I’m currently interested in hermeneutic markup hence my proposal: let’s try a web based tagger that lets the user define custom tags and give him the ability to apply those tags to passages of the current web page. As Wendell pointed out, tags should be able to overlap and allow a good visibility. We could go for a firefox plugin implementation and write out the tags and tagging locally. Or we could try a full fledged ajax tagger that talks to a server. We could also add complexity and save the tagging as TEI standoff markup and the tags as TEI feature structures. Or down the other way we just prototype some GUIs and lay out the architecture for such a tagger. Preferably an architecture that fits both the plugin and the ajax solution to allow sever based as well as client only usage.
Marco
It sounds to me that what you really want is a client/server setup. I.e. server software that is able to handle ajax requests and a client that is javascript (say +JQuery) based. But the crucial point is that it should be arbitrary schema-aware (so works with any schema). Having something to do stand-off annotation in a visual and intuitive way is something that would be very useful (and that others have tried before). So sure, the user can define custom tags, but really all you are doing there is building a loose schema… we already have mechanisms for this and generally tighter schemas end up with more consistent and usable data. An ajaxy basic schema-aware validating online XML editor with code and tags-free view would be something everyone loved. You can already get part-way there, of course, with oXygen Author since this can be run as a java web start app inside a webpage and update its content with ajax. (For any server-related solution, of course one should be able to run the server locally as well. 😉 )
-J
Hi James,
thanks for your comment. Yes, I definitely prefer a client/server architecture as this makes collaboration a lot easier. I would like to add that I thought more of an application that has a low entry level. I work a lot with literary scholars and students and something like oXygen is too complex to start with. Even the “author”-mode is way to close to XML. I think the user shouldn’t get in contact with XML. XML should be an implementation detail kept hidden from the user. A tool for the MS Word audience more than the LaTeX audience, so to speak.
Really looking forward to THATCamp!
Marco