Blog #2: Orlando

The website for Orlandois very minimal and easy on the eyes, but when I first visited the site I found myself feeling lost and confused. I didn't know where to look or how to access information. It wasn't really a self-explanatory site. That said, once I figured it out, I found Orlando to be a very interesting project!

For those who are wondering what Orlando is, the website states,

Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles is an online cultural history generated from the lives and works of over 1200 writers, and for readers with an interest in literature, women's writing, or cultural history more generally. With almost eight million words of text, it is full of interpretive information on women, writing, and culture. Orlando currently features 1012 British women writers--listed twice in cases of multiple, shifting, or contested nationality--; 13,495 free-standing chronology entries; 25,616 bibliographical listings; 2,438,588 tags; 7,861,990 words (exclusive of tags).

 One of my favourite sections is Today in Orlando - a page that highlights related events in history. For example, a number of events are listed for today, January 14th. The earliest entry states that in 1664, "Poems by the Incomparable, Mrs K. P. was advertised for sale by Richard Marriott of Fleet Street, London." The latest entry states,

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, converted to Catholicism, becoming the first Roman Catholic member of the British Royal Family in more than 300 years.
Her husband, the Duke of Kent, a cousin of both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, stands in the line of succession. Though the Act of Succession (1701) prohibits heirs to the throne from being or marrying a Roman Catholic, officials said the Duchess’s conversion would have no constitutional implications since she had been an Anglican at the time of her marriage.

So we can see the scope of this project. Not only does it cover a long period of history - up until modern times - but it also includes information that situates the literature in history. I like an approach like that.

I decided to try out the system. First, I went to the Writers with Entries page. I selected the British author Ariadne. This brought me to a page dedicated to the author. This page was much easier to comprehend than the main website. I could easily navigate the sections - overview, life & writing, writing, life, timeline, links, links excerpts, and works by. I love how this broke up the information into neat pieces. The overview also lists milestones and a quick blurb about the author, so the reader gets some background knowledge on the person. I can see how this would be a very valuable resource for researchers and there is just so much information here that it really is a goldmine of knowledge.

However, I noticed that Orlando is a subscription service, and without a paid subscription, viewers cannot see any of the real information. I found myself dwelling on this fact, especially given the recent news reports surrounding the suicide of Aaron Swartz. Should scholarly information be available for free? Is a free and open internet really possible? According to Aaron Swartz,

You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends … Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.

Honestly, I'm still undecided. I think that there were a lot of mistakes in the way Swartz's case was handled (although JSTOR is to be commended) but I'm not sure that it was the right way for Swartz to make a statement or if having everything online be free is really feasible.