Seamless editions: a future imaginary of digital editions for learning and public engagement

This chapter will propose and examine a way to conceptualise the creation of future digital editions for broader audiences, particularly for purposes of learning and public engagement, namely the idea of ‘seamless editions’. This idea builds upon a conceptual framework developed by the author for the dissemination of digital editions. It will combine this framework with ideas drawn from a growing field within the educational sciences, that of ‘seamless learning’. Digital editions come in many shapes and sizes, and as a scholarly output there is no clear-cut consensus on where its definitional boundaries lie, but they are rather something experimental that may continue to remain in a state of development and redefinition. The continuing definitional ambiguity of digital editions could in some ways be viewed as a sort of identity crisis, but this lack of clear boundaries can also be treated as a freedom and an opportunity to experiment and diversify. The potential of editions to reach a broader audience in the digital medium is a long running ambition of many in the field. This chapter seeks to help intensify that discussion in the scholarly editing community and add impetus to reaching that potential by focusing on a conceptual approach to the design of digital editions for learning and outreach purposes.