The roundtable featured the work of three current and former CWRL staffers: Liz Bailey, Olin Bjork, and Jeff Howard. Participants were Liz, Olin, Jeff, Arlen Nydam, John Johnson, Noah Mass, Peter Gunn, and Tom Nelson (facilitator).

Liz discussed the history and purpose of her hypertext essay. It's first incarnation was a traditional print essay, but it adopted the hypertext form in revision. Discussion topics included the extent that the essay departed from the book metaphor and what other form it might take. Liz hopes to find a way to integrate interactivity into the form while preserving her argument, perhaps in the form of marginal notation. Also discussed was the historical context of her thesis. King Lear did in fact come near the beginning of the period in which "Anatomy of.." books came to prominence.

Olin reported that his interest derived from reading McGann of the Rossetti Archive. He critiqued this interface and demonstrated the interface adopted by his Milton project, which includes a modernized text, audio, and annotations but preserves the book metaphor. Discussion included what other features--such as links to criticsim--might be added.

Jeff present an overview of his dissertation project on heretical reading, gnosticism, and the postmodern novel. The chapter under discussion focused on game design and pedagogy. He adopts a game design metaphor for discussion of The Crying of Lot 49, and presented the types of rules which govern the text. Discussion included considering the type of texts might benefit from such a model, Jeff's experience in a game design workshop, and how games might depart from the point-of-view of the main character (Oedipa Maas in this case) in favor of a minor character.