About
Digress.it is a WordPress plugin that offers paragraph-level commenting in the margins of a text. Digress.it is geared toward in-depth discussions of longer documents: article, essay or even book-length.
Blogs aren’t bad for having conversations, but comments tend to get unwieldy, and can feel detached when the original post is long. To solve this, Digress.it lets you run blog-style comment threads — digressions, if you will — off of individual paragraphs. To do this efficiently, we’ve re-imagined the conventional post-discussion hierarchy of blogs, moving the comment area from beneath the post to beside it (floating to the right) — hearkening back to the age-old practice of scribbling in page margins. We see great possibilities for educators, literary groups, political or civic activists, legal scholars, and pretty much anyone who wants to do a communal reading and encourage discussion.
Since its initial launch Digress.it has been used by universities, publishers and governments across the world and is cited on various academic and scientific journals as an exemplary online collaboration tool.
Team
Eddie A Tejeda (Creator)
Eddie is an independent technologist and creator of Digress.it. He lead the development of web projects at the Institute for the Future of the Book, where CommentPress/Digress.it was first born. Eddie now leads the development of Regulation Room at the Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative (CeRI) and is involved various projects that are rethinking openness and transparency, including LittleSis, an involuntary social network that tracks key relationships of politicians, corporate executives, lobbyists, and affiliated organizations.
Ben Vershbow (Editorial)
Ben is a web producer and theater actor/director in New York. For over three years, he worked at the Institute for the Future of the Book on a series of digital publishing experiments that eventually gave birth to CommentPress/Digress.it. Ben currently works in the New York Public Library’s Digital Experience Group on social media, e-publishing and performing arts-related projects. He is also Associate Curator of IRT Theater in the West Village.
Joss Winn (Test & Outreach)
Joss works at the University of Lincoln, UK and is also Co-director of Public Platforms Limited, which runs WriteToReply, one of the first web platforms to use digress.it. He manages the JISCPress project, which has helped fund the development of Digress.it.
Alex Bilbie (Code & Design)
Alex works at the University of Lincoln, UK as a web application developer. He works helps maintain the University’s blog network and is also a contributor to the CodeIgniter PHP framework.
Alumni
Jesse Wilbur (design)
Jesse is an interaction designer in New York, creating interfaces for the web and mobile devices. He helped develop the original interfaces for CommentPress/Digress.it at the Institute for the Future of the Book. Jesse has recently developed an interest in urban design, the unintended fruits of urban planning, and the social construction of urban life.
History
Digress.it has its roots at the Institute for the Future of the Book with a project called CommentPress. Digress.it represents a re-envisioning of the project with an emphasis on creating a public space where people can publish documents and encourage thoughtful discussions.
Funding
Digress.it is first and foremost a public service. The source code is completely free and open to be used by anyone without restriction. The hosting service is also free and without ads. The project is primarily funded by grants, donations and people interested in seeing the project stay alive. If you or your organization would like to support the project please contact eddie@digress.it
Cornell University » – the Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative (CeRI) has supported the development of the Digress.it through it’s heavy customization of the technology for Regulation Room.
University of Leicester »
New York Public Library »
University of Lincoln »
JISC » – the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) supports education and research in the use of information and communications funded the development of Digress.it.
Trinity College »
The New Media Consortium (NMC) »
Research
The Chronicle of Higher Education: Marginally Better: Software Uses Side notes to turn Books into Discussions
In The Journal of Electronic Publishing: CommentPress: New (Social) Structures for New (Networked) Texts
Tulane University: Tulane Digital Trends »
Social Science Electronic Publishing: Rulemaking in 140 Characters or Less: Social Networking and Public Participation in Rulemaking
University of Miami Law Review:Rulemaking 2.0
Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory, University of Victoria: Opening the Gates: A New Model for Edition Production in a Time of Collaboration
Contact
For questions about the project contact – eddie@digress.it