This is a working draft of a lexicon and menu of critical questions for analyzing cultural and historical materials in electronic form, particularly as sites on the World Wide Web (although most of the questions equally apply to cd-rom and other multimedia/hypermedia formats). These questions do not attempt to cover all sites on the World Wide Web, just those making some claims to presenting cultural and historical materials with some academic, scholarly, or educational knowledge orientation.

The lexicon is intended as the beginning of a vocabulary for critically discussing how the design and execution of electronic environments provide the context for the creation of cultural and historical knowledge. In general these questions are intended to cover multiple genres at once; some specific genres (such as games, large text corpora, hypertext fiction) would certainly require more specialized sets of critical questions. Some of the vocabulary is borrowed and adapted from various sources. (See NOTES).

WHAT KIND OF ELECTRONIC TEXT SITE IS IT?

Is it an index? "Organizational agent" for a particular discipline? Is it primarily a primary source archive or database? An electronic version of a text corpus? A "thick site" of information gathered on a particular topic? Is it exploratory, playful, pedagogical? Is it primarily a reference or scholarly site? Is it an exhibition, collection, documentary? Is it a textbook or reference work? Since most sites on the Web are mixed and integrated, what aspects of the site are privileged or foregrounded? Is there a hierarchy or emphasis among its multiple genres?

WHAT AUDIENCE(S) DOES THE SITE ADDRESS?

Does it assume its users are novice or expert learners in the field? Does it differentiate among (implicitly or explicitly address) multiple kinds of users? Does the site distinguish between general and specialized knowledge?

HOW DOES THE SITE CONSTRUCT ITS AUTHORITY AND AUTHORIAL PRESENCE?

Is the site professional, commercial, or amateur? Who owns and designs the site? How is authorial presence represented? Is authorship singular, multiple, collective, diffused? What are the sources of the site's authority? Is authority a highlighted (self-conscious) element of the site? Does the site overall provide a venue for discipline-based (i.e. specialized) authorities to speak or be represented? How does the site construct its accountability?

IS THE SITE ORGANIZED AROUND A PARTICULAR METAPHOR OR SET OF ORGANIZATIONAL METAPHORS?

To what extent does its design borrow from book design principles? What kinds of print texts is it modeled on? Is it encyclopedic (alphabetic, synoptic, categorical)? A textbook? Bibliography? Critical collection? Is it based on media or multimedia models: print magazine, video, film? Is the site organized spatially (shopping mall, city, library)? Is it organized metaphorically as an interactive space (town square, parlor, agora, classroom, conference)?

HOW IS THE SITE DESIGNED STRUCTURALLY AND/OR ARCHITECTURALLY?

With what kind of structure is the site organized and presented? What aspects are presented as a grid or table? A hierarchy? A narrative or sequence? A Web? How do the multiple components fit together? What components are treated more centrally?

HOW DOES THE SITE STRUCTURE AND ENABLE USER ORIENTATION TO MATERIALS?

What kinds of filters or metadata are available for users to navigate the site's content? Does the site include its own finding aids? What tools does the site provide for search and retrieval? Does the site offer multiple search strategies and interfaces for different kinds of users? To what extent are the multiple search/finding tools integrated with the sites' knowledge-constructing strategies? Does the metadata reference only the content internal to the site or does the metadata position the site's electronic materials in relation to a field of knowledge?

HOW DOES THE SITE STRUCTURE THE USER'S MOBILITY?

How is the user's movement within the site structured? Is it narrative? Top-down? Back and forth between grid-content? Is the linking structure primarily paratactic (coordinating) or hypotactic (subordinating, embedded)? Are there ways to navigate an embedded linking structure? Is the site an open or closed system? Is it highly cohesive or indexical to external sources (that is, is movement centripetal or centrifugal)? How do internal and external hypertext features interact and coexist? What level of recurrence does the site's hypertext have? Is there a sense of internal integration? Depth? Is the site compartmentalized or fluid?

HOW ARE PRIMARY HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL TEXTS RENDERED ELECTRONICALLY?

