Emerging from the Shadows

Being involved in the project and being added as one of the authors felt really odd, and the MOO experience highlighted that feeling. Specifically feeling like the "odd woman out" and wondering what type of contribution I really made. I was not part of the conceptualization process, I really didn't contribute any in the way of content, so how did I really shape the text? Mike would ask for my contributions of commentary or links, but I would remain silent because I did not really feel a part of the text. After this last request and a lot of musing I realized my contribution to this text was not unlike that of a translator. I took texts that were less visually and hypertextually formed and "translated" them into their current hypertext format; at the time what I saw as a strictly technical contribution. I took the ideas that Will had, chose backgrounds and graphics, and created some of the links. I thought about breaking up Jonathan's text to make it more "hypertextual" like the others, but instead decided to leave it in its more "traditional" form because I thought it might change Jonathan's text too much. In looking back on my task, these were subtle yet powerful decisions and in the end influences how a reader comes to this overall text.