Dan Matei. Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking
-
Upload
national-heritage-institute-bucharest -
Category
Internet
-
view
59 -
download
1
Transcript of Dan Matei. Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 1
Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking
Dan Matei
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 2
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) 3
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) 4
Answers.com: example
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 5
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) 6
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) 7
An example
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 8
A "critical envelope" ?
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 9
"Repackaging" a resource
• to include in my page someone else's page:– it is legal ?– it is fair ?
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 10
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) 11
The index: the "signature" problem (1)
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 12
"Casanova's Chinese Restaurant" ?
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 13
A better signature:
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant [novel] / Anthony Powell (1960)
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 14
"giacomo": a good (enough) entry
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 15
Why "Benedict XV" ?
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 16
A better signature:
Pope Benedict XV (Giacomo della Chiesa) [pope (1914–1922)] (1854–1922)
Britannica: Benedict XV - Pope (1914–22)
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 17
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) 18
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) 19
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) 20
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) 21
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) 22
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) 23
EDL: my wish (3)
• Voluntary contributions accepted:– scanning;– OCR-ing;– proofreading;– adding metadata;– adding mark-up (e.g. encoding in TEI).
ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 24
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) 25
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) 26
Final remarks
• the online resource inherit most of the features of the paper text ? how to offer an online resource with a dedication ?