 Good morning. I'm Allison Levy. I'm Director of Brown University Digital Publications, and I'm going to speak this morning about diversifying digital publishing. I agree. It's a great follow-up to the panel we just heard from. So let me begin by addressing need. Born digital publications create exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge by advancing scholarly arguments in ways not achievable in a conventional print format, whether through multimedia enhancements or interactive engagement with research materials. Combined with open access publishing models, these new scholarly forms are increasing the visibility and reach of humanity scholarship to audiences both within and beyond the academy in unprecedented ways. Yet the majority of this innovative work is being generated at well-resourced predominantly white institutions, and I should note that digital content development generally falls to the author or the author's institution rather than the publisher. To help bridge this divide, Brown University Library, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, has developed a training institute for scholars who wish to pursue interpretive projects that require digital expression and digital publication, but may lack the necessary resources and capacity at their home institutions. Centered on inclusion and accessibility, born digital scholarly publishing, resources and roadmaps, and NEH Institute on Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities provides multi-pronged, far-reaching support for scholars from less well-resourced institutions via an intensive summer program and a digital hub that makes all course materials publicly available. The curriculum, which couples the concentrated delivery of foundational knowledge and practical resources with hands on individualized developmental editing workshops, consolidates the successful path to university press publication formulated by Brown University Digital Publications, a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation. And here I show you a selection of the course units. Taught by internationally recognized DH scholars, librarians and technologists shown in the top register, authors of born digital publications in the middle and at the bottom leading university press directors, acquisitions editors and production managers. This first of its kind training program provides participants with robust learning and rare networking opportunities. A major objective is to expand the voices, perspectives and visions represented in born digital scholarly publication. That is to support outstanding scholars with excellent ideas across the breadth of higher education helping them to realize their first rate projects for the benefit of students, scholarship and the wider public. Indeed, by demystifying and streamlining the digital publication endeavor, the institute aims to expedite and broaden the dissemination of knowledge on both the local and global levels. First, the hope is that participants will impact change at their own institutions by sharing the institute curriculum with colleagues and inspiring others to pursue digital publication. Second, by facilitating the issuing of contracts and the road to publication, the hope is that new ideas and perspectives will reach readers in a timely manner, in turn inspiring readers to impact change in their own communities. Let me now introduce the 2022 cohort. Fifteen exceptional scholars representing a wide range of humanities disciplines, geographic areas and career stages. In terms of academic rank, we have here one adjunct, two postdocs and four assistant, six associate and two full professors. Geographically, the cohort represents eight states plus the District of Columbia. We received a total of 44 applications, six of those from international applicants. We had a 100% acceptance rate for the 15 invitations extended and there were numerous requests to be added to a wait list with at least one applicant offering to cover his own expenses. Nine of the participants or 60% of the cohort currently teach at HBCUs. Taking into account this group's prior teaching appointments and undergraduate and graduate education, the cohort represents a network of 15 HBCUs. I'd like to share a couple of cohort voices. These excerpted from the applications. My university is culturally rich and socially diverse. The chance to live out my publication goals with digital experts from the Brown University Library is a dream come true. That's Latanya Rogers at Fisk University. And for Marco Robinson at Prairie View A&M University, this opportunity will have an immediate impact on my campus in my local community-based research and at other area HBCUs. The institute's reach and engagement with minority serving institutes has the potential to transform the academy and the landscape of higher education. The cohort's rigorous and compelling born digital publication projects bring to the fore the history and future of black philanthropy in the US, forgotten radio recordings of African writers in exile, and the diary of Lilian Jones Horace, the first published African American novelist in Texas and one of the first black publishers in American history. Foundational research examines the relationship between the life insurance industry and the transatlantic slave trade. The use of emerging media technologies by multi-ethnic American poets to create new forms of racial representation and political critique. And indigenous community activism in relation to Pacific Island climate justice to name just a few. A highlight of the hybrid summer program was the arrival on Brown's campus of this amazing cohort. And here you see us again on the front steps of the Rockefeller Library where we met every day in the digital scholarship lab. We