[tei-council] PR for TEI in Google Books (was Re: some brief reports to save time during our upcoming conf call)

[Kevin Hawkins]

On 2/28/12 2:11 PM, Stuart A. Yeates wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 1:12 PM, Kevin Hawkins
> <kevin.s.hawkins at ultraslavonic.info>  wrote:
>> = Google Books =
>> The importance of this for the TEI's PR can't really be understated.
>> We, or the Board, might want to give some thought about whether to do
>> anything more once Google deloys this code than simply announce it on
>> TEI-L with shouts of hurrah/hooray/huzzah.
>
> I think it might be productive to have a few paragraphs contrasting
> TEI texts and underlying openness to the closed and propriety nature
> of formats currently in use by Amazon and OverDrive.
>
> I'm happy to write these, maybe with Kevin giving me some feedback?
>
> cheers
> stuart

I believe the teleconference discussion did not reach a conclusion on 
whether, once Google deploys their code, the TEI-C should (a) ride a way 
of publicity that might be generated in the community, (b) seek to 
create a wave, or (c) do nothing.  In any case, I plan to act as a 
private citizen (not in my role as a Council member) in publicizing this 
since I personally believe it's significant, even if Google turns out 
TEI files that many of us think aren't all that usable.

But in the case of (a) or (b), it would be good to have a text drafted 
by Stuart and me, with input from the rest of you, ready for when the 
appointed hour arrives.  However, I don't know who should make an 
official statement on behalf of the TEI-C.  Perhaps we don't need an 
official statement: instead, someone posts their own private 
announcement to TEI-L and then it gets added to the news feed on 
www.tei-c.org.  Pretty soon it gets tweeted and then picked up by 
Digital Humanities Now, ProfHacker, the Times (London and New York), 
CNN, Fox News, Sky News, and of course the Sunday Sun, in which Mr. 
Murdoch is no doubt anxious to promote an open, non-proprietary format 
for interchange of digital text!

--Kevin