Elli Mylonas

What is text, really?

THE WAY IN WHICH TEXT IS represented on a computer affects the kinds of uses to which it can be put by its creator and by subsequent users. The electronic document model currently in use is impoverished and restrictive. The authors argue that text is best represented as an ordered hierarchy of content object (OHCO), because that is what text really is. This model conforms with emerging standards such as SGML and contains within it advantages for the writer, publisher, and researcher. The authors then describe how the hierarchical model can allow future use and reuse of the document as a database, hypertext, or network.

Architectures for volatile hypertext

Volatile hypertext raise a fundamental theoretical issue what is the value and proper role of the link? Astonishingly, no consensus has emerged on this central hypertext question, even within the hypertext research community. Where Bolter molter 9 la] views rich webs of links as a liberating force that reshapes the constraints of artificial, linear-hierarchical authority, Glushko sees fruitful sources of confusion, writing that “limiting the links in the first place seems a more practical solution.” [Glushko 89]. Indeed, DeYoung considers linking to be harmful [DeYoung 90]. In working with volatile hypertext, we deliberately choose an extreme case in which dedicated readers and writers are necessarily faced with rich, complex, and irregular hypertext webs. Can this task be rendered manageable?

The text encoding initiative at 10 : Not just an interchange format anymore - but a new research community

Mylonas and Renear introduce a volume of selected papers from The Text Encoding Initiative 10th Anniversary Conference, held at Brown University in November 1997. The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), was launched in 1987 and sponsored by the Association for Computers and the Humanities, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, and the Association for Computational Linguistics. It had as its original objective the development of an interchange language for textual data. This effort was completely successful and the TEI Guidelines are now widely accepted as the standard interchange format for textual data. Mylonas and Renear also note that the TEI has accomplished two other major achievements: it has produced a powerful new data description language (which is influencing the development of new WWW standards); and, most importantly, it has motivated the development of an entirely new research community, focused on understanding the role of text structure and markup in the use of emerging information technologies in culture, scholarship, and communication.

The Virtual Monastery: Re‐Presenting Time, Human Movement, and Uncertainty at Saint‐Jean‐des‐Vignes, Soissons

The Wesleyan‐Brown Monastic Archaeology project (MonArch) integrates research results from standing remains, excavated material culture, and texts from the Augustinian abbey of Saint‐Jean‐des‐Vignes in northern France. The digital dimension of the MonArch project re‐presents the site through three‐dimensional reconstructions of its architecture, inventories of its material culture, and searchable encoded texts. The site employs a variety of strategies to engage the viewer/user in critiques of our knowledge representations. In this paper, we explore the ethical and analytic aspects of archaeological recording and present preliminary results of our work on representing time, human movement, and uncertainty.

The Perseus Project: developing version 2.0

A discussion of the improvements and changes from Perseus l. Oto Perseus 2.0, and the motivations for these changes.

The Show Must Go On: Problems of Tagging Performance Texts

A dramatic work may be seen either as an event or as a text; the TEI guidelines make it possible to encode a dramatic work in either way, but do not attempt to solve the difficult problem of doing both at once. The basic element of a dramatic work, when seen as a text, is the speech; the guidelines also provide elements for encoding other familiar parts of dramatic texts (such as stage directions and cast lists), as well as for encoding analytic information on various aspects of texts and performances that is not normally included in printed dramatic texts. There are often other formal structures in dramatic works that intersect with the structure of speeches — metrical structures, for example; we discuss approaches for encoding these structures.

A licensing model for scholarly textbases

Smaller scholarly projects represent a sector of the digital library which makes an important contribution to research on specialized text encoding, retrieval, and interface design for scholarly audiences. Such projects, however, face funding and publication challenges which threaten their long-term survival. The Women Writers Project is using an unusual tier-based licensing model to make the transition from grant-funded research project to independent financial viability.

The process of discovery: hypertext and scholarship

We have all seen hypertext applied to teaching and publication, and certainly as an object of research in itself. What is far more rare are examples of hypertext systems and documents integrated into the research process in other fields. Where are the scholars who are taking notes and organizing their thoughts and data using a hypertext system? Why do so many hypertext researchers still work with conventional word processors? Is This lack due to intrinsic problems with the systems? Or is it a problem of the scholars and researchers? Will this change in a generation? The participants will discuss these questions based on their own experience both positive and negative, with an especial focus on the use (or non-use) of hypertext(s) as laboratory, or “sandbox” for scholarship and scientific work.