Classics and the Internet
Organizer: William A. Johnson
Sponsored by: Committee on Computer Activities
List of Participants
- Neel Smith, College of the Holy Cross. Creating Resources for Classicists on the World Wide Web.
- Peter van Minnen, Duke University. The Duke Papyri on the Internet.
- Michael Arnush, Skidmore College. Daedalus Opifex on the Internet: Information Resources and the Classics Classroom.
- Linda Wright, University of Washington. Scholarly Communication on the Internet: Collaboration, Resources, and Oops.
- James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania. After the Internet, What?
Classics and The Internet
With this panel, the Committee on Computer Activities inaugurates what it hopes will be a series of thematic sessions focusing on the intellectual challenges and opportunities made possible by technological developments, in this case by that phenomenon commonly referred to as the "Internet."
Classicists are among the heaviest users of the much publicized Information Superhighway. Classicists are very active--as is often remarked by colleagues in other departments, publishers, librarians, andothers--in many areas currently associated with the Internet, including electronic lists, electronic journals, use of the Internet for distance learning, and the organization of both text and image archives. It is therefore only appropriate that we explore some of the intellectual issues surrounding the use of this new technology.
The panel will try to accomplish two goals. The first will be discussion of new developments and opportunities in the use of the Internet for scholarly communication, research, and teaching. Though the papers will be grounded by reference to projects ongoing or anticipated, the primary focus will be not so much project-oriented as theoretical--a discussion, that is, of possible future opportunities in light of past accomplishments and current trends. The second goal of the panel will be to reflect on what recent, current, and future developments mean for the profession. We hope in this session to come to terms with how the use of the Internet may change the way we behave as scholars--not only in our intercommunication, but also in our communication with others, in our modes of research, and in our teaching.
Accordingly, the Committee has assembled a panel of cognoscenti to speak on the following areas of interest.
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The availability of large-scale data bases over the Internet. Panelist #1, an expert in large-scale hypertextual data banks, will address this issue from a theoretical point of view, with particular reference to possibilities presented by the World Wide Web. Examples will be drawn from the Perseus Project. Panelist #2, a pioneer and participant in current efforts to digitize papyrological collections, will address this point from a practical angle, with consideration of how Internet access to papyrus and similar collections may effect changes in the attitudes toward and use of such resources.
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The impact of the Internet on teaching. Panelist #3, who is an active experimenter in the use of the "virtual classroom" and similar areas, will discuss practical and theoretical issues concerning pedagogical uses of networks, with particular regard to opportunities afforded by the Internet. (Note that panelists #1, #4, and #5 will also address in part pedagogical aspects of the Internet.)
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The impact of the Internet on modes of communication. Panelist #4, a moderator of one of the principal electronic lists, will talk about noticed and anticipated changes in communication, with emphasis on how the Internet may change the interactions of Classical scholars with students and non-professionals.
- Where the future lies. Finally, Panelist #5, a leading innovator in many of these areas, will discuss where we are today (i.e. December 1995) and where we might be heading.
Panelists will moderate brief discussions following each paper.
William A. Johnson, Chair
Committee on Computer Activities
Panelist #1
Creating Resources for Classicists on the World Wide Web
Neel Smith, College of the Holy Cross
The World Wide Web (WWW) now accounts for more traffic on the Internet than any other software: experiments using the WWW to distribute material from the Perseus project illustrate some the WWW's potential for dissemination of research material in classics.
The WWW, a hypermedia protocol running over the Internet, was originally designed by researchers in high energy particle physics whose needs are not well served by traditional paper publications in research libraries. As many of these needs are common to any academic discipline, many features of the WWW have had a broad appeal: material is accessible from any computer connected to the global Internet network; the protocol is independent of particular software and hardware platforms, and WWW browsers are available at no cost to practically all users of the Internet; the protocol is designed to support links to many different kinds of information--for example, graphics, sound, and video as well as hypertext; and like any other on-line information server, publication is timely--as soon as a document is placed on a server, it is available to the world.
Classicists must ensure that their information resources will be accessible even after the WWW outlives its present form. Three less conspicuous features of the WWW make it an effective medium for publishing research material immediately.
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The WWW's underlying hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) emphasizes structure over presentation. As has often been noted, this gives new authorial power to the reader; but it also liberates authors/information providers from worrying about specifics of different users' systems. The WWW exacts a minimal cost to reformat information for the widest possible audience.
