Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking

ELPUB 2006 (Matei) 1

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);– 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).


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).


Answers.com: example


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 ?


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.


An example


A "critical envelope" ?


"Repackaging" a resource

• to include in my page someone else's page:– it is legal ?– it is fair ?


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


The index: the "signature" problem (1)


"Casanova's Chinese Restaurant" ?


A better signature:

Casanova's Chinese Restaurant [novel] / Anthony Powell (1960)


"giacomo": a good (enough) entry


Why "Benedict XV" ?


A better signature:

Pope Benedict XV (Giacomo della Chiesa) [pope (1914–1922)] (1854–1922)

Britannica: Benedict XV - Pope (1914–22)


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>


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"/>


<alphaKey1 ref="d c"/><alphaKey2 ref="g"/><dateKey2 ref="1854"/>


<alphaKey1 ref="g"/><alphaKey2 ref="c"/><dateKey2 ref="1854"/>

</indexEntry>


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".


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.


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.


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


EDL: my wish (3)

• Voluntary contributions accepted:– scanning;– OCR-ing;– proofreading;– adding metadata;– adding mark-up (e.g. encoding in TEI).


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).


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.


Final remarks

• the online resource inherit most of the features of the paper text ? how to offer an online resource with a dedication ?

Documents

Worldwide "Communitarian" Online Publishing: an exercise in wishful thinking