The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities Desmond Schmidt - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Desmond Schmidt

Information Security Institute Queensland University of Technology

University of Cologne, 24 April 2012

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Outline

1

Background – Why Markup Matters

2

Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model

3

Design of a Solution

4

Conclusions and Collaborations

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Outline

1

Background – Why Markup Matters

2

Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model

3

Design of a Solution

4

Conclusions and Collaborations

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Outline

1

Background – Why Markup Matters

2

Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model

3

Design of a Solution

4

Conclusions and Collaborations

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Outline

1

Background – Why Markup Matters

2

Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model

3

Design of a Solution

4

Conclusions and Collaborations

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of the Internet

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of Digital Humanities

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of Repositories

Many digital repositories are being built across the world for cultural data Examples: Dariah, Project Bamboo, Europaeana (sort of), Textgrid, HuNi (Australia) They contain digital surrogates of textual artefacts and secondary material: articles, books Also metadata about the objects: lets you find what you want

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of Repositories

Many digital repositories are being built across the world for cultural data Examples: Dariah, Project Bamboo, Europaeana (sort of), Textgrid, HuNi (Australia) They contain digital surrogates of textual artefacts and secondary material: articles, books Also metadata about the objects: lets you find what you want

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of Repositories

Many digital repositories are being built across the world for cultural data Examples: Dariah, Project Bamboo, Europaeana (sort of), Textgrid, HuNi (Australia) They contain digital surrogates of textual artefacts and secondary material: articles, books Also metadata about the objects: lets you find what you want

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Growth of Repositories

Many digital repositories are being built across the world for cultural data Examples: Dariah, Project Bamboo, Europaeana (sort of), Textgrid, HuNi (Australia) They contain digital surrogates of textual artefacts and secondary material: articles, books Also metadata about the objects: lets you find what you want

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Big Picture

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Role of Markup in the Big Picture

Markup is the coding of the digital surrogates of textual artefacts Mediates the interaction between the surrogates and the services that use them Has a powerful influence on the interoperability of the services and resources in the repository

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Role of Markup in the Big Picture

Markup is the coding of the digital surrogates of textual artefacts Mediates the interaction between the surrogates and the services that use them Has a powerful influence on the interoperability of the services and resources in the repository

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

The Role of Markup in the Big Picture

Markup is the coding of the digital surrogates of textual artefacts Mediates the interaction between the surrogates and the services that use them Has a powerful influence on the interoperability of the services and resources in the repository

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

What is the Standard Form of Markup in DH?

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines Defines standard tags for encoding and converting between text formats 1987: Founded by Nancy Ide, a linguist, during a conference in New York 1993: ‘Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange’ published, in SGML 2002: Converted to XML; became ‘de facto standard’ for encoding DH texts

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

What is the Standard Form of Markup in DH?

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines Defines standard tags for encoding and converting between text formats 1987: Founded by Nancy Ide, a linguist, during a conference in New York 1993: ‘Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange’ published, in SGML 2002: Converted to XML; became ‘de facto standard’ for encoding DH texts

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

What is the Standard Form of Markup in DH?

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines Defines standard tags for encoding and converting between text formats 1987: Founded by Nancy Ide, a linguist, during a conference in New York 1993: ‘Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange’ published, in SGML 2002: Converted to XML; became ‘de facto standard’ for encoding DH texts

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

What is the Standard Form of Markup in DH?

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines Defines standard tags for encoding and converting between text formats 1987: Founded by Nancy Ide, a linguist, during a conference in New York 1993: ‘Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange’ published, in SGML 2002: Converted to XML; became ‘de facto standard’ for encoding DH texts

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

What is the Standard Form of Markup in DH?

The Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines Defines standard tags for encoding and converting between text formats 1987: Founded by Nancy Ide, a linguist, during a conference in New York 1993: ‘Guidelines for Text Encoding and Interchange’ published, in SGML 2002: Converted to XML; became ‘de facto standard’ for encoding DH texts

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 1: Size

545 elements makes it hard to find a tag for a particular feature Makes it hard to write software that encompasses all of it Must select a subset of tags for each project, add customisations Leads to incompatibilities between digital surrogates

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 1: Size

545 elements makes it hard to find a tag for a particular feature Makes it hard to write software that encompasses all of it Must select a subset of tags for each project, add customisations Leads to incompatibilities between digital surrogates

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 1: Size

545 elements makes it hard to find a tag for a particular feature Makes it hard to write software that encompasses all of it Must select a subset of tags for each project, add customisations Leads to incompatibilities between digital surrogates

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 1: Size

545 elements makes it hard to find a tag for a particular feature Makes it hard to write software that encompasses all of it Must select a subset of tags for each project, add customisations Leads to incompatibilities between digital surrogates

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 2: Usability

Embedding markup means the human editor can’t escape its technical complexity To build an easy to use interface you’d have to format all the tags graphically, but you can’t Tools like Oxygen thus require the user to be technically trained, but most humanists aren’t There doesn’t seem to be any solution to this problem.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 2: Usability

