19 I. Sicily: Building a Digital Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient Sicily

: This paper presents the I.Sicily project. We focus first upon its original rationale and construction, since this provides explanations for the particular choices and approaches adopted, before exploring some of the challenges faced, as well as current and future developments. We believe that I.Sicily offers an interesting case study of a deliberately open-ended, continuous work-in-progress corpus. The project is constructed on the assumption that collaboration is key to its success, and that collaboration will only increase. We examine the potential for the creation of Linked Open Data, which we consider essential to creating the primary point of reference for the study of Sicilian epigraphy, and to the creation of a resource to support and facilitate research while simultaneously enhancing and supporting the accessibility of Sicilian epigraphy. This last aim is served both directly through the project’s web-interface, and indirectly by supporting and facilitating the work of the institutions which curate the majority of the material: we conclude with an illustration of a wide-ranging, museum-based, community collaboration.