We are building a platform for engaging with the world’s public domain texts using the latest open tools and processes.
Join us »

Dream of a Unified Text

We have a dream, a dream we’ve had for a while.

In this dream we’re able to explore, seamlessly, online, every text ever written. With the click of a button we can go from Pynchon to Proust, from Musil to Machiavelli, from Homer to Hugo.

And in this dream not only can we read, but we can contribute, can add to these texts — by annotating, by anthologizing, by interlinking, by translating, by borrowing.

And we see what others have shared, what notes they have added, what selections they have made. We can see the interweaving of these texts created by borrowing, by inspiration, by reference, all made concrete by the insight and efforts of myself and others and their ability to layer their insights freely upon those original texts — just as those writers built upon the works that had gone before them.

And while each text still can stand still stand alone — in all its greatness or mediocrity — we have something new, a single unified corpus woven together out of this multitude of separate text — e pluribus unum.

A whole that is a concrete instantiation in an immaterial realm of the cultural achievement of mankind as expressed in the written word.

We have within our grasp, the realisation of the dream of a unified text. Combining text and technology we can create something truly extraordinary.

Photo by William Hoiles, CC-BY

Projects

Open Shakespeare

Open Shakespeare provides the complete works of Shakespeare, along with textual apparatus (introduction, notes) and tools (concordance, search, annotation, word frequency, etc.) all in an open form.

Open Milton

Open Milton is the sister site of Open Shakespeare, demonstrating the ease with which Open Shakespeare‘s code may be adapted to other uses.

Open Correspondence

Open Correspondence allows its users to explore the correspondence – and the social networks – of the nineteenth century literary world. At the moment the project currently contains some of the letters of Charles Dickens but we’re working to expand to it include many other authors such as Jane Austen, George Eliot and Byron.

Tools

Annotateit

With Annotateit, you can annotate any web page with embedded javascript or the bookmarklet.