extended the networking opportunities beyond acquisitions editors in the first couple of weeks to Brown faculty and administrative leaders. There were also training opportunities for our two diversity and digital publishing post-doctoral fellows and a graduate student proctor. All three were an integral part of the program. Not only did we learn with and from one another but we also had a lot of fun and I show you the cohort and the support staff out and about in Providence. At this point I'd like to share some of the post-institute feedback gathered from an anonymous survey. I learned a lot and I feel equipped with resources, tools and new colleagues outstanding the highlight of my summer. I deeply appreciated that the cohort was predominantly people of color and women because those of us from such groups don't always have the opportunity to share in an experience like this. It made a difference. For Brown to affirm our work speaks volumes. We bonded almost immediately. All of it was so empowering and valuable. I feel a special bond that I don't want to go away. Digital humanities projects are still rare in African studies. I hope to change that. This is the step I needed. This institute has changed how I think about my research trajectory and has made the process feel accessible. I feel empowered to move forward with confidence and even greater determination. I felt like I had finally found my group. I left feeling energized, hopeful and ready to work. My enthusiasm remains undaunted. Cohort communication continues well beyond the three week summer program. Virtual check-ins in October and January extend individualized problem solving and project management support. Project milestones shared during these check-ins will be added to the cohort bios and project abstracts on the institute website. This is just one small piece of a much longer page and I certainly look forward to adding links to digital publications, 15 of those before too long. At the October check-in, we learned that one project has already been contracted and at least two participants have been asked by editors on the faculty to submit a proposal and sample chapters. In a further effort to help bridge the digital divide, Brown has made publicly available the full curriculum. Anyone can access the course outline, recommended readings and captioned recordings of all faculty presentations over 18 hours of foundational knowledge informed by the most current thinking on critical issues unique to digital publication. This dynamic open access hub for digital scholarly publishing provides a continuous and active web presence for the institute, for a global public. In closing, I should say a few words about outcome and lessons learned. For the former, there is no stronger voice than that of the cohort members who continue to tell us about the ongoing value and impact of the institute on their scholarship and communities. The institute served as the catalyst I needed to kick start my research agenda. The cohort model was instantly disarming and supportive. I am so pleased that this institute bolsters the credibility for digital publishing as a scholarly form. As a direct result of your encouragement, I have sent my manuscript proposal for consideration. For me, this is a bold and courageous act that took weeks of positive self-talk. I think I'm on my way now. Thank you so very, very much for the institute. That's Latanya Rogers at FISC. The institute gave me new colleagues, new insights and new energy and excitement for the digital humanities and digital publishing. Now, I have a comprehensive orientation towards digital publishing that has reshaped my approach to my project. That's Tyrone Freeman at Indiana University. Transformative, I learned so many great concepts that I am now introducing to my students at Howard University and implementing within my work as a public historian. The program's dedication to diversity and inclusion was very apparent and it was refreshing to meet scholars from the various universities and from different backgrounds. Ashley Preston at Howard. The warm welcome, enthusiasm and assistance from the Brown University team has encouraged me to pursue digital publishing and introduced the option to my graduate students who seek to enter the academy. I am grateful for the summer institute for bringing such dynamic scholars together. I have met and stayed connected with scholars whom I may not have met had it not been for this experience. We are a digital publishing family. It's a key Anthony at Kentucky State. At Brown, we feel incredibly fortunate to have this kind of opportunity to expand the reach and impact of our efforts to advance the possibilities of digital publication for first grade scholarship. This crucial reprioritization of how and for whom the practice and production of digital scholarship is taught will have a profound impact on current and future generations of scholars. Such training can play a critical role in advancing authors' plans, but significant challenges remain for faculty with heavy teaching loads and other institutional circumstances that might impede progress. As a critical next step, we are exploring ways to provide extended author support over the full life cycle of a digital project by scholars from less resourced institutions. Meanwhile, we plan to reapply to NEH to offer the institute again next summer. And I think it goes without saying that if we are successful, the original cohort will be right back with us, serving as peer mentors to the cohort of 2024 and helping us to grow this digital publishing family. Thank you. So we have plenty of time for questions. I'm happy to take any and also extend the offer to ask questions of my co-panelists. Allison, hi, I'm James Shulman. Nice to see you in three