The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A Developed ...

1 TheStanfordEncyclopediaof Philosophy: A DevelopedDynamicReferenceWorkColinAllen philosophy DepartmentTexasA&MUniversityUriNodelman CenterfortheStudyof LanguageandInformationStanfordUniversity 1 IntroductionA fundamentalproblemfacedby thegeneralpublicandthemembersof anacademicdisciplinein theinformationageis how to findthemostauthor-itative, comprehensive, informationexplosionis thesourceofthisproblem moreideasthanever beforearebeingpublishedin print, onCD-ROM,andin avariety of uselibrarysearch enginesandweb-indexingenginesto generatelistsof publicationsandwebsitesabouta topicandthenaccessthemimmediatelyif theyare Professorof philosophy atTexasA&MUniversity, PrincipalProgrammerandAssociateEditorof theStanfordEncyclopediaof philosophy GraduateStudent in ComputerScienceatStanfordUniversity, AssociatePro-grammerandAssistant EditoroftheStanfordEncyclopediaof philosophy SeniorResearch ScholaratStanfordUniversity, ProjectDirectorandPrincipalEditorof theStanfordEncyclopediaof enginescanproducethousandsofmatchestokey wordsandevenwithnewinterfacetoolstonarro wthesearch, oneis typicallyconfrontedwithalistthatis notinformedby hu-manjudgment.

2 If onewants anintroductiontoa topicthatis organizedby anexpert,ifonewants a summaryof thecurrent stateof research,or if onewants a bibliography of print andonlineworksthathasbeenfilteredontheba sisof informedhumanjudgment,therearefewplacest o tryastandardreferencework,butthemainprob lemwithreferenceworksis thattheyquicklygo outof date(even beforetheyarepublished)anddon treflectthelatestadvancesin :How cananacademicdisciplinemaintaina ref-erenceworkwhich introducesthesignificant topicsin thefield(forthosewhowishto learnthebasics),butwhich tracks,evaluates,andchangesinresponseto newpublicationsandnewresearch beingpresentedin avariety of media(forthosewithadvancedknowledgeona giventopic)?How canthisbe doneso thataccessto thereferenceworkis low-cost,ifnotfree?

3 Membersof ourprojectstartedthinkingaboutthesequest ionsin 1995,andin orderto answer them,wedeveloped andimplementedtheconceptof a dynamicreferencework (DRW).A DRW is much morethana featuresof a DRWarethat:(1)it providestheauthors(whomay be scatteredin universitiesallovertheworld)withelectron icaccessto theirentries,so thattheycanupdatethoseentriesat any timeto reflectadvancesin research, (2)it providesthesubjecteditors(wherever theyarelocated)withadministrative accesstothoseentriesandupdates,by whichtheycanrefereethempriortopublicatio n(andby which theycanaddnewtopics,commissionnewauthors ,etc.),and(3)it providesautomatedtoolsby whicha principaleditorcanoverseeadministrative controlof (1)and(2)withonlya ,on ourconception,a DRW includesa highlycustomizedwork-flow systemby which themembersof anentiredisciplineareempoweredto collaborativelywriteandmaintaina a resourcewouldnotonlyintroducetraditional topicsin thediscipline,butwouldalsotrack the(new)ideasthatareconstantlybeingpubli shedonthosetopicsin a variety of a DRW,allsortsof newandinterestingquestionsariseconcernin ghow to bestdesign,program,andadministersuch a resourceandwork-flow preprint exchangein thesciencesorhuman-2itiesapproachesthisc onceptin scope.

4 Electronicjournals:(1)typicallydonotupda tethearticlestheypublish,(2)donotaimto publisharticlesona comprehensivesetof topics,butrather,forthemostpart,publisha rticlesthatarearbitrarilysubmittedby themembersoftheprofession,(3)typicallyse rve a narrow audienceof specialists,and(4)do nothave todealwiththeasynchronousactivity of updating,refereeing,andtrackingseparated eadlinesforentries, exchangesnotonlyexhibitfeatures(1),(2),a nd(3),butalsodonotrefereetheirpublicatio nsandso neednotincorporateawork-flow systemthathandlestheasynchronousrefereep rocessthatoc-cursbetweenuploadandpublica tionin a thisis tosaythatelectronicjournalsandpreprint exchangeshave a faulty design,butratherthata DRW is a distinctive newkindof publicationthatrepresentsa builtweb-basedreferenceworksandclaimthat theyaredynamic,theylack someof theprincipaldesignfeaturesof a DRW,namely, (1)thatauthorsshouldhave electronicaccessto copiesof theirentriesandbe ableto modifythem,and(2)

5 Thatsub-jecteditorsandtheprincipaleditor shouldhave electronicaccessto theencyclopediadatabasesandunrefereedent ries,sothattheycandirectlycarryonthetask of addingandcommissioningnewentries,referee ingentriesandupdates, tgive academicsaccountsontheircomputers,or accessto ,theauthorsandeditorsmustprovide/referee content byfirstin-teractingwiththestaffof thepublishinghouse(managingeditors,copye ditors,computerwebspecialists,computerma rkupspecialistsandoth-ers)beforechangest otheencyclopediacanbe ,however,thepublishinghousebecomesinesse ntialto theprocessof maintaininga directelectronicaccesstotheentries,andca nengageandmanagetheprocessof writing,refereeing, DRWis embodiedby theStanfordEncyclo-pediaof philosophy (SEP)< >.

