Writing History in the Digital Age

How it works: our open-source web-book

by the editors

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 This online web-book edition of Writing History in the Digital Age is powered by a self-hosted version of WordPress.org, an open-source content management system, on a server operated by Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. We appreciate the support provided by Carlos Espinosa, David Tatem, and other information technology professionals in helping us to create and maintain this site.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Our  WordPress site runs on several open-source plugins and themes. Updated February 2013: A new and improved version, CommentPress Core, is available for download from the WordPress plugin repository, with additional information at  Collaborative Writing Tools. The most important of these is CommentPress, which creates social texts where readers can write comments in the margins and discuss responses with others. CommentPress was originally developed by Eddie Tejeda at the Institute for the Future of the Book. Versions up to 3.1 were developed by Christian Wach in conjunction with Giant Chair. Version 3.2 has been produced and updated independently by Christian Wach, with version 3.3.1 now available for download on its own site, rather than the official WordPress directory of plugins and themes. The installation creates two plugins (CommentPress and CommentPress Ajaxified) and one theme (CommentPress), which have been tested up to WordPress 3.0.1. (Note that on this site, the CommentPress 3.2 theme has been customized by Jack Dougherty. See additional information at the Collaborative Writing Tools.) If you plan to create a similar web-book, also consider digress.it, also developed by Eddie Tejeda, which is currently in version 3.2

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Authors submitted their essays in Microsoft Word format, which we reviewed and uploaded to WordPress format, and granted them privileges to revise their work and enhance it with links and digital media. Katie Campbell (Trinity College Class of ’11) modified an existing macro to convert footnotes from Word to WordPress format.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 Active plugins on this site:

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0   Akismet Anti-Spam 5.0
» Automattic (url)
Used by millions, Akismet is quite possibly the best way in the world to protect your blog from spam. It keeps your site protected even while you sleep. To get started: activate the Akismet plugin and then go to your Akismet Settings page to set up your API key.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0   Classic Editor 1.6.2
» WordPress Contributors (url)
Enables the WordPress classic editor and the old-style Edit Post screen with TinyMCE, Meta Boxes, etc. Supports the older plugins that extend this screen.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0   CommentPress Core 3.9.11
» Institute for the Future of the Book (url)
CommentPress allows readers to comment in the margins of a text. You can use it to annotate, gloss, workshop, debate and more!

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0   Custom Author Byline 1.2
» Marty Martin (url)
Allows you to add a custom author name to the byline other than the logged in user writing/editing the post/page.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 0   Disable Comments 2.4.0
» WPDeveloper (url)
Allows administrators to globally disable comments on their site. Comments can be disabled according to post type. You could bulk delete comments using Tools.

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0   Exclude Pages from Navigation 1.92
» Simon Wheatley (url)
Provides a checkbox on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation. IMPORTANT NOTE: This will remove the pages from any “consumer” side page listings, which may not be limited to your page navigation listings.

¶ 10 Leave a comment on paragraph 10 0   FD Footnotes 1.36
» John Watson (url)
Elegant and easy to use footnotes

¶ 11 Leave a comment on paragraph 11 0   Google Analyticator 6.5.4
» SumoMe (url)
Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin you need to authenticate with Google, then select your domain and you’re set.

¶ 12 Leave a comment on paragraph 12 0   iThemes Sync 2.1.10
» iThemes (url)
Manage updates to your WordPress sites easily in one place.

¶ 13 Leave a comment on paragraph 13 0   Quick Page/Post Redirect Plugin 5.2.3
» anadnet (url)
Redirect Pages, Posts or Custom Post Types to another location quickly (for internal or external URLs). Includes individual post/page options, redirects for Custom Post types, non-existant 301 Quick Redirects (helpful for sites converted to WordPress), New Window functionality, and rel=nofollow functionality.

¶ 14 Leave a comment on paragraph 14 0   ScholarPress Coins 2.2
» Sean Takats, Jeremy Boggs, Daniel Jones, Boone Gorges (url)
Makes your blog posts readable by various COinS interpreters.

¶ 15 Leave a comment on paragraph 15 0   SSL Insecure Content Fixer 2.7.2
» WebAware (url)
Clean up WordPress website HTTPS insecure content

¶ 16 Leave a comment on paragraph 16 0   SubHeading 1.8.1
» StvWhtly (url)
Adds the ability to show a subheading for posts, pages and custom post types. To display subheadings place <?php the_subheading(); ?> in your template file.

¶ 17 Leave a comment on paragraph 17 0   Wordfence Security 7.11.5
» Wordfence (url)
Wordfence Security – Anti-virus, Firewall and Malware Scan

¶ 18 Leave a comment on paragraph 18 0   WP-PluginsUsed 1.50.2
» Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan (url)
Display WordPress plugins that you currently have (both active and inactive) onto a post/page.

¶ 19 Leave a comment on paragraph 19 0   wpLicense-WritingHistory 1.2.2
» Nathan R. Yergler (url)
Modified by Jack Dougherty for Writing History edited volume. Allows selection of a Creative Commons license for blog content.