dimensions. Hi, James. So first, congratulations. A huge amount of work and infrastructure building on the sort of relationship infrastructure that you're creating and the how to do this kind of work. I'm gonna ask you to look out at the other side, the publishing side and ask what you see among university presses and how in 10 years this might get more to scale. And they have all their challenges with packaging and delivering and preparing and audience for this very different kind of bookish thing. So what are you seeing now and what would you hope for in 10 years? Thank you, that's a great question, something we think about and talk about every day. I think more partnerships, collaboration and partnering, which we heard from at the start of the hour is really critical. Brown has developed a certain expertise in digital content development. And in my conversations with the publishers, they don't have that capacity to build that expertise. And so partnering to bring this work out has been very successful so far with our own faculty. And as we continue that work, which is really the core work that Mellon has enabled us to do, we also would like to work with faculty beyond our own campus and also think about creating digital series. Again, just to bring more work out. I think when scholars see the work, and I didn't demo one of our works today because that would be a different focus, but when scholars see the work, when publishers see the work, those eureka moments happen, I see it too. And that's when there's a lot of energy and excitement about pursuing the digital work. But I think bringing the expertise of an institution like Brown, and there are others who also have developed this or similar expertise and pairing with University Presses to support authors and bring the work out is the way forward. And I do think we will be doing a lot of this 10 years down the road much more. I'm seeing increased interest from not just again our own faculty, but about once a month. I receive an email from a scholar at another institution independent of the NEH Institute asking, can Brown develop my digital publication? And we're not currently set up to do that kind of work, but I think that that next investment will be critical to growing this body of born digital scholarship. We have partnered with MIT Press to develop a series called On Seeing, which centers underrepresented voices. It's on politically engaged visual culture and devoted to growing visual literacy. And so that's a great example of these two institutions with a shared mission, joining forces, pooling our resources and expertise to bring out this work. Hello, thank you. Thank you for your presentations, the two programs. It's, they look wonderful. I'm gonna look at that website and find all the information and see some of the sessions myself. If I have a question that, so sorry. Moriana Garcia, I am from the University of Rochester, scholarly communications, first time at CNI. And I'm also the Spark VPO for open models. My question is not related to the projects themselves, in a sense, it's about the presentations. I want to understand more why prevented both groups to bring some of those collaborators that we work with here to CNI. So why your collaborators are not here? To talk, I would love to have hearing their own voices what they are doing with all of you. So. I think I can take a stab at answering that. Thank you for your question. I believe it's because of the structure of CNI. It's my first time here as well as a speaker. But we have collaborated extensively with Emory University. Emory also has a Mellon grant to rethink digital publishing. And so my colleague there, Sarah McKee, who is now at ACLS, we have presented extensively with authors as part of the conversation because they are the ones bringing this content to us in trusting their scholarly ideas, their research with us to help shape it into this digital publication in partnership with the publishers. And so we think those voices are an essential part of the conversation, especially as we all think about what's next? How do we grow this? How do we continue this work and bring more authors into the conversation? So there is a webinar series that we co-produce with AU Presses called Adventures in Digital Publishing. I don't have that link on the slide, but I can share it with you. And there we have episodes that bring in all of the voices. So from the authors and sometimes their students who have been involved in the research to the team that's helping them to develop the work at their own institution and then the full team at the press. And that's a very transparent conversation about how this happens. And the hope there is to encourage other publishers, other members of AU Presses to see it in action and find ways to make it happen at their own press. I think that's an excellent question. We did invite some of our collaborators and they couldn't make it. If you go to, if you attend the Charleston Conference, the keynote by Dr. Boucher and Bambo Tata, who happens to be chair of the Clear Board and also a collaborator with Coherent. She actually has a very excellent presentation and I suspect a number of you have access to that presentation so you can see that maybe next year. Thank you for explaining that it's kind of something in the CNI organization and that you tried and didn't happen. It's not CNI, it was literally trying to... Here, it's complicated. It's the holiday season coming. I'm okay as well that we invited and they're like, sorry. Yep, and thank you very much. That was wonderful. And I should clarify too when I refer to the CNI structure because I understand it's the representatives from the member organizations plus the speakers. So yes, we could have had an author hopefully next time. Sorry to