Conference 2005 Planning/Critique Session Notes
Planning/Critique Session: Saturday June 18, 2005 McCune Room, UCSB Moderator: Alan Liu
The following notes were taken by James J. Hodge [PDF version of notes]
[See also the notes taken by Judith Green at the session]
[Disclaimer: These are notes, not a verbatim transcript, of comments at the planning session.]
I. Introductory Comments: Alan Liu, English, UC Santa Barbara:
II. Critiques and Suggestions from Conference Participants and Members of Audience:
Jerome J. McGann, English, University of Virginia
*At UVA since 1993—the last 3 years especially—developed 3 kinds of software designed to investigate text and other cultural practices, e.g. Ivanhoe
*The great demon: “talk ideas to death and nothing will get done?
*It was a “good thing? that UVA had no money from 1993–2001; one needs money in order to build, not to talk
*Advice 1: hire programmers from outside the academy because they are goal directed, work familiarly with timelines and deadlines
*Focus made a big difference in deciding what to do with money.
*Advice 2: “Don’t spent a penny on conferences.?
*Question of audience: “what audience are we aiming at?? Elementary, post-secondary? UVA focused on post-secondary
*Raise money: go after primary and secondary education. Rationale: it is harder to build tools for post-secondary education