Ferdinand Ebner Edition

The project "Critical Edition of Ferdinand Ebner`s Writings III" is a continuation of a research project that has been funded by the FWF in two stages since September 2000. It aims at publishing the complete writings of Austrian philosopher of language Ferdinand Ebner (Jan 31, 1882 - Oct 17, 1931). Its two main objectives are: 1. Historical-critical edition of all of Ebner`s writings, inasmuch as they are relevant to a proper study and understanding of the text corpus compiled so far for the digital edition or required for completing the traditional edition in print. 2. Conversion of the data compiled so far to the XML-based markup standard proposed by the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), building a state-of-the-art basis for future Ebner scholarship.

The project `Kritische Gesamtausgabe des Nachlasses von Ferdinand Ebner` was stressing two main aspects in its third stage: first, editing new texts from Ebner`s estate and second, conversion of past years` texts into an internationally acknowledged and XML-based standard of electronic markup called TEI (Text Encoding Initiative). Since issues of Ebner`s writing were designed as a hybrid edition from the start, consisting of an academically analyzing version as well as a series of books, single issues in book form have been continued. In 2007, Ferdinand Ebner`s `Tagebuch 1916` was released. Regarding content and time it is considered a preliminary for his main work `Das Wort und die geistigen Realitäten`, whose new release in 2009 will highlight all previous editions. Two more texts, `Tagebuch 1917` and the never before published early work `Ethik und Leben` - both based on an electronic version - will be going to press shortly. The essays that Ebner published for `Der Brenner`, a Tyrolean cultural journal, are forming the center of all newly added texts along with another major work named `Wort und Liebe` (Aphorismen 1931), dating from a later stage of his productive period. The scripts of those texts were electronically entered, edited analytically and complemented with annotations to foster readers` comprehension of information and context. By hiring a server paid from own resources, a first step was to prepare all texts for their conversion to the new XML/TEI standard. Furthermore, a versioning system was set up, enabling employees to simultaneously work on text files without risk of data loss. On this platform a documentation can be found which is not only serving as a means to analyze texts but also contains all TEI rules pertaining to markup. Thus aided it was possible to convert the diaries of 1912-1923 as well as the two grand works `Das Wort und die geistigen Realitäten` and `Ethik und Leben` into XML/TEI format. The new texts were adapted based on these markup standards from the start. In 2007 project leaders and coworkers took part in the Ferdinand Ebner Symposium held in Gablitz on the occasion of Ebner`s 125th birthday. As board members of the `Internationale Ferdinand Ebner Gesellschaft` they initiated a series of lectures at the Haus of Begegnung in Innsbruck. Their concern was to make notable Ebner researchers` articles publicly accessible. In 2008, Markus Flatscher was appointed Project Editor at the University of Virginia due to the experience he accumulated during his long-time involvement in the project.