Issues that need consideration

Conversion of textbooks to digital format:

• How to divide content between pages, so as to avoid cutting of content in the middle of paragraphs and yet avoid excessive scrolling.
  Could be 1 page per chapter or section, with JavaScript-generated "screen pages" (e.g. only displaying 3-5 paragraphs at a time)
• Once past the prototyping phase, a major factor in determining the adoption rate of the digital supplements will be the amount of work required to convert a traditional textbook into digital form. We will need to provide the necessary tools, guides, and technical support. Also, do we convert the source text to Wikispaces markup, TiddlyWiki markup, or both?
• Might be worth looking through the Wikispaces "Space of the Month" category to see what others have accomplished with Wikispaces
• general problem when translating traditional monographs into the hypertext realm: strict linearity vs. navigational flexibility
  • traditional texts usually require sequential progression (e.g. the reader should know about page 3 before reading page 4)
  • hypertext are (ideally) created so that each "entity" (e.g. page) can be considered "autonomous", with no prior knowledge required, or with potentially unknown terms being cross-linked to their respective pages
  • hypertexts require that structural relations are obvious and immediately traceable (e.g. through "breadcrumbs")

• research should be done on what is already out there in terms of (collaborative?) hypertext books (e.g. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page)