[tei-council] TEI Numbered Divs Survey: The Results.

[James Cummings]

Dear Council,

I have closed the TEI Numbered Divs survey and would like to report on the 
results.  I have made a PDF of the summary report that Survey Monkey provides. 
It is available for download at:

http://james.cummingsfamily.org.uk/TEI/survey.pdf


The results are interesting.  There were 87 responses total.

For the first question about whether the TEI should contain both numbered and 
generic div elements, 44.8% wanted there to be only one type whereas 43.7% 
thought the current support for both should be preserved.

For the second question about if the TEI were to support only one of these, 
which they would prefer, 18.4% wanted numbered divs, and 75.9% wanted generic divs.

For the third question on where numbered divs should start (div0 vs div1) 13.3% 
thought one should always start at div0, 34.9% thought one should always start 
at div1, and an identical 34.9% thought that they didn't care as long as there 
was a single starting point. 7.2% thought that we should continue support for 
div0 or div1 and 9.6% wasn't sure.

The test question, number four of whether you should be allowed to mix numbered 
and generic divs 81.2% wanted to continue support for only one at a time and 
10.6% wanted to be able to do this. I think this indicates a general level of 
trustworthiness of the survey.

Question 5 was a comment question basically indicating two camps as expected, 
those who like the simplicity of numbered divs and those who find them 
unnecessary.  There were some other comments which I found interesting, see the PDF.


Recommendations:

1) There is no clear mandate to get rid of numbered divs, the community is split 
basically 50/50 on this issue.  I recommend that we maintain support for both. 
It is interesting that if we were to only support one type, i.e. if they were 
forced to choose, that a clear majority would prefer generic divs.  However, 
because of the response on the first question, I don't think this is able to be 
acted upon.

2) There is a clear majority who want to start at div1 (and this is increased if 
we lump in those who don't care but want there to be a single starting point). 
My recommendation is that we start numbered divs at div1 only and provide two 
example customisations: a) One which changes the start to div0 and another b) 
which returns to the current div0|div1 optional start.  Sebastian has assured me 
that these ODDs would be fairly straightforward.  Presenting the community with 
these would lessen any negative feelings occurring because of this change.

3) The use of a survey to scope feeling of the TEI community has been generally 
positively received, and should be considered for other issues where the Council 
feels it might be useful.

I'm sure the Council will want to discuss the results and how we should progress.

-James

-- 
Dr James Cummings, Oxford Text Archive, University of Oxford
James dot Cummings at oucs dot ox dot ac dot uk