ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the digital critical editions to be recognized as a deeper, richer and potentially very different kind of publication from printed editions of texts, even if such editions are digitized and made available in open content form. Open Source Critical Editions (OSCE) are more than merely presentations of finished work; they involve an essential distribution of the raw data, the scholarly tradition, the decision-making process, and the tools and applications that were used in reaching these conclusions. The Open Content model is an extremely important new movement in publication; the OSCE proposal is for a potentially new approach to research itself. In theory the editorial and even publication implications of the Open Source Critical Editions discussion allow for a wide range of approaches, from a traditional one-editor text published in static form to a free-for-all wiki that can be contributed to concurrently and without restriction by any number of editors.