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The rapid development of the WWW's hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). Paradoxically, there is security in the continuing evolution of the hypertext format. The huge base of existing WWW servers is a good guarantee that new extensions to HTTP will be compatible with existing documents while offering new structures to Web authors. To take an obvious example for classicists: the WWW today is limited to seven-bit characters (i.e., no accented Greek). This is certain to change in the near future, largely because of the potential of the WWW in the Far East.
- The Common Gateway Interface. The most commonly used WWW servers have established an application programming interface that allows the WWW to mediate between remote users and a locally running piece of software (such as a database, geographic information system or full text retrieval system). This means in effect that any special-purpose software can be readily adapted to respond to requests coming from a WWW client.
Examples will include illustrations of how the WWW allows users to address queries to and construct maps from the Perseus geographic information system.
Panelist #2
The Duke Papyri on the Internet
Peter van Minnen, Duke University
In 1990 John Oates began the process of finding the resources to clean, conserve and catalogue the more than 1200 papyri that Duke University had acquired in the years since 1970. A partnership quickly developed with Steve Hensen, Assistant Director of the Special Collections Library at Duke and an expert in the cataloguing of special collections material. We developed a proposal for the National Endowment for the Humanities (which has been funded over three years to Dec. 31, 1995) to conserve, catalogue and provide archival photographs of the collection. The creation of a catalogue based on standard cataloguing rules was at the heart of the proposal and it was expected that such a catalogue would go on line in OCLC. Such would widen the access to our papyri beyond what has been usual practice among papyrologists.
Once funded we began the conservation process and then the cataloguing process. Our aim was to use standard cataloguing categories and rules, particularly the MARC rules for computer cataloguing. The idea was that non-papyrologists could actually have access to the information in papyrological texts. This was a revolutionary step in itself.
When we came to the question of archival backup and storage, we realized that scanning and digital storage were a far better mode than conventional photographic archives. Once we started the scanning process we realized we had the potential to make our papyri available on the Internet and that the combination of the catalogue and the availability of the images gave us the opportunity to create something new for papyrology and indeed for the dissemination of manuscript material generally.
Duke has begun the process of putting its catalogue and associated images of the papyri on the Internet. To the present, most collections have allowed access to their papyri only to a select group of users, usually their own staff or graduate students ostensibly because of the fragile nature of the material. Now the images of published and unpublished material will be freely available over the Internet. For published material, the texts will be much more widely available for restudy and use. For unpublished material, previously inaccessible even to local collection staffs, the results will be a dramatic change in the availability of material for scholars and graduate students. Such availability can only spread the use of papyrological material much more widely through the field of Classics and indeed make papyrology part of the main stream of professional studies on the scholarly level and at the level of graduate training. The sometimes dramatic results achieved as a result of access to the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a model for the even more extensive discoveries that can be made from the papyrological evidence once it is widely available.
Panelist #3
Daedalus Opifex on the Internet:
Information Resources and the Classics Classroom
Michael Arnush, Skidmore College
The development of increasingly sophisticated networked resources has provided new and exciting opportunities to expand and enhance the role of the faculty member in the academy. Faculty have begun to use these tools to write (and collaborate on) papers and panels, to share the results of research, and advance their scholarship. But, to what extent has this had an impact on the Classics curriculum? As the walls of the traditional classroom begin to expand, faculty are utilizing software packages and applications in innovative approaches that allow classroom discussions to continue after the class period ends. Electronic mail lists, network bulletin boards, Interchange(TM) (for real-time interaction) and Mosaic(TM) home pages provide new fora for raising a host of issues that encourage the student to maintain interest and focus long after he or she has left the classroom. Textual considerations of Latin and Greek literature, analyses of political and social ancient history, and comparative studies of Greek and Roman archaeological material are just a small sample of the many possibilities now available via the Internet. Does this mean that "Classics" with all of its constituent sub-disciplines is suitable for digital technology? What are some of the pedagogical issues and problems that the Internet raises within our discipline, and are they surmountable?
One area often neglected--as witnessed by the apparent dearth of software currently available--is the use of networked computers for the exchange of student papers. Can standard software packages be adapted to the classroom so that students can mount their papers on network servers and participate in rough draft discussion-sessions and critiquing? What are the advantages of these systems? How, for example, do Microsoft Word(TM) or Daedalus(TM) facilitate the sharing of papers, and what disadvantages arise from peer critiquing via the computer rather than the printed page? What skills are required to incorporate such technology into Classics courses? How much time need the instructor devote to teaching these skills to students? Must all the participants in a class have the technological wizardry of the computer-age equivalent of Ovid's Daedalus opifex (Met. 8.200) to master these tools?
