Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 02-26-2009, 04:14 PM

Torah 2.0: Old-Line Publisher Brings Biblical Commentary Into Online World

Quote:

The Jewish Publication Society, a 120-year-old organization devoted to publishing ancient and modern texts on Jewish subjects, has begun work on a project to publish the Jewish Bible, or Tanakh, as an electronic, online text, integrating the original Hebrew with JPS’s English translation and selected commentaries. But the most radical part of the project is an ambitious plan to make the text of the Tanakh into an open platform for users of all stripes to collectively erect their own structure of commentary, debate and interpretation, all linked to the text itself. The publishers hope that the project will radically democratize the ancient process of Talmudic disputation by bringing it into cyberspace.

...

Though JPS has a fairly clear concept of how it wants the project to turn out, there are major obstacles to navigate. JPS must figure out how to link across the original Hebrew and the English translation, how to screen users to ensure that their comments are appropriate, how to integrate existing software tools, and how to create an architecture flexible enough to incorporate new and unexpected functions that may not yet even exist.

The most unpredictable part of the project may be how people will actually use it. Will it be a path to serious engagement or succumb to the lowest-common denominator of discussion prevalent in many Internet forums?

Joan of Bark · 02-26-2009, 07:32 PM

I can't imagine casual Bible readers going to the JPS site, so I don't think the discussions will be LCD. Much will depend on the intelligence of the initial comments.

I've been wrong before.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

02-26-2009, 07:32 PM	#2
Joan of Bark Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Pua, in northern Thailand Posts: 2,823	I can't imagine casual Bible readers going to the JPS site, so I don't think the discussions will be LCD. Much will depend on the intelligence of the initial comments. I've been wrong before.

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.