SIGMS Minutes 20101112

= MS SIG Meeting, Zadar, 12 November 2010, 9-12:30h =

Participants
Elena Pierazzo (EP), James Cummings (JC), Dot Porter (DP), Espen Ore (EO), Laetitia Boutin (LBo), Roberta Padlina (RP), K. Nagasaki (KN), Matija Ogrin (MO), Peter Stokes (PS), Christian Witter (CW), Markus Bingenheimer (MB), Syd Bauman (SB), Günter Vasold (GV), Jindrich Marek (JM), Lou Burnard (LB), Fotis Jannidis (FJ), Alexei Lavrentiev (AL), Christof Schöch (CS), Mohammed Soualah (MS), Malte Rehbein (MR) ... and some more guys in the back who were late for the introduction

Summary

 * 1) Review of the SIG's work of the past year
 * 2) EP reported on the progress and success of the task force on genetic editing
 * 3) Work plan for 2011
 * 4) Critical Apparatus
 * 5) chapter needs significant revisions as had been pointed out already last year; broader scope: not only for digitizing a critical apparatus but to facilitate encoding of textual variation in general (for digital born resources)
 * 6) new task force managed by Marjorie Burghart
 * 7) initial task force members: EO, JC, FJ, CW, MB (active participation esssential!)
 * 8) msdesc
 * 9) three directions of this work: objects (mss., early prints etc.), time (medieval, modern, ...), space (western mss., arab mss., ...)
 * 10) Task force created; EP to involve Torsten Schaßan and Matthew Driscoll; volunteers: RP, DP, SB, MS
 * 11) MSS ODD
 * 12) create a mss. oriented ODD to have a better starting point for mss. encoding (SB volunteered)
 * 13) Community Building / PR
 * 14) improve website
 * 15) encourage usage of SIG list
 * 16) have an informal SIG meeting during DH conference as a community-building activity
 * 17) Evaluation and discussion of the SIG's survey on needs and requirements of the community

Review of the SIG's work of the past year

 * EP reported on the progress and success of the task force on genetic editing (GE)
 * work almost finished; progress needs to be followed-up; EP to send e-mail to SIG list to report on progress
 * URL to GE website: http://www.tei-c.org/SIG/Manuscripts/genetic.html
 * Three success factors of the GE work: task force was able to acquire money for face-to-face meetings and a workshop; they invested a good amount of time into this work; the community (of the "critique génétique" was involved early in the process)

Critical Apparatus

 * chapter needs significant revisions as had been pointed out already last year; broader scope: not only for digitizing a critical apparatus but to facilitate encoding of textual variation in general (for digital born resources)
 * SIG survey seconds this statement stongly
 * Marjorie Burghart volunteered to manage the activities leading towards a revision of the chapter
 * EP: activity needs money, could be asked from TEI, but only if there are some preliminary results visible
 * MR: overlap with GE in some points needs to be considered
 * discussion on using stand-off mechanisms for encoding textual variation (JC)
 * EO: different approaches a) to go from a single document, b) to collate transcriptions of many mss.
 * FJ: need to be able to handle output from automatic collation

Manuscript Description

 * MR: survey shows strong need by the community for improvement
 * EO: one should find out whether that demand comes form medieval or modern mss. or both
 * EP: transformation of msdesc into text bearing objects description should be harked back to (cf. London meeting 2008)
 * needs to include early prints, epigraphy, modern mss., etc.
 * three directions of this work: objects (mss., early prints etc.), time (medieval, modern, ...), space (western mss., arab mss., ...)
 * Task force created; EP to involve Torsten Schaßan and Matthew Driscoll; volunteers: RP, DP, SB, MS

MS ODD

 * SB volunteered to create a mss. oriented ODD to have a better starting point for mss. encoding

PR / Community building

 * EP: need a webmaster for the SIG website
 * CW: website needs a paragraph about the purpose of the SIG; should inform about a) the work groups, b) serve as a starting point for mss. encoders and describers
 * FJ: don't put too much into website; wiki is a better place because involves less editorial work
 * CW: DHanswers as an example for good PR
 * EP: too few posting, list too silent; not generally regarded as a drawback
 * FJ: ask for best practices of particular encoding problems via the SIG list
 * MR: publish list policy (friendly, suitable for beginners etc.)
 * have an informal SIG meeting during DH conference as a community-building activity

SIG survey

 * Results presented by MR in Thursday's session; results to be published
 * some of the conculsions:
 * need to cater better for beginners
 * public relations (better website as a starting point for mss. encoders)
 * create a controlled vocabulary (mss. ODD); SB volunteered
 * FJ: "getting started" documentation required urgently