The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will attempt to organize the topical matter of an academic discipline in a comprehensive and innovative way by creating a dynamic reference work of exceptionally large scope using information technologies. The goals of the project are: - to design and implement a customized work-flow system through which academic philosophers can collaboratively write, maintain, track and summarize the new ideas being published in print and electronic media- to produce a comprehensive reference work useful not only to scholars, but to the general public as well- to develop XML standards for the materials of philosophy applicable to other topical areas research funds from the Digital Libraries Initiative would be part of a larger base of support for the project and targeted toward advances in work-flow system development and building user interface tools that can fully exploit the features of a dynamic reference work. Examples of these include evolving concept maps, dynamic cross-referencing based on user needs, etc. The methods used to achieve this can serve as an example for other disciplines in the humanities and sciences.