Daejeon, July 27–31
Digital scholarship faces an acute sustainability challenge, characterised by the inherent tension ‘between the long-term needs of data preservation and maintenance on the one side, and the short life cycles of the data formats, platforms and infrastructures on the other side’ (Barats / Schafer / Fickers 2020). This fragility is magnified by the climate crisis, demanding that the community ‘resist the perceived ethereality of the digital, when the reality is stuff, power, and pollution’ (Baillot et al. 2022).
Custom digital projects commonly suffer ‘nebulous, incremental decline’ (DARTH) due to technical obsolescence and mounting constraints on finite resources. Minimal computing offers a resourceful response by asking the core question, ‘What do we need?’ (Sayers 2016). This conceptual shift advocates for ‘architectures of necessity’ (Gil), minimising digital infrastructure ‘as a means to maximize investment in people, growing agency, agility, and long-term sustainability’ (Wikle / Williamson 2025).
Sustainable web development is a crucial application of minimal computing principles. Unlike dynamic websites, which operate as services requiring continuous security updates, static web methodology champions simplicity (Jamie). Static sites are composed of plain HTML, CSS, JS, and media files, requiring minimal server infrastructure. This simplicity ensures they are ‘suited to this type of neglect, avoiding the security risks and increasing breakage’ and produce ‘preservation-ready project data’ as a fundamental byproduct (Wikle / Williamson 2025).
At the same time, minimal computing, and static architectures more specifically, entail some trade-offs. For instance, complex queries or full-text search across a large dataset may be difficult or impossible to perform on the client device. One way to address this is by aiming for graceful degradation (cf. Kesteren / Stachowiak 2007): Features that depend on external services, such as search queries, can be integrated to enhance the site when available but not compromise its core functionality when they fail. This approach ensures the integrity of the research artefact while allowing for extended functionality as long as resources allow.
These principles have guided the development of Doing Literature, a web portal designed to collect and curate multimedia humanities research outputs. The platform showcases diverse scholarly practices and results produced within the Cluster of Excellence Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective at Freie Universität Berlin since 2019. Functioning as a multimedia index, it features a randomised feed that continuously reconfigures entries, each entry highlighting a specific research activity and linking to a dedicated subpage offering more extensive documentation.
Against the background of the Cluster’s concluding funding phase, several design decisions – central to the project’s conception and technical implementation from the outset – have become increasingly salient. As digital scholarship has shown, ‘digital projects benefit from being planned and executed with their longevity in mind from the start’ (Smithies et al. 2019; as cited in DARTH), ensuring that digital projects remain accessible even when the active research/working phase is ultimately retired (Tucker 2022).
To secure a digital project’s long-term legacy, it is essential to plan for its end from the beginning (The Endings Project 2023). Doing Literature exemplifies this approach. Its architecture targets a static build artefact, while its frontend is aesthetically designed yet lightweight, enabling interactivity and dynamism without depending on complex live backend systems. All research data are provided as JSON-LD using a standardised vocabulary to ensure interoperability. A dedicated processing pipeline optimises file size, reducing energy consumption on client devices. The portal can be archived and hosted with minimal maintenance on standard university web servers, making it both resource-efficient and sustainable while ensuring that project content remains accessible beyond the project’s funding horizon.
In sum, Doing Literature demonstrates how minimal computing principles can be effectively mobilised to meet the sustainability challenges of digital scholarship. By prioritising simplicity, interoperability, and long-term maintainability, the project provides a resilient model for preserving research outputs beyond the lifespan of institutional funding cycles. Its static architecture, optimised data pipeline, and lightweight infrastructure illustrate how intentional design choices made at a project’s inception can substantially reduce ecological and technical dependencies. More broadly, the platform highlights the potential of sustainable web development to support enduring scholarly legacies while responding responsibly to environmental and infrastructural constraints.