Draft Charge for the Workgroup on SGML/XML Conversion
TEI ED W72
12 July 2002

Contents

 Status

This Work Group has been specially chartered by the TEI Council with funding from the NEH. It constitutes a Task Force to provide recommendations on the process of conversion of TEI Legacy Data from SGML to XML.

Objectives

  1. Reformulate this list of objectives.
  2. Survey current practice in application of the TEI encoding scheme, in particular with respect to the usage of SGML in electronic repositories.
  3. Identify technical, organizational, or other challenges and opportunities presented by the conversion of this legacy data to P4 XML format.
  4. Propose generic solutions where these can be identified; review issues and suggest guidance where generic solutions are inapplicable.
  5. Review current practice in migrating SGML to XML with a view to recommending best practices
  6. Undertake a small number of case studies
  7. Draft reports on
    • Recommended migration strategies
    • Recommended migration practices

Administrative

Chair of the workgroup is Chris Ruotolo (University of Virginia).

Membership of the workgroup contains experts selected primarily either for their expertise in TEI/XML or for their status as representatives of significant TEI SGML repositories. These two classes of member are identified below as either technical export or repository representative.

technical experts

repository representatives

The Chair is responsible for determining the membership of the group, subject to recommendations and suggestions from the TEI Council. The TEI Editors are ex officio members of all TEI Work Groups. Other constraints and procedures applicable to all TEI Work Groups are described in document TEI ED W54.

The budget, suggested work plan and meeting schedule envisaged for the Task Force in the funding application are as follows: ‘[In the task force] selected TEI experts and editors (8 people, total) work closely with representatives from projects with significant TEI SGML holdings (another 10 people) to diagnose and document the problems, methods, and tools necessary to design and effect a migration from SGML to XML, in TEI. One start-up meeting with editors and experts only; one mid-term meeting with project representatives; one final meeting with editors and experts. Participation from TEI technical writer for four months, participation of TEI editors and executive director for two months. Travel to two one-day meetings for 8 people, travel to one two-day meeting for 18 people. [Total Budget] $67533.33’

The Chair may modify this workplan as necessary to meet the goals of the funding proposal, subject to approval of the TEI Council, and to the overall financial limits stated.

The Work group is required to provide progress reports on its work regularly to the TEI Technical Council, which has authority for approving all technical output from the work group.

Deadlines

(To be agreed with WG head):
  • Reformulation of objectives and recruitment of work group members should be completed by 28 October 2002, in time for the TEI Council meeting, May 2003
  • A preliminary work plan (derived from this document) should be prepared by 1 September 2002
  • A preliminary draft showing the structure and coverage envisaged for the reports should be prepared for review by the TEI Council before 1 February 2003.
  • Drafts of the final reports should be available for the TEI Council meeting in May 2003, and should be completed by 1 July 2003