INTERVIEW: Marko Stech speaks about Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine project (10/12/03)

INTERVIEW: Marko Stech speaks about Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine project

Dr. Marko R. Stech is project manager of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine project at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (CIUS) and managing director of the CIUS Press. Apart from overall project management of the encyclopedia, he was responsible for developing the general concept of the IEU Internet site and for supervising the programming of this site by Jaroslaw Kiebalo.

Currently he leads a group of editors working on a painstaking task of editing existing IEU entries in order to adapt them for Internet use. In the meantime, a process of writing new IEU entries, particularly those dealing with post-Soviet Ukraine, is also under way under the supervision of the IEU's managing editor, Roman Senkus.

The following interview was prepared by the CIUS to familiarize readers with the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

Q: Why the Encyclopedia of Ukraine project? Why do you consider it to be important?

A: A specifically "national" encyclopedia, like the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, represents, so to speak, a modern definition of a given nation. It is an extensive database containing not only information about, but also the experience of many generations, that defines the national history, culture, art, and social customs. One can no longer imagine a modern, developed nation without its own encyclopedia.

In the particular case of Ukraine, our first encyclopedias also had a specific goal. In the face of blatant denials of the very existence of the Ukrainian nation, the first Ukrainian encyclopedias were designed to provide a sort of scholarly and scientific proof that we actually exist as a nation with our specific history and culture. I am quite sure that Prof. Volodymyr Kubijovyc and his co-workers had this in mind when they worked on the Entsyklopedia Ukrainoznavstva in France and North America after World War II. They also worked to preserve for posterity our historical and cultural heritage that was being systematically destroyed in the Soviet Union.

Q: But another goal of a "national" encyclopedia should be to represent a given national culture in the world, correct?

A: Yes, absolutely correct. And this has been and continues to be a very vital aspect for Ukrainians because, until recently, the world did not recognize our existence as a separate nation and considered Ukraine to be, to a greater or lesser extent, a part of Russia.

Unfortunately, still a lot needs to be done in order to change this deeply ingrained perception, especially as far as our history and culture are concerned. And in order for the encyclopedia to serve this kind of purpose, it must be made available to foreign readers. And this means that it must be published in a language that can be understood by other nations and it must be physically accessible in foreign countries.

This was the goal and purpose of the English-language Encyclopedia of Ukraine prepared by CIUS in cooperation with the Shevchenko Scientific Society (France) and supported financially by the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies. The five-volume encyclopedia was published between 1984 and 1993 in Toronto, and distributed to the majority of important libraries and institutions, and it can also be found in the homes of thousands of individuals.

Q: But now you are transferring this Encyclopedia to the Internet.

A: Yes, although what you say is not exactly correct. The transfer of the EU database to the Internet is only one of the steps in our project. The original EU database, consisting of over 15,000 entries, has been and will continue to be considerably expanded and updated. In addition, we will be adding great numbers of new graphic and multimedia information. As a result, the Internet Encyclopedia will represent a new and previously unavailable learning and information resource.

In order to give you a fuller picture, I need to explain the main reasons why CIUS decided to create the Internet Encyclopedia. First, we had to consider the question of currency of the information presented in our encyclopedia. A book is a final physical result of a printing process, and, once printed, it cannot be changed. Owners of the five-volume set of the encyclopedia know very well that much of the information contained in the first volumes, especially in volume 1, published in 1984, is no longer valid and up to date. This was the time when no one could imagine that within a span of several years the Soviet Union would collapse and Ukraine would become an independent country. That's why any "contemporary" entry in volume 1 makes references not to Ukraine, but to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and so on.

In our Internet Encyclopedia we are dealing with information in an electronic format that can be changed and updated at any time. In fact, we have been changing and will continue to regularly change information on our site, and the entries we have already uploaded are up to date. We can also add new entries. For example, the printed encyclopedia contains no information on such prominent Ukrainian statesmen as Viktor Yuschenko or Leonid Kuchma, who were not yet prominent enough at the time when the encyclopedia was published. We can add any new and newly discovered information to our site without problems at any time.