6 In theremain-derof thispaper,we document thisparticularDRWandthendiscusssomeof theoutstandingquestionsandproblemsit a DynamicReferenceWorkTheSEPfirstcameonlin ein September 1995with2 entries!Sincethen,we havedesigneda workflow systemwhich attemptstomaximizeeffi-ciencyamongthosei nvolved in partsof thissystemarethepassword-protectedwebint erfacesto thecentralserver,which canbe accessedby any author,subjecteditor,or theprin-cipaleditorsfromany wherein theworldthereis a downloadourHTML templates,touploadtheirnewentriesintoa privateareaof ourwebserver,andto remotelyeditcopiesof theirentriesstoredin anauthorislecturingoutsideheruniversity andencountersa readerof herentrywhopoints outanerroror omission,shecansitdownat thenextnet-connectedcomputer(possiblyat anInternetcafe)

7 ,contacttheStanfordserver usingthemachine swebbrowserand,aftersupplyingherIDandpas sword,remotelyeditthecontent of herpieceandsubmitit ,commissionauthorsforthosetopics,referee andcomment onentriesandupdatessubmittedforreview,an dcommunicatetheirdecisionsto ,forexample,if a subjecteditoris visitinganotheruniversity andlearnsby emailthatanentryhas1 Theseweb interfaces,andthefiledownloadandfileuplo adcapacitieswhich theyenable,aretheprincipalenhancements we ve madeto theSEPsincethepublicationofthepaper A Solutionto theProblemofUpdatingEncyclopedias ,by E. ,inComputersandtheHumanities,31/1(1997): 47 published, gave authorssystemaccounts onourUnixserver,linked theirhomedirectoriesinto webspace,andallowedauthorsto transfertheirfilesby ftpto ,subsequent tothe1997paper,whenbrowser-basedfileuplo adhadbecomea widelyadoptedandsupportedstandard,we switchedto thenewtechnology.

8 Authorsandsubjecteditorsnolongerneededsy stemaccounts onourUnixserver,andindeedwe determinedthatmaintainingUnixaccounts forallparticipants wouldintroduceproblemsof scalewhendealingwithhundredsof ,we improvedsecurity onourmachineby , ,subsequent to the1997paper,we distinguisheda private upload-space (whichincludes revisionspace )fromourpublic web-space .Theformercontainsprivatecopiesof theentriesaccessibleonlytoauthenticatedu serssothatnewlyuploadedentries,andnewlyr evisedentries,donotbecomepubliclyviewabl euntil aftertheyhave (seethediscussionof ourtrackingandremindersystembelow),sheca nusea webbrowserto logontothesubjecteditorswebinterface,dis play theoriginalandrevisedversionsoftheentrys ide-by-sidewiththedifferences highlighted, easilydeterminewherethechangesarelocated ,refereethem,andthenacceptor ,secureweb interface,by whichthiscollaborative processis theproject,addentriesto thedatabase,assigneditorialcontrolforent riesto thesubjecteditors,issueinvitations,track deadlines(fornewentriesandforupdates)

9 ,andpublishentriesandupdateswhentheyarer eady. Manyof thesethingscanbe donewithjustthepressof a example,whena subjecteditorsubmits(throughherwebinterf ace)a suggestiontocommissionanauthorona particulartopic,thesuggestiongetsentered into a database,andtheprincipaleditorisnotified andpromptedto logonto ,selectstheentryin question,andis thenpromptedto invitethepersonlistedin thedatabaseforthatentryby , weshouldmentionthatwe have designedandimplementedaweb prospective authorreceivesaninvitation,theyaredirect edto logonto a specialwebinterfacetoobtaininformationab outtheproject,tosetupanaccount withusiftheyplanto accept,andto seta deadlineof upto a yearforcompletingtheentry(orelsewriteto us witha counterproposal).

10 These front-end web interfacessupplydatato the back-end process-ingprogramsanddatabasesin particular,actionstaken,andinformationen tered,by authors,editors, any givenentry, recognizewhonow owes workonanentryandwhichdeadlineshave or haven tbeenmet,andpassthisinforma-tionto ourautomatedemailremindersystem,which hasrecentlybeendeveloped,initialized,and putinto actto continuethepubli-cationprocess,theremind ersystemwillpromptthispersonaboutwhatnee dsto be doneandby sendreminders(ona fixed,inoffensive schedule)untiltheworkis done(ornotifytheprin-cipaleditorthatthat allremindershave beenignoredandthathuman5interventionneed sto take place).Finally, whenany entryor substantiverevisionis published,theentryis scheduledforrevisionwithin3-5years(depen dingonhow swiftlythefieldmoves).