hog and have a second question, but I have a question for Chuck and maybe it's from three years of pinned up conversation in life that I haven't had. So Chuck, you started off by expressing a little, I would say exasperation with the competitive landscape that we're all a part of, right? And first, Steven, congratulations. That's really exciting and your colleagues. I would ask how, you know, so then the coherent digital is sort of a solution that just ignores that, you know, just sort of says we're gonna do something outside of this crazy competitive landscape because we gotta do things at work. And so you're all working together and you're building together and not letting the best be the enemy of the good. And like just doing something makes huge sense and it's hugely useful to people, right? And so I guess, Chuck, my question for you and maybe give you a chance to vent if you'd like to is what's the role for these competitive, isolated, fragmented, creative institutions in coherent digital? Is it just to be recipients of something that Steven and his colleagues build in spite of this competitive ecosystem or is there something that you would envision that they could actually do something useful in this? Thank you, James, for the question I have about an hour's worth of prepared remarks that I could share with you all but in light of time constraints. The paradox, I would say, when the committee on coherence at scale was formed, which I didn't state as explicitly, was that we sat and we looked and we discussed and deliberated for a number of years. One of the core questions was what is the problem here? What is the driver? And the answer is we're the problem. It was that stark. It's the traditions. It's the expectations. It's the almost inevitable falling back on proven forms of expression, on traditional publishing, on traditional counting, as I mentioned. And we frankly didn't see a way out of that. If one institution or two or three partnered, it would get you somewhere, maybe. It would take probably 15 or 20, we figured, to do something very different and radical and that just wasn't going to happen. So I think I would characterize what Steven and Coherent Digital are doing. It's not in spite of the traditional environment. It's in parallel with the traditional environment and it does, it skirts that environment, I think, in rather brilliant ways but at the same time it also contributes to it enormously and that's, I think, the important point. The second piece is will we change? Will this structure change possibly over time? I mean, we've been hit by pandemics, we've been hit by budget crunches, we've been hit with a lot in the last couple of years and that's gonna foment some kind of transformation, I think, over time. For now, we have in Coherent Digital is a means to make a good deal of progress very efficiently that builds on those traditions, doesn't confront them or dismiss them but builds upon them. And to me, the last point and the most important is that these, out of this comes new communities and once we see what we can get doing things differently, doing it together, this is only going to work if communities are built around this technology and the infrastructure that's implied here is not just technical, it's as Carol was saying, it's social, it's cultural, it's expertise, it's talent, it's commitment, it's engagement with future generations. That's a tall order but working within the system by using the system's rules, I don't think we're gonna get there. Coming at it from an angle, that slant angle, that different kind of sunlight, I think we can. I shouldn't add because I'm not as eloquent as Chuck and so that was a better line to leave it at but in terms of the relationship of Coherent Digital making us more coherent even as we're annoying competitive and siloed is that we have built great research, the capacity for people to do research across these siloed institutions in various ways and this is like going back to my description of the mosaic of collections and only if all these different institutions are at least doing their piece. Just as research universities, they're contributing their research, they're contributing their collections, special collections create a mosaic and in the born digital native digital wild content arena there's been no capacity, there's been no tiles that we could put together, there's been no picture that we can create. So it gives us a different kind of coherence and collaboration even if we're not signing agreements and stopping being competitive. So I'll stop there. Hey James, I think that's an excellent observation and I want to be clear here, we're in learning mode. I think what I noticed was the wild content is very heavily used by researchers and scholars and the excellent tools that we've developed over time are not typically applied to that content. So my hope that it's actually a different kind of thing and when one wants to change things going head on often doesn't work, trying to do something new on the edges may I hope start to get that dialogue working. But in the meantime, it's just an open invitation to co-create and collaborate. I also want to be clear that there's a danger here that coherent could be perceived just trying to co-op this area. That's not what we're trying to do. One of the principles that we try and work is that the materials need to be exportable and switch outable if you know what I mean. So if you have a better tool, great, use that tool. If you want to put materials on your website, great, put the materials on your website. We've tried to develop an agnostic architecture. So no matter what the cultural mandates are within an institution, we can work with them. Well, we're at time. So thank you all for coming and the great questions.