[tei-council] TEI for publishing: archival or interchange format? (was Re: What's next on the TEI publishing thread)

Kevin Hawkins kevin.s.hawkins at ultraslavonic.info
Tue Aug 31 16:30:52 EDT 2010


Regarding:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ARyxZGtPbrQ1ZHYzZHg3aF8xNmZyYjR3emY4

... Sebastian wrote:

> one sentence jarred: "The TEI Council would like to see the TEI
> adopted more widely as an archival format". There is a slight mixed
> message here - we want them to use TEI in their digital publishing
> workflow, but that may not be the same as their archival format.
>
> I _think_ we are saying we will define a customization which is
> guarenteed to be suitable for generating general-purpose
> epublications, somewhat equivalent to Tite, and we wlll develop and
> promote exemplar tools and transformations?

which was followed by an exchange (first Laurent, then Sebastian, and 
then Laurent again):

>>> Agree. We may want to tune a clearer message. The idea is to have
>>> the TEI as a more long-standing formats than proprietary or
>>> domain specific solutions.
>>
>> hmm. we need to be clear on this. is it the "lingua franca" rich
>> interchange format to make digital publishng easy, or is it the
>> archival format from which one derives formats which then to make
>> new products?
>
>
> Well. I am no clear on this. Could a native (Kevin?) try to find a
> way to leave this open without too many restrictions?

Since I wrote most of the prose of the "call to action" in Google Docs, 
let me try to clarify what I meant.  Sebastian thought that the call to 
action is proposing TEI as an output format for sharing with users, 
whereas I meant that we are proposing TEI as an archival format (a 
"pivot point") in publishing workflows.  That's why I wrote "While 
market forces are converging on EPUB as the main distribution format for 
e-readers" before explaining why TEI is useful as an archival format.  I 
don't think we can compete with EPUB and HTML as linguas francas.  (Is 
that the plural of "lingua franca"?)

However, I allow for the possibility that TEI files might also be 
provided to end users as a side benefit.  That's why I added the phrase 
in parentheses after what Sebastian quoted.  Here's the full sentence:

The TEI Council would like to see the TEI adopted more widely as an 
archival format by publishers of scholarly content (and, when feasible 
for a business model, as a format for users).

I'd like to make this all clearer in case others are confused in the way 
Sebastian was, but I'm not sure how to do so.  Suggestions?

Kevin


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