We are rapidly approaching the implementation of the virtual classroom. What does this mean pedagogically? Do the obvious financial merits of "remote teaching" for academic institutions take into consideration the pedagogical concerns of faculty, and is our discipline suitable--and perhaps even ideally situated--to engage in this approach?
Finally, although the answer may seem obvious, we need to consider how digital technology can strengthen the intellectual environment of the classroom and beyond, and what the future holds.
Panelist #4
Scholarly Communication on the Internet:
Collaboration, Resources, and Oops
Linda Wright, University of Washington
Electronic discussion lists are redefining and expanding the scholarly community in ways which allow novice and expert rapid access to a wealth of shared knowledge. These lists provide their members with a large audience of colleagues and students, often from different disciplines, with whom they can discuss research, share resources, and examine current issues in their field. All of this information can now benefit a far greater number of scholars with speed and efficiency not experienced by previous generations. But it is not only students and professors who benefit from discussions; those outside the profession and the universities' walls are also able to participate in scholarly debate and stay abreast of current developments. Rapid and broad access to expert opinions is bringing young scholars into the professional sphere earlier, and allowing graduates to continue to enjoy intellectual stimulation and growth after leaving the physical halls of academia.
Electronic mail (e-mail) also allows colleagues, researchers, students and faculty to correspond privately, enhancing the educational process and accelerating research. Particularly at the university level this communication allows teaching to be more personal, to be at its best--even though teacher and student may rarely, or only years later, meet in person. It is a tremendous advantage for students to have ready access to faculty members not only on their own campus, but at schools and universities throughout the world. Project-based instruction can be directed by specialists regardless of their location, and members of the academic as well as the non-professional communities are able to observe first-hand the process of critical thinking in progress. Geographic distances no longer present barriers to collaboration among researchers, scholarly discussions, or even class enrollment.
The discussion lists also present scholarly communities with new problems, such as the inability to convey tone in messages, and the ease with which an ill-considered or mis-addressed reply can be sent to a great number of recipients. Renewed emphasis on written communication skills and the mechanics of scholarly debate will help us maximize the capabilities and benefits of this new medium. Classicists, armed with centuries of examples and scholarship on written texts, dialogue, and philosophy are perhaps in the best position to optimize the Internet for communication.
Discussion groups offer faculty of small departments and isolated scholars the advantages and empowerment of participating in debate and contributing to advancements in research. Secondary school teachers also have a link to a world of high quality discourse that was difficult to attain before, and a link which helps them better prepare students for the university environment. Equally as important is the dialogue between experts and non-professionals. Education is no longer confined by geographic or temporal constraints, nor is it any longer a privilege enjoyed only by a narrowly defined assemblage of intellectuals; it can be enjoyed by participants beyond our hallowed halls all throughout their lives. Such discourse today gives scholars a rich opportunity to influence a broad audience and enhance awareness of the continued merit of academic pursuits.
Panelist #5
After the Internet, What?
James O'Donnell, University of Pennsylvania
At a point when most scholars are only beginning to use electronic technology actively in their teaching and research, it may seem premature to look too far ahead. But if we do not know where we might be going and what the choices are further down the road, we may make poor choices today and fail to make best use of our time and efforts. It is the premise of this paper that we have in hand now a suite of tools that can and will radically reshape particularly our teaching as classicists. A short review of those tools in tandem with other papers on the panel will try to make this clear. But it is the argument of this paper that once we achieve a critical mass of materials, the tools we use begin again to be transparent. In less time than we might expect, we will not be obsessing about operating systems and printer fonts, but will be able to move in the new environment like natives. (The appropriate analogy is automotive. From about 1900-1930, to use an automobile you had to be a bit of a mechanic; then transparency began to set in, and at this point few of us spend much time thinking about the automotive transportation system, though we depend on it intimately in every aspect of our lives.) If we are to navigate the interim period well, we should be attempting to conceive what that period will lead to. This paper will outline some of the intellectual and institutional challenges that await us and that will demand of us our full professional skill as classicists. How will we use these tools to shape a future that is congruent with our heritage and our principles and our ambitions?