Q: And what are other reasons for switching to the Internet format?

A: The second main reason is the question of accessibility. The printed volumes of the five-volume encyclopedia are available in many libraries and in many private homes, but still, in order to be able to use this information, you have to be in the place where these five large books are physically accessible and you have to hold them in your hands. This is possible primarily in larger cities in North America and Europe.

Working with the Internet allows us to be accessible literally everywhere and at any time. Whether it is Asia, Africa, South America, or Europe, whether a student in Australia or a journalist in Russia - anyone who has a computer and access to the Internet can at any time access our site and view the information on Ukraine that we currently have available. Our website, which is already being visited by anywhere from 150 to 400 visitors each day, is often logged on to by people from Europe and Asia, for example, from such countries as Korea, Japan and the Philippines, who have never had access to the printed edition of the EU.

And finally, the third main reason for switching to the Internet format are technical possibilities that were simply unthinkable in the past. Apart from the text and a limited number of illustrations available in a printed version of a book, we can provide the viewer with practically unlimited number of graphic information as well as with audio and multimedia files.

Imagine that over 20,000 in-depth articles on all aspects of Ukraine, its history, people, geography, society, economy, diaspora and cultural heritage are freely accessible to anyone at any time and in any place in the world. And imagine that these entries are accompanied by thousands of maps, photographs, illustrations, tables, music files and multimedia materials that allow viewers to see photographs of prominent people they are reading about; to find exact locations of cities, mountains, or rivers; to view architectural monuments and works of art, and to listen to musical compositions mentioned in the text. This is exactly what the Internet Encyclopedia is designed to be.

The final result of this complex, multi-year project, initiated by CIUS in 2001, will be a highly sophisticated and by far the most comprehensive source of information in the English language on Ukraine and Ukrainians.

Q: This all sounds quite ambitious, but how realistic is it that this project will be successfully implemented? How much of this work has already been done?

A: I am pleased to say that the probability that the Internet Encyclopedia project will eventually be successfully completed is very high. I can say it simply because our IEU team, working at the CIUS Toronto office, has already passed several crucial tests, and that means that we have already proven beyond any doubt the most important thing: that we have the expertise and resources to successfully complete this complex work, provided that we find enough financial backing.

For one, we have completed the design and programming stage of our project. Our website is fully operational and it can be accessed at any time at www.encyclopediaofukraine.com. This programming process proved to be quite challenging, primarily because we had to accommodate our linking and search functions for the great variety of multinational characters that appear in the Encyclopedia. Although most of this work had to be done literally from scratch, we still managed to create a site that has a more sophisticated linking and search capabilities than, for example, the Internet edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Second, we have already converted the EU database from an old and practically unusable computer format to a modern format that we can work with. Subsequently, we have developed a system of dealing with the painstaking and very time-consuming work of correcting conversion errors, editing and updating files and adapting them for Internet use. Over 800 entries have already been edited, updated and uploaded to our site and Internet users have the ability to access detailed information on such topics as "Black Sea," "Bukovyna," "Central Rada," "Christianization of Ukraine," "Cossacks," "Ivan Franko," "Bohdan Khmelnytsky," "Kyivan Rus'," "Ivan Mazepa," "Yaroslav the Wise," and many, many others. Also we have already developed sophisticated map displays, so that viewers can not only see the exact location of such towns as "Drohobych" or "Halych" on local maps, but also view where exactly they are located with reference to Ukrainian borders, etc. Although at this point in time we are focusing primarily on making the text of entries available on our site, some of our entries, such as "Industry," already have tables and diagrams, and, if you visit such entries as "Dmytro Bortniansky" or "Maksym Berezovsky," you can listen to the musical compositions described in the text.