Embedding markup means the human editor can’t escape its technical complexity To build an easy to use interface you’d have to format all the tags graphically, but you can’t Tools like Oxygen thus require the user to be technically trained, but most humanists aren’t There doesn’t seem to be any solution to this problem.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 2: Usability

Embedding markup means the human editor can’t escape its technical complexity To build an easy to use interface you’d have to format all the tags graphically, but you can’t Tools like Oxygen thus require the user to be technically trained, but most humanists aren’t There doesn’t seem to be any solution to this problem.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 2: Usability

Embedding markup means the human editor can’t escape its technical complexity To build an easy to use interface you’d have to format all the tags graphically, but you can’t Tools like Oxygen thus require the user to be technically trained, but most humanists aren’t There doesn’t seem to be any solution to this problem.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 3: Overlap

Made (in)famous by Renear et al, 1993: ‘What is Text Really? The Problem of overlapping Hierarchies’ Markup languages are hierarchical but texts aren’t really Start and end tags needed to overlap due to:

1

Variation in document structure between versions

2

Overlap of different markup perspectives such as a reference system and textual structure

What we do know after 24 years of trying is there is no good way around this problem if we use embedded markup.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 4: Interlinking

Interlinking is connecting elements in XML via special attributes Widely used in the TEI Guidelines but you can also make any element link to any other Seems to be a good way to get around the overlap problem, but:

1

It’s difficult to verify that the link target or targets exist

2

No way to prevent the accidental creation of directed cycles

3

Must process link- and tag-structure separately

4

Makes it hard to translate TEI with links into another format

5

No way to stop the user from defining non-computable structures

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 5: Variation

Any differences in the text or structure arising from alterations to a text, or different physical versions, e.g. editions of a book Extremely common in DH texts, but poorly represented by embedded markup Can’t represent overlap, changes to markup structure, many versions Using markup to manually record variation is very time-consuming

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 5: Variation

Any differences in the text or structure arising from alterations to a text, or different physical versions, e.g. editions of a book Extremely common in DH texts, but poorly represented by embedded markup Can’t represent overlap, changes to markup structure, many versions Using markup to manually record variation is very time-consuming

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 5: Variation

Any differences in the text or structure arising from alterations to a text, or different physical versions, e.g. editions of a book Extremely common in DH texts, but poorly represented by embedded markup Can’t represent overlap, changes to markup structure, many versions Using markup to manually record variation is very time-consuming

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 5: Variation

Any differences in the text or structure arising from alterations to a text, or different physical versions, e.g. editions of a book Extremely common in DH texts, but poorly represented by embedded markup Can’t represent overlap, changes to markup structure, many versions Using markup to manually record variation is very time-consuming

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 6: Interoperability

Standardising markup has always been partly about building interoperable tools on top of it But no one has ever achieved this in 25 years of trying. Why? Markup in DH texts is subjective not functional Each ‘standardised’ markup scheme is different - it has to be So general interoperability of TEI-markup is impossible.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 6: Interoperability

Standardising markup has always been partly about building interoperable tools on top of it But no one has ever achieved this in 25 years of trying. Why? Markup in DH texts is subjective not functional Each ‘standardised’ markup scheme is different - it has to be So general interoperability of TEI-markup is impossible.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 6: Interoperability

Standardising markup has always been partly about building interoperable tools on top of it But no one has ever achieved this in 25 years of trying. Why? Markup in DH texts is subjective not functional Each ‘standardised’ markup scheme is different - it has to be So general interoperability of TEI-markup is impossible.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 6: Interoperability

Standardising markup has always been partly about building interoperable tools on top of it But no one has ever achieved this in 25 years of trying. Why? Markup in DH texts is subjective not functional Each ‘standardised’ markup scheme is different - it has to be So general interoperability of TEI-markup is impossible.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Problem 6: Interoperability

Standardising markup has always been partly about building interoperable tools on top of it But no one has ever achieved this in 25 years of trying. Why? Markup in DH texts is subjective not functional Each ‘standardised’ markup scheme is different - it has to be So general interoperability of TEI-markup is impossible.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

So what’s the Answer?

Are there any principles in the methodology of dealing with markup and texts that aren’t linked to a specific technology?

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

An Abstract Design for Texts and Markup

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Automating Variation

Nmerge merges multiple expressions of a work into a single structure Called an MVD or multi-version document or CorTex/CorCode in HRIT Any variations you can express in markup you can also have in an MVD, but also a lot more Removes much of the markup and much of the overlap problem Replaces a lot of human effort with automatic computation So why don’t more people use it?

1

Unfamiliar new methodology

2

Lack of easy to use tools

Solution: provide better tools!

