Text Encoding Initiative Cooperation with Affiliated Projects Document Number: SCP1 Version 2, December 14, 1989 INTRODUCTION The Steering Committee of the Text Encoding Initiative invites coopera- tion from interested independent projects involved in the creation of machine-readable texts. Co-operation would enable independent projects to read and comment on drafts of the Guidelines during their formula- tion, and to influence their final draft form. In return projects would be expected to provide the committees responsible for creating the Guidelines with the benefit of their own experience in encoding signifi- cant quantities of texts, and to test the usability of the Guidelines as they emerge. This document sets out in more detail the nature of the collaboration envisaged between affiliated projects and the TEI. It is intended to be used as a Memorandum of Understanding between a Project and the TEI. PROCESS OF AFFILIATION Projects wishing to affiliate with the TEI should provide a brief description of the scope and nature of their current work, specifying the quantity and types of material being encoded, the time scale of the project, brief details of funding and institutional support and persons involved. The TEI will review this project description in order to ensure that the aims and scope of the Project are likely to lead to a mutually beneficial relationship. Affiliation will be approved by the Steering Committee. CIRCULATION OF DRAFTS Once an affiliation agreement has been reached, the TEI and the Project will immediately exchange information about available documentation as specified below. TEI documents Affiliated projects will be provided automatically (by electronic mail) with lists of all available TEI documents. They will be entitled to request copies of drafts of documents being worked on within any of the four working committees of the TEI: 1. Committee on Text Documentation 2. Committee on Text Representation 3. Committee on Text Analysis and Interpretation 4. Committee on Metalanguage and Syntax Issues They may also be provided with other internal working committee documen- tation at the discretion of the Chair of the relevant committee. They will undertake not to re-circulate or publish any TEI draft or document, except within their own project. Project documents Affiliated projects will provide the TEI with details of any internal documentation they may already have, including for example DTDs or other encoding schemes currently in use. These may be incorporated into the TEI document scheme, if mutually agreeable. Information from them may also be incorporated into the TEI tag database, where this is thought mutually beneficial. The TEI will undertake not to re-circulate or pub- lish any draft or document produced by the Project, unless authorized to do so. DISCUSSION AND EXCHANGE OF EXPERTISE The purpose of affiliation is to enable Affiliated Projects to use TEI tagsets while they are being developed, thus providing the TEI with an important source of feedback about the Guidelines. To serve these ends, members of affiliated projects will be able to call on the expertise of committee and subcommittee heads and members and of others working with- in the TEI, as need arises. Similarly, the TEI hopes to benefit from the experience and expertise of those working within affiliated projects during the process of establishing the Guidelines. Members of affiliat- ed projects will thus contribute directly to the development of the TEI Guidelines as well as providing valuable feedback on their usability. The exact means of communication between the TEI and the Project will vary considerably; there may be direct e-mail or other correspondence between project members and appropriate committee heads or members, depending on mutual needs and interests. All participants are encour- aged to use the general discussion list TEI-L for general enquiries. The TEI editors will endeavour to facilitate this exchange of knowledge and can also be consulted for information and direction. The TEI urges members of affiliated projects to attend meetings of its Working Committees, exchange informal notes and generally partici- pate in their work. Affiliated Projects may also be requested to pro- vide written reports or assessments of major drafts of sections of the Guidelines judged relevant to their special expertise by the TEI. During the first development cycle of the project (through May 1990) the committees of the initiative will be putting together their recom- mendations; these will be issued as a draft in June 1990, at the begin- ning of the second development cycle (June 1990 - May 1992). In this second cycle, testing and validation of the Guidelines will be intensive and the Affiliated Projects will therefore play a major part. SAMPLE DATASETS Wherever possible, projects will agree to deposit copies of samples of data encoded using either the draft TEI scheme or any other scheme with the TEI, which will pass them on to the Oxford Text Archive for safek- eeping. If the project is willing to provide the entirety of their work, the Initiative will be glad to accept it; otherwise, it will suf- fice to provide passages selected for their typicality or for the par- ticular difficulties they present. VALIDATION OF DRAFTS In the second phase of the TEI when the Guidelines have been developed, their formal testing and validation will be crucial to the success of the Initiative. The Affiliated Projects will play a significant role in the process of testing, revision, and extension. In general, the pro- cess of testing and validating will entail: * applying the proposed tagging scheme to a reasonably large sample of text from the project's resources * testing the suitability of the resulting tagged text for the purpos- es of the project's own research and that of others * providing a brief report on any problems encountered, particular strengths or weaknesses in the Guidelines, either theoretical (e.g. inadequate to the problem area) or practical (e.g. too cumbersome or complex) * where necessary summarizing any recommendations or suggestions for improving the draft Guidelines The TEI will be free to publish the results of such tests, incorporating reasonably sized extracts from the test datasets in its own documenta- tion etc. PUBLICITY Brief details of all affiliated projects, their aims and the texts they are preparing will be publicized by the TEI in its literature. REVIEW OF AFFILIATION The TEI and the Project will review the progress of the affiliation agreement annually. It may be terminated by either side and there is no formal requirement of the Project to adopt the final TEI Guidelines, nor of the TEI to accommodate any special needs of the Project. Version 2, December 14, 1989