What elements of the original primary texts are represented in electronic form? What elements of the original texts are privileged? Is the physical text/artifact represented electronically? As facsimile? Are the physical characteristics of the text as object recorded and preserved? Are text artifacts rendered as historical evidence, aesthetic objects, or objects for critical analysis? What design elements facilitate "artifactual" rendering in the site? Are electronic texts rendered as hypertexts or as discrete object with their original integrity?

IN WHAT WAYS DOES THE ELECTRONIC TEXT TRANSFORM THE ORIGINAL PRIMARY TEXT?

What elements of the electronic text site work to fix or stabilize the primary text (i.e. functioning as editorial and textual apparatus), as opposed to destabilizing it? Are the primary text boundaries rendered porously or rigidly? How is the nature of primary texts transformed in electronic space by way of representing textual knowledge? Do elements of the electronic text explicitly or implicitly address that transformation? How does the site distinguish among kinds of texts? Are all primary texts treated equally? Is there a privileging or foregrounding of one type of text over another?

WHAT ROLE DO NARRATIVE OR INTERPRETIVE ELEMENTS PLAY IN THE ELECTRONIC TEXT OR SITE?

If there is a narrative structure present, what is it? Documentary (cohesive, organized, narrative)? Is it dialogic? Is it multivocal? Are there metanarratvive (metahistorical) elements? What elements of the site act as interpreters? How is the electronic text influenced by a thesis, interests, bias, frame of reference? Is that frame of reference rendered self-consciously or unself-consciously?

HOW DOES THE ELECTRONIC TEXT CONSTRUCT KNOWLEDGE?

How does the electronic text or site interrelate its archival, database, narrative, metanarrative, or indexical elements? Is the site compartmentalized into zones of knowledge? What characterizes the different zones? Is the site's function primarily "iterative" (i.e. referencing and making available established disciplinary materials and approaches) or "interrogative" (i.e. questioning particular disciplinary approaches)? {These stances can be rhetorical and need not be one or the other.} How does the sites represent the user's role in the construction of knowledge? Is it passive, active, collaborative? Does the site present knowledge-making as constructive? Does the site utilize inquiry strategies as a structuring element? Are there elements of the electronic text that dramatize discovery and knowledge-making?

WHAT ARE THE RHETORICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE ELECTRONIC TEXT?

Does the electronic text have an argument? Is the argument represented by its bias and interests or is the argument represented as a play of possibilities? How does the site oscillate between presentational and instrumental elements? Are there elements of play, purpose, or both? What design or structural elements facilitate an oscillation between play and purpose, direction and indirection? How does the site or electronic text serve to analogize the knowledge-object: as drama? as game? as text? as world? How are the interrelationships of the knowledge-object represented in electronic form? Is hypertext employed rhetorically? Are hypertext and hypermedia links informational? Intertextual? Illustrative? Is hypertext employed as part of the site's knowledge-making strategies?

IN WHAT WAYS IS THE SITE COLLABORATIVE AND WRITABLE?

In what ways does the site or electronic text invite collaboration? How is it responsive to collaboration? Is collaboration unidirectional? Is the text alterable, dynamic, writable? How central are the collaborative elements of the site? Are they compartmentalized or integrated with other components of the site?

NOTES:

(1) These questions are addressed as if all of these elements might be present in a single site; however, it may often be the case that some sites serve the purpose of being the mediating filter between users and electronic primary materials. In educational situations, it would be the teacher who would also serve to mediate electronic materials for learners. However, no electronic text source could exist without some amount of framing and filtering. Therefore, these questions are meant as much as critical prompts for examining particular sites as they are meant to raise the questions about the "location" of these filtering and interpretive functions in a total user-resource context.

2. The vocabulary in these critical questions in some cases was suggested by different sources. Some of these sources include: Clifford Geertz ("Blurred Genres"); Richard Lanham ("Electronic Word"); Roy Rosenzweig ("What's Next for Clio?") and Rosenzweig/O'Malley ("Brave New World or Blind Alley?"), Henrietta Shirk ("Cognitive Architecture"), and William Horton ("Designing and Writing Online Documentation").

3. Comments to: rbass@guvax.georgetown.edu

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