Scott Rettberg (ELMCIP elmcip.net/) & Joe Tabbi (ELD directory.eliterature.org/) discuss how the acceleration of technology has influenced the stability of e-lit and discourse.
As directors of archives with extensive historical roots in the history of the ELO, both these individuals contribute formidably to the 'collective memory' of electronic literature. Preservation and re-construction of reader experience are problematic issues; preserving e-lit involves preserving the context and networks of discourse that envelop e-literature in an 'ecology'. Optimal success involves creating the conditions for project 'interoperability': linking conversations and structures that ensure continuity.
Neither Rettberg nor Tabbi, anticipated when they started that they would become become archivists, yet they now keep e-lit data from getting wet and/or disappearing.
(Source: David Jhave Johnston's description)