Are electronic editions inherently obsolete?

This paper presents a challenge to the current print-based paradigm for creating electronic editions in terms of their long term viability. It discusses some of the problems inherent with the use of embedded markup and describes how these problems could cause the loss of such editions to the human record. This paper describes how the Authenticated Electronic Editions Project is using the techniques of Data Simplification, Standoff Markup and Just In Time Authentication in the creation of a new type of electronic text that does not suffer the same limitations.