Finally, we have already developed the basic mechanism of researching and writing new entries, and very soon over 100 completely new entries dealing with contemporary Ukraine will be available on our site. That means that at this point we have successfully overcome all of the most perilous technical and organizational difficulties, and I can say with complete certainty that we have what it takes to complete this complex work.

However, how fast and how completely we will be able to do this will depend, to a large extent, on the kind of support we can obtain from our Ukrainian community in North America.

Q: What kind of support are you referring to?

A: First and foremost, we desperately need financial resources not only to continue with the project, but also to complete the first version of the IEU as soon as possible. CIUS is fully dedicated to the project and every year provides roughly $50,000 to the IEU budget. Also, having recognized the importance of the IEU in the process of disseminating objective information about Ukraine in the world, several individuals and institutions, such as the Curkowskyj Foundation, have supported us financially in the past.

However, additional, on-going financial support from individual and organizational benefactors is crucial if this immense, multi-year project is to achieve its goal. CIUS encourages benefactors either to support the current operation of the IEU, or to create endowments designated for any area of study that will be featured on the IEU. Only with such long-term support can we produce the final result that can properly represent Ukrainians in the world.

We are also grateful for moral support in various forms. The one thing I would ask your readers to do is: please visit our site, read the information it contains, send us your comments, tell your friends and acquaintances about this site. If you are a teacher, encourage your students to use our site, etc.

In some cases, individuals can be helpful in providing us with graphic and audio materials for our site. For example, Bohdan Skrobach of Toronto volunteered to scan maps and tables from the printed encyclopedia and this was extremely helpful for the project.

In short, your help can take a variety of forms, but the important thing for us is that people begin to consider the Internet Encyclopedia as a project that is very important and useful to them personally, to their children, families and friends. After all, it is our common interest to present our history, culture and our current community to the rest of the world in the best form we can.

Q: How much work remains to be done and what are your predictions regarding the implementation schedule?

A: As you can probably imagine, the amount of work required to create and maintain an encyclopedia is immense. Apart from the technical work of preparing our text and multimedia files for our site, there is a tremendous amount of editing to be done, plus there is a need for continous research and gathering of information on a wide variety of subjects in various fields. Any encyclopedia project also needs a team of subject editors who specialize in different areas of knowledge and can write new entries.

Our current budget allows us to employ only three permanent staff members, and only on a part-time basis. This includes Roman Senkus, managing editor, Andrij Makuch, senior manuscript editor, and myself. Anyone else needed by the project has to be hired on a very temporary contractual basis, and this greatly limits our choices. Also, our budget does not allow us to develop at this point a full team of subject editors, necessary for writing new entries.

In order to work at optimum speed, our project needs a minimum of $250,000 per year, which is a small sum compared to expenses incurred by other encyclopedia projects. If we are able to generate the required financial support from the Ukrainian community in North America and, thus, if we are able to hire more people and work at optimum speed, I foresee that the first version of the full Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, containing over 20,000 entries and thousands of illustrations and multimedia materials, would be ready within five years. Afterwards, we would only need to constantly maintain, update, and expand our site.

If we do not find enough financial support, this process will take longer and the actual schedule is difficult to predict. So although the CIUS is determined to continue working on the Internet Encyclopedia no matter what, the ultimate succes of the project will greatly depend on the response of the Ukrainian community and the support we can receive.

As I said earlier, the task of presenting the true and objective portrayal of Ukraine and Ukrainians, of our culture and history to the world is crucial for all of us. So I hope that we will find supporters ready to join forces with us to successfully accomplish this historic task. It is important that potential donors to the project not be discouraged by the relatively large sums needed for the entire project. Any donation to the IEU, no matter how modest, is very important to us and will allow us, for example, to edit and display on the Internet a few new entries. And this is how this complex project is being realized: entry by entry. So literally everyone is in a position to contribute.

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All donations to the IEU project (payable to CIUS - Encyclopedia of Ukraine) may be sent to: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 450 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E8, Canada.

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