Re: internal encoding guidelines, cheatsheets, and listings of TEI projects

So clearly the way to address all of Piotr's concerns would be to develop some kind of online database which could be easily updated, searched, reported on etc. As was indeed originally intended for the projects web page. The sticking point back in the nineties was finding a low cost unfussy authentication mechanism so that only project owmers could update their pages. Are we still stuck at that point? Surely things like the existbased tei publisher are well up to the required task?

Sent from my Honor Mobile

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: internal encoding guidelines, cheatsheets, and listings of TEI projects
From: Piotr Bański
To: [email protected]
CC:

Let me try a tiny bit of analysis.

Web page:
* hopelessly static in display (forms, no way to cross-search, see
facets, tag clouds or the like)
* hopelessly static in terms of content (updateable by mailing the
webmaster)
* hopelessly flat structure (well it's a list)
* there is a nice submission form
** with some restrictions on e.g. the subject field (which imposes some
cross-classification, even though we can't sadly grab at it when
requesting the data)
* date of the last modification recorded explicitly
* update by e-mail (= involving a third party, subject to their time
constraints)

Wiki:
* I don't think wiki is the proper medium for this, because it is also
static in terms of presentation. Not as hopelessly as the web page, but
still.
* Data submission is arguably potentially more messy (no hard
restrictions) and arguably slightly more difficult (you have to request
a wiki account)
* the category system can be used for various cross-classifications but
it's unconstrained, and it still involves clicking a lot and waiting for
the new page to open.
* date of the last modification (and its nature! whether it was a typo
fix or content change) available within two clicks (from the history and
diffs)
* direct and dynamic update of the information is a snap, reverting bad
edits is a snap as well

Half-measures that could be taken:
* One could imagine automated conversion from the current web page to
the wiki, connected with the setting up of an underlying categorization
(trivial, because they can be part of the direct output of the
conversion process).
* Update would be easier (because anyone logged could perform it).
* Display would still be static, although slightly more friendly
(cross-classified)
* Data input could be a mess. Ideally, the existing form could be used
for it, with a script converting the data into a wiki article that the
submitter could then paste into a new wiki page (or... send it to the
list, sigh)
* a little advantage in all this could be a potential increase in the
number of users of the wiki, which can translate into an enhancement of
its overall informational value

Project lists are good PR and can be helpful for users interested in
re-using the experience of others. I think the TEI has outgrown the
stage where such lists are necessary to legitimize a project. They are
still useful for users, though. Wiki is a half measure, but overall it
may improve access to this information and improve its content.


The above was a quick job that presents a subjective view.

Best,

   Piotr




On 03/11/16 20:32, Kevin Hawkins wrote:
> ... but I now see that earlier today, Serge Heiden helpfully created a
> category and template for projects for the TEI wiki:
>
> http://wiki.tei-c.org/index.php/Category:Projects
>
> May this serve as the beginning of a revamped inventory of TEI projects,
> perhaps even replacing the one on the TEI website!
>
> Kevin
>
> On 11/3/16 2:15 PM, Kevin Hawkins wrote:
>> On the topic of moving the list of TEI projects (
>> http://www.tei-c.org/Activities/Projects/ ) into the wiki, those of us
>> who have administered the website and wiki have discussed this idea on
>> and off over the years.  My response to why I've put putting it off is
>> essentially the same as what I wrote in 2010:
>>
>> https://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=TEI-L;ed2a925c.1003