The Text Outline Project: How to Get Involved, Now

This is your project.  And we're not just saying that.

The first step is to read about what we're doing.  Then think about how you can best contribute: content collaboration, conceptualization, policy, software, design, etc.  Come to grips with what we're doing, what the constraints are, and then we invite you to visualize what role you want to play in it.  Then help us get to work!

Some further steps:

• Everyone: if you are interested in any aspect of this project, you agree with the mission and fundamental policies, and you can make a positive contribution, please subscribe to the project's general discussion list.
• Coders: if you are interested in adopting, adapting, and writing open source software for this project, please subscribe to the Textop-OSS mailing list.
• Experts: if you or someone you know has a deep academic or professional background and interest in what we're up to, consider joining (or asking your acquaintance to join) Textop's Advisory Committee.  E-mail Larry Sanger: larry.sanger at dufoundation.org
• Professors: we obviously have an essential need for scholars who have mastered and can speak authoritatively about the widest range of texts in the public domain, who are willing to think through the opportunities and problems associated with pursuing the Collation Project in their particular disciplines.  Please e-mail the project director, Larry Sanger (larry.sanger at dufoundation.org); we will be setting up subject area mailing lists, which you may help direct.
• Graduate students: we expect that a great deal of the actual work of the Collation Project, and some other projects, will be done by people capable of doing graduate student-level work.  Graduate students in many fields are focused on grappling carefully with texts, and are already doing the sort of work needed for the Collation Project.  Please join the project's general discussion list as well as any mailing list in your area, if there is one yet.
• Editors: professional editors particularly those who work with academic and classic texts, and including copyeditors, please join the project's general discussion list and help us think through how to host, mark up, and otherwise work with large numbers of texts.
• Designers: there will no doubt be an ongoing need to make and adapt a simple but elegant design for many aspects of the project.  Please join the project's general discussion list and be bold in offering design ideas.
• Everyone again: if you want to think with the project director about how best to use your abilities, feel free to e-mail Larry Sanger: sanger at citizendium.org, and explain what you want to do, and we'll talk.

Right now, we are still conceptualizing the project and putting the community together.  If you like, you can track our progress.  List discussions and a pilot project have kicked off.

Back to home page