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Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking. Dan Matei. A. "amateur" AND "authority" content. content (i.e. reference material, but also annotations to works ) provided by the "general public": (most of the time) valuable (see Wikipedia, see Amazon.com);
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Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking Dan Matei ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
A. "amateur" AND "authority" content • content (i.e. reference material, but also annotations to works) provided by the "general public": • (most of the time) valuable (see Wikipedia, see Amazon.com); • stimulate people to research, document and write. • the institutional ("authority") providers (libraries, museums, universities, schools, etc.) – in Romania: not too productive (online content not yet in the mission statement). ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The "ideal" scenario • 3 layer resources: • "authority" core; • moderated (voluntary) contributions; • (voluntary) contributions. • the "authority" should constantly upgrade the content, i.e. moving it "upward". • Answers.com: almost there (entries from different sources are not merged). ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
Answers.com: example ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
Voluntary contributions: my problems • the "code of behaviour"; • the neutral point of view (for the reference resources) or an assumed point of view (e.g. a Christian perspective, a Muslim perspective); • the anonymity and the "loose" pseudonym problem; what about pen names ? • how to "force" a volunteer contributor to assume the intellectual responsibility ? • how to check a "real name" ? it is fair to check with the police ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
B. Online "critical" editions • the problem: how to publish online "problematic" resources (e.g. xenophobic texts by important authors) ? • in a "physical book" we "wrap" conveniently the problematic text in a "critical envelope" (e.g. an explanatory introduction, critical footnotes). • online: the lack of "physical" boundaries on the web makes less visible the critical apparatus. ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
An example ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
A "critical envelope" ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
"Repackaging" a resource • to include in my page someone else's page: • it is legal ? • it is fair ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
C. The index (for reference resources) • How to construct the (most profitable) index ? • How to make most out of the lexicographic collocation ? • How to serve best the Long Tail ? • Close to ideal: Answers.com ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The index: the "signature" problem (1) ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
"Casanova's Chinese Restaurant" ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
A better signature: Casanova's Chinese Restaurant [novel] / Anthony Powell (1960) ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
"giacomo": a good (enough) entry ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
Why "Benedict XV" ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
A better signature: Pope Benedict XV (Giacomo della Chiesa) [pope (1914–1922)] (1854–1922) Britannica: Benedict XV - Pope (1914–22) ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The name in PML (1) <signature guid="pb15" languageRef="English"> <prefix>Pope</prefix> <name guid="b15"> <popeName guid="b">Benedict</popeName> <number value="15" guid="15">XV</number> </name> <name typeRef="real name" guid="gdc"> <firstName guid="g">Giacomo</firstName> <namePart guid="d">della</namePart> <lastName guid="c">Chiesa</lastName> </name> <qualifier>pope <timeSpan type="position">1914–1922</timeSpan> </qualifier> <timeSpan type="life"> <segment guid="1854">1854</segment> –1922 </timeSpan> </signature> ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The name in PML (2) <indexEntry> <alphaKey1 ref="b"/> <numKey1 ref="15"/> </indexEntry> <indexEntry shadow="true"> <alphaKey1 ref="c"/> <alphaKey2 ref="g d"/> <dateKey2 ref="1854"/> </indexEntry> <indexEntry shadow="true"> <alphaKey1 ref="d c"/> <alphaKey2 ref="g"/> <dateKey2 ref="1854"/> </indexEntry> <indexEntry shadow="true"> <alphaKey1 ref="g"/> <alphaKey2 ref="c"/> <dateKey2 ref="1854"/> </indexEntry> ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
D. The European Digital Library (EDL): the "political will" The European Commission should consider literally the first issue suggested by the Presidency (13392/2/05) and debated by the Council on i2010 digital libraries, that is: "the creation of a European Digital Library which would make European cultural content and information resources easier and more interesting to use in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual online environment". ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The European Digital Library (EDL): my opinion • The best way to secure the right presence in the cyberspace of the European cultural heritage is to finance the set-up of one (or several) European datacenter to host a large database with the digital cultural material supplied by the "national digital libraries". • Not a portal, not a metasearch engine ! • A "classical", centralised, online database. • Good starting point: "The European Library": www.theeuropeanlibrary.org. ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
EDL: my wish (1) • establishing of a (small) set of technical standards. • development/adoption of a suitable, open source, digital library software to handle and to expose (directly an the web and via web services) the database. • an agreement between the "national digital libraries" to submit their content also to the European Digital Library. ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
EDL: my wish (2) • actual gathering of digital material, on a continuous basis. The national repositories should keep also their material, as a natural backup and in order to expose it in a "vernacular" way. • good model: the Czech Manuscriptorium project - www.manuscriptorium.com ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
EDL: my wish (3) • Voluntary contributions accepted: • scanning; • OCR-ing; • proofreading; • adding metadata; • adding mark-up (e.g. encoding in TEI). ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The Romanian digitisation wish-list (not yet!) (1) • a (centralised) shared catalogue of works and expressions (not manifestations) — in the FRBR jargon • each entry: bibliographic attributes and: • (if not yet digitised) the priority class; • (if in process of digitisation) who is doing the digitisation and when it started; • (if digitised) the URL of the digitised version (manifestation). ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
The Romanian digitisation wish-list (not yet!) (2) • The catalogue could: • help to avoid the duplicate digitisation of a work/expression; • act as the catalogue of the Digital Library; • suggest priority materials to be digitised. • The priorities could be set by various mechanisms: academic committees, public voting etc. ELPUB 2006 (Matei)
Final remarks • the online resource inherit most of the features of the paper text ? how to offer an online resource with a dedication ? ELPUB 2006 (Matei)