integrate the link into the flow of your sentence. On a textual crux that requires a separate extended discussion, you might indicate the link thus: "This reading has been the subject of much debate."
1.2.3. Web browsers and the format of the files
Editors will work with a simplified set of "tags" that identify the characteristics of the text (see Appendix A below). Working from these base texts, software will automatically generate three different formats to satisfy different needs of scholars and the varying kinds of "browsers" currently available (the browser is the program that interprets the files you access and displays them -- as I write they vary from the very basic Lynx to the sophistication of Netscape or Internet Explorer).
a) Plain text
At the most basic level, much of the material will be available as plain, unformatted text, often the most useful tool for those who wish to impose their own format and conditions on a text. These files will be available through FTP (file transfer protocol).
b) HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
For the majority of users, the files will be available in the native language of the World Wide Web, HTML. The degree of formatting in HTML will remain basic, however, since most users of the site are interested in the text rather than the display, and since for the foreseeable future there are likely to be different dialects of HTML on the more sophisticated browsers. There are some clear limitations to HTML at present, most notably the fact that it is impossible to display such characters as the long "s."
c) SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)
Texts will be available in a version of SGML, suitable for "deeper" tagging to allow for specialized analysis by scholars interested in the computer analysis of texts. In due course SGML browsers may be able to display the texts more accurately than HTML.
1.3. Introductory materials
In addition to the Textual Introduction, each text will provide general introductions to major areas of critical and historical debate:
- a survey of critical approaches to the play
- a history of staging and performance
- a traditional critical introduction, expressing your view of the play
- a discussion of computer analyses of the play (optional)
In each case the essays should be considered as independent from the actual text, though linked to it where appropriate.
1.4. Additional resources
Since there are effectively no space limitations on the Internet Editions, you will be able to provide far fuller supporting materials than a printed edition, limited only by your industry and the need to get copyright permissions.
1.4.1. Written
The editions will include comprehensive sources and analogues and an anthology of criticism.
a) Graphic
Whereas printed editions are limited by cost to relatively few illustrations, you will be able to provide as many graphics as you can get permission to use. This feature of the editions should be of particular value in the sections that deal with performance history.
b) Multimedia
Although at the moment the "bandwidth" -- the speed of downloading materials -- limits the effectiveness of multimedia over the Internet, in due course the editions will include video and sound resources. Copyright problems here are a major difficulty in terms of well-known films and productions; it will be an aim of the editions to attract the interest of the acting community in such a way that productions and segments of productions can be archived on the site and made available for research and teaching.
1.5. Collaboration
Collaborative editions are rare in Shakespeare studies. The scope of the Internet Editions, and the nature of the electronic medium, however, are such that collaboration is to be encouraged. Editors may choose to concentrate on the basic text for the edition, and to seek assistance in producing other materials.
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