Why Scalar? Well, here’s why…

1. Because it gives the reader multiple reading interfaces: the reader is permitted to traverse the network of content as s/he chooses

2. Because of its vast annotation possibilities -, annotations can provide slipping points

• Our annotations will work both as traditional annotations – as footnotes, comments from fellow scholars, as captions, as subtitles – AND as networked and networking paths linking our pieces of content.
• Also allow commenting. Might we consider continuing our editorial grab by graduating some of the public comments into the document? Or do we want to publish the project as-is and give it to the public as a finished-beginning. The living-content.
• Idea: Present an incentive by saying that comments for the first year will be considered for in-text publication. After the first year, we end our editorial control and the piece lives on (hopefully) through the public commenting)

3. Because it is a network of data with architectures built atop and within that permit one to ‘read’ the piece as a network(ed) publication

4. Because we can author passages wherein a reader can intentionally slip between layers of content.

5. Because we can author passages wherein a reader can unintentionally slip between layers of content – this lends an element of emergent discovery. Through unintentional slips (that the reader can always escape if s/he chooses) the reader can fall into an unexpected path

6. Because we can do both 4 AND 5 AND at the same time also author a prescribed reading path that acts as do the more traditional publication navigation markers and systems

7. Because pages are paths and paths are pages. Pages can have specific roles – paths, comment, annotations, tag, etc

8. Because it permits public commenting

asg