Customising the TEI

Possibilities of the

TEI Framework

What does the underlying XML look like?

Why Customise?

• Enforce consistency between one or more encoders
• Increase speed of encoding with set value lists and descriptions
• Generate internationalised, project-specific, documentation
• Record decisions and relationship with the TEI in a machine-processable form
• Create local encoding manual with embedded schema specifications
• Provide long-term archival documentation for your projects outputs

Do we have to?

• While customization of the TEI is not required it is a good idea as a form of documentation
• Customizations help remove human error amongst a group of encoders or even a single encoder over time
• While the TEI-C provides off-the-shelf customizations like tei_all, tei_lite, and tei_simplePrint it is very unlikely that these perfectly match any particular project
• All good TEI projects customize the TEI to not only reap the benefits of a a local encoding manual and schema, but as documentation for the future

TEI is standardisation by not saying
“Do what I do”
but instead by saying
“Do what you need to do but tell me about it in a language I understand”

Freedom to Constrain

• If you merely constrain the TEI to be:
  • smaller
  • more precise
  • have specified attributes 
  • project-specific examples
  • localised documentation
  • then interoperability is less of a problem
• But there are still issues:
  • different practices in various communities
  • different element choices
  • variation in attribute values

Unmediated Interoperability Fantasy

• True interoperability only happens because of mediating factors between resources (e.g. crosswalks, normalisation scripts, understanding of the differences)
• If seamless interoperability happens without these then it is lowest common denominator interchange instead:
  •  the initial data structures are trivial, limited or of only structural granularity,
  • the method of interoperation or combined processing is superficial,
  • there has been a loss of intellectual content, or
    the resulting interoperation is not significant.
    

TEI Processing Model

• The TEI processing model documentation in TEI ODD Customisations enable record of processing intentions
• Software developers can read TEI ODD Customisation file and generate processing streams based on documented behaviours
• Testing and early adopters show that this 'build a factory rather than a car' approach saves significantly in code-length and complexity
• eXist-db Native XML Database has incorporated this to produced their TEI Publisher eXist-db App

Let's go customise the TEI!

http://www.tei-c.org/Roma/