The Processed Book Project

If you're new, you may be interested in reading the PBOS overview. Alternately, make note of a few simple tips to get started instantly:

• Selecting text in a Book brings up a menu that will guide you in adding any of the Annotation types.
• The boxes in the right column are existing Annotations: clicking/right-clicking on them will do interesting things.
• Most buttons, menus, etc. have rollover help.

To begin reading, choose one of these documents:

• Moby Dick by Herman Melville

  The classic novel about the search for the dangerous white whale, Moby Dick. This is being added to the Processed Book Project Library as an instance of a major work of fiction. It also happens to be in the public domain.

• Project Casaubon (draft) by Joseph J. Esposito

  A draft of a proposal for a next-generation scholarly communications project.

• The 9-11 Commission Report by The 9-11 Commission

  The official report from the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

• The Platform Book by Joseph J. Esposito

  "The Platform Book" is the first, unedited draft of a paper to be delivered at the STM conference in Budapest in May 2006. The essay articulates a view of a book or text as a content-based equivalent of a computer platform and proposes ways in which such a book can become a commercial reality. Part of the argument is that the economic growth of book publishers requires that innovative forms of publishing be pursued, as the traditional book, called here "the Humpty Dumpty book," has exhausted its growth potential.

• The Processed Book by Joseph J. Esposito

  This paper examines the processed book, one put into a computerized, networked environment, and contrasts it with the primal book, which is written by a single author and viewed as the embodiment of the thought of a single individual.

• The Processed Book Project by Joseph J. Esposito and Lynn Brock

  This two-part essay by Esposito and Brock describes the background and aims of the project and includes a summary of the technical implications and implementation strategy.