Against infrastructure: global approaches to digital scholarly editing

DEL RIO RIANDE, GIMENA; VIGLIANTI, RAFFAELE

c21 Digital Editions

Bloombsbury

Año: 2023;

Digital scholarly editions are one of the oldest forms of output of digital humanities research projects, and arguably one of the most prolific. Like all digital humanities projects that result in the creation of digital output—typically a website—digital editions are not immune to what Smithies et al. call the “digital entropy of software and digital infrastructure”. This has a cost that grows with the complexity of the system needed to publish digital editions and this cost is often not only financial; it may also include the ability to access institutional or public infrastructure. The principles of minimal computing have informed new ways of undertaking digital humanities work, focused on use of open technologies and ownership of data and code. The latter in particular entails independence from institutional infrastructure and the network of surveillance that is a feature of many commercial platforms of the modern web.This chapter discusses the current extent of minimal computing as an influence on digital editing, and which aspects of the concept have taken stronger root. Specifically, we will consider how, when applied to digital publishing, minimal computing principles intersect with a recent resurgence of static websites and related technologies. Deriving static sites from an end-of-life project is the clear choice when access to infrastructure becomes limited. What would it take to adopt them from the start to avoid infrastructural constraints? Through this discussion, the chapter articulates the need for a low-infrastructure future of the “global” digital edition.iISBN en trámite.