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

An MVD Example

(A) Et sumpno suscepto tribus diebus morte morietur et deinde ab inferis regressus ad lucem veniet. (B) Et mortem sortis finiet post tridui somnum et morte morietur tribus diebus somno suscepto et tunc ab inferis regressus ad lucem veniet. (C) Et sortem mortis tribus diebus sompno suscepto et tunc ab inferis regressus ad lucem veniet.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 1

‘Standoff markup’ invented by linguists in the early 1990s Strips tags from the text, records their position Pros:

1

Makes the text readable

2

Allows alternative encodings of a document to be easily instantiated

Cons:

1

Doesn’t change the status of the markup as a hierarchy

2

Sets of markup can be exchanged but not mixed

3

Harder to edit

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Markup Outside the Text - 2

Standoff properties: names for overlapping ranges of text Precursors: ‘extended strings’, eComma, CATMA, LMNL Advantages:

1

Can import XML losslessly (through ‘annotations on ranges’)

2

Sets of markup can be freely mixed

3

Full support for overlap with no hierarchies

Disadvantages:

1

Conversion to HTML is ‘heuristic’

2

Needs new tools to be fully functional

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Formatting Standoff Properties

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Loss of Standard XML Tools

1

XML Parsers and Editors – No computer language syntax in the original documents, so not needed

2

XSLT: mostly used to convert XML to HTML. This can be done using other tools

3

XPath: useful for searching XML documents. Plenty of ways to do this without XML.

4

Conclusion: There’s nothing here we can’t replace or do without

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Loss of Standard XML Tools

1

XML Parsers and Editors – No computer language syntax in the original documents, so not needed

2

XSLT: mostly used to convert XML to HTML. This can be done using other tools

3

XPath: useful for searching XML documents. Plenty of ways to do this without XML.

4

Conclusion: There’s nothing here we can’t replace or do without

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Loss of Standard XML Tools

1

XML Parsers and Editors – No computer language syntax in the original documents, so not needed

2

XSLT: mostly used to convert XML to HTML. This can be done using other tools

3

XPath: useful for searching XML documents. Plenty of ways to do this without XML.

4

Conclusion: There’s nothing here we can’t replace or do without

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Loss of Standard XML Tools

1

XML Parsers and Editors – No computer language syntax in the original documents, so not needed

2

XSLT: mostly used to convert XML to HTML. This can be done using other tools

3

XPath: useful for searching XML documents. Plenty of ways to do this without XML.

4

Conclusion: There’s nothing here we can’t replace or do without

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

A Digital Commons for Humanists

Digital humanists need tools they can really share

1

Comparison of versions

2

Search and indexing

3

Web-editing tools

4

Conversion of data formats (import/export of foreign formats)

5

OCR tools especially for foreign language texts

6

Formatting tools for online display

These can all be independent and universal

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Collaborations

1

Digital Variants at Roma Tre, Italy has a collection of genetic texts of modern works surviving in the form of written drafts (2004)

2

The HRIT (humanities, resources, infrastructure and tools) project at Loyola University, Chicago, is focused on print editions such as Thomas Hardy (2009)

3

The Australian Electronic Scholarly Editing Project at the University of Queensland aims to develop a set of interoperable services, in collaboration with HRIT, to support the production of electronic scholarly editions by distributed collaborators in a Web 2.0 environment (2012)

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Collaborations

1

Digital Variants at Roma Tre, Italy has a collection of genetic texts of modern works surviving in the form of written drafts (2004)

2

The HRIT (humanities, resources, infrastructure and tools) project at Loyola University, Chicago, is focused on print editions such as Thomas Hardy (2009)

3

The Australian Electronic Scholarly Editing Project at the University of Queensland aims to develop a set of interoperable services, in collaboration with HRIT, to support the production of electronic scholarly editions by distributed collaborators in a Web 2.0 environment (2012)

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Collaborations

1

Digital Variants at Roma Tre, Italy has a collection of genetic texts of modern works surviving in the form of written drafts (2004)

2

The HRIT (humanities, resources, infrastructure and tools) project at Loyola University, Chicago, is focused on print editions such as Thomas Hardy (2009)

3

The Australian Electronic Scholarly Editing Project at the University of Queensland aims to develop a set of interoperable services, in collaboration with HRIT, to support the production of electronic scholarly editions by distributed collaborators in a Web 2.0 environment (2012)

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Conclusion

Markup has always evolved both outside and within the digital humanities. Embedded XML markup suffers problems of reusability, interoperability and tractability, among others. Unless markup and text can be given a more flexible and interoperable form these problems threaten the viability of the new digital repositories.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Conclusion

Markup has always evolved both outside and within the digital humanities. Embedded XML markup suffers problems of reusability, interoperability and tractability, among others. Unless markup and text can be given a more flexible and interoperable form these problems threaten the viability of the new digital repositories.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities

Background – Why Markup Matters Six Problems with the Standard Markup Model Design of a Solution Conclusions and Collaborations

Conclusion

Markup has always evolved both outside and within the digital humanities. Embedded XML markup suffers problems of reusability, interoperability and tractability, among others. Unless markup and text can be given a more flexible and interoperable form these problems threaten the viability of the new digital repositories.

• D. Schmidt

The Role of Markup in the Digital Humanities