ABSTRACT
This chapter presents four sections that span the life of this particular project. It shows that these phases are familiar and applicable to other developers of applied media studies or digital humanities projects as well: Addressing a Need, Starting Up on a Shoestring, Completing and Launching the Software and Sustaining and Improving the Project. The chapter describes a personal account of Lantern, spanning the process of development, the public launch, and the past three years of maintenance and growth. Despite obtaining university support, better hardware, and skillful collaborations, Lantern stalled for almost an entire year before the pace of development picked up again in the summer of 2013. The Lantern team members who were able to attend the award presentation in Seattle took a group selfie, a wink to a stunt that Ellen DeGeneres had pulled just a couple weeks earlier when she hosted the Oscars.
