Elizabeth Vandiver, Northwestern University, The Suda On-Line Project

  In January of this year, a casual suggestion made over the "Classics" e-mail discussion list led swiftly to the creation of the Suda On Line (SOL) project, a project which has as its aim the production of an electronically-accessible annotated translation of the entirety of the Suda lexicon. In the few short months of its existence, SOL has grown from a moderately harebrained idea to a serious effort involving dozens of translators, editors, subject-area consultants and computer programmers from at least six different countries. SOL already has a stable home, a custom-made SGML DTD and a working site where translators can submit their own work via forms for editorial approval. Translators are currently hard at work at over three hundred of the more than thirty thousand entries in the lexicon.

  The plan of the project is to assemble an SGML database, searchable and browsable on the web, with links to the TLG's Greek text of the Suda and to other electronic resources such as Perseus, Diotima, Website Attica and Gnomon Online. The editors intend to make translations of individual entries available on the web as quickly as possible, with only the minimum necessary proofreading and editorial oversight. A diverse board of area specialists will eventually edit every entry, altering the content as needed and adding annotations, links and bibliography. The display of each entry will include an indication of the level of critical scrutiny it has survived. This plan is designed to encourage the greatest possible participation in the project and the smallest possible delay in presenting a usable resource to the public.

  The goal of SOL is not just to be a useful tool for researchers, but to serve as an example of a new paradigm of scholarship made possible by computer technology and the internet, one that is cooperative rather than solitary, communal rather than proprietary, worldwide rather than localized and evolving rather than static. We anticipate that as SOL progresses it will provide proof of how electronic media can be used to take advantage of an enormous reservoir of untapped creativity in the scholarly community. Our talk will sketch the history of the SOL project and discuss its current state and future plans. Members of the audience will be invited and encouraged to become participants in the project.