Got git?

Over the past several years, github (https://github.com/) has emerged as the primary site for sharing openly licensed software. More recently, it has begun to assume a comparably important role in sharing openly licensed data; from the perspective of the Homer Multitext project, it’s tempting to say that you can have “as many githubs as you please.” (For a few examples of open datasets on github ranging from wedding invitations to arrangements of organ accompaniment for Gregorian chant, see this recent article. )

While the Homer Multitext project has relied on publicly available version control systems for years, and has specifically used the git version control system since 2012, we have only recently taken advantage of github’s option to group repositories by organization. To simplify the task of following the varied work in progress connected with the HMT, we have created two github organizations, homermultitext and cite-architecture.

1. Repositories for the HMT data archive and digital services of the Homer Multitext project belong to the homermultitext organization. See http://homermultitext.github.io/.
2. The CITE architecture is a generic architecture for working with citable scholarly data. It was originally developed specifically for the Homer Multitext project, and underpins all the digital work on HMT. See links to its repositories at http://cite-architecture.github.io/.

If you are new to version control in general or git in particular, you can probably find local expertise on your college or university campus; a little googling for help will certainly turn up an embarrassment of riches.

Christopher Blackwell and Neel Smith, project architects