Digital Publication: advantages and disadvantages

What makes a digital publication useful?
(answer in note form)

Accessibility

 * cf. Perseus user figures as compared to books in a physical library
 * Scholars/students outside of major universities, especially in developing world where libraries can not afford obscure/expensive titles
 * costs per unit are lower (or free); development costs usually not higher
 * web accessible to new audiences who might never read a classics book otherwise

(Almost) unlimited size/space

 * not limited by page size and volume thickness
 * can expand abbreviations/conventions/glossary (improve accessibility to non-specialists)
 * can include multiple versions of text/image/media
 * ToCs
 * indices
 * images
 * appendices

Media

 * images; colour photos; scalable/zoomable images
 * multimedia: audio files, video, flash, VR, etc.
 * interactive media: "game-like" walkthroughs of archaeological sites

Hyperlinking

 * internal linking: text to footnotes (and back); cross references to notes, glossary, appendices, bibliography
 * clickable 'thumbnail' images with full images in pop-up
 * cross-references to external projects
 * importing of data from external projects (dynamic, repurposing)
 * mirroring external projects

Updating/Work in progress

 * "Oh great, that means you can update every day, right?"
 * Stability issues; citable publication

Transparency / Iterative research

 * source code (cf. Open Source model of scholarship)
 * check sources
 * indices as output and research tool

Collaboration / Community building

 * digital publication can be done by people scattered all around the world
 * an "open source" digital publication (somewhat similar to Wikipedia) can attract collaborators willing to invest time and energy in making the publication better

(to be continued)