Quill models formal negotiations, including legislative and quasi-Parliamentary processes, making them visual. Our first project is a presentation of the records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that wrote the Constitution of the United States and many other projects are planned or in progress.
The platform was designed with global collaboration in mind, and the data-entry tools require a minimum of technical knowledge.
Read more about our scholarly work on our publications page.
Because our platform makes the debates that go into the drafting of constitutions, legislation, and treaties readily accessible, it is a valuable resource for lawyers and judges concerned with the history and interpretation of these forms of negotiated text.
Texts and graphics can tell events and facts without revealing and explaining how and why these happened. Quill timelines and resources will be the smart digital tools to add to your traditional learning and teaching materials. We have added many features to the site to help you to integrate digital resources with more traditional approaches, and ways to accurately reference the material we provide.
Quill offers a new and dynamic way interact with the records of formal negotiations and satisfy the interest of readers and history lovers. The platform visual representations will enable you to discover and understand why events unfolded as they did, and get a clearer sesne of the personalities involved.
We are always looking for new projects to help with, or for people to help with our on-going projects. Please contact us if you or your institution would like to get involved or you have a project we might be able to help with.
The Quill Platform was designed and written by Dr Nicholas Cole, Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. The web tools for editors and readers were written by him with the help of Dr Alfie Abdul-Rahman, a Lecturer in Computer Science at the Department of Informatics, King's College London.
The project collaborates closely with the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University. Students and academics there have made invaluable contributions to the testing and development of the platform, and have assisted with the publication of the records of the 1787 Federal Convention. They are currently working on a model of the 1895 Utah State Convention.
The Quill Platform was designed with the possibility for global collaboration in mind, and the data-entry tools were designed to require a minimum of technical knowledge.
Do you want to be involved in our projects? Do you have a project we might be able to help with? We would love to hear from you. Contact us.