The Walt Whitman Archive and the prospects for social editing

Abstract

This essay considers both the promise and perils of "social editing," a term strongly associated with user-generated content. The idea of user-contributed content has been greeted with enthusiasm in some quarters and with skepticism and anxiety in others. We can learn from the crowdsourcing efforts undertaken thus far and can glimpse some of the new possibilities on the horizon. To what extent might users of electronic editions help projects such as the Walt Whitman Archive address the extensive and costly work that stands in the way of the realization of a digital scholarly edition? How can the Archive best negotiate the roles of scholarly specialists and interested users, and in particular, how can quality control be established without discouraging user involvement?.