 
 
It has been illuminating to read this post (and ones by Claire Warwick and Evan McGonagill) underscoring the value of metacommentary in the <em>Whitman Archive</em>. Ed Whitley clearly wants us to devote more time to creating such metacommentary.  What we have to balance is the need to make headway on our attempt to edit Whitman's writings and to fulfill the promises made in grant applications against the development of the metacommentary.
 
At times, I have thought that we could host a blog dedicated to the process of creating the<em> Archive.</em> It could deal with the issues of encoding choices, as Ed W. mentions, but it could also deal with a host of other matters: workflow decisions, grant writing, negotiations with university administrators, questions of long term preservation, technical standards and platforms, and so on.  I think such a blog could be immensely valuable.  The only reason I haven't pushed for its creation is that we are scrambling to keep up with current obligations, and it is hard to imagine how to fit this undertaking into the schedule, too.  Nonetheless, given the amount of interest in this topic across several posts, I am sure we will think hard about this matter in coming years and perhaps we'll somehow find a way to discuss more fully and open up more completely the process of creating the <em>Archive. </em>