The really engaged posts on the EMiC blog have really got me thinking… If we put all this effort into developing the “EMiC” brand of digital mark-up…  Would it be possible to create an online graduate journal, or something similar, within which we could publish samples of our projects? Hosted through EMiC, or partnered with EMiC, but a distinct entity?

This way, like Chris suggests, we could develop a “house style” which all our projects could conform to, but also use and develop.

 It could be a collaboration, by both humanities scholars, digital humanists and other computer scientists.  If we worked with them to develop the tools we’d need to start out and get the ball rolling, then we would be able to self teach through forums like the DHSI summer course.

Some of the small projects we might be interested in pursuing don’t necessarily have a forum for publication.  This would give graduate students a chance to learn new technology, and then have an immediate application for it.  They would know that their work had a possible “home” within the journal.

Obviously this is looking a little bit longer term, but it would be really amazing if we were able to lay the groundwork for this in the next few years, while we have an EMiC to support and engage us.

Perhaps it could be split into two parts, half scholarly articles about editing in print and online, and half documents or editorial projects that are entirely born digital.

I realize that I am perhaps being a bit over ambitious…  But I couldn’t help but take it to the next level.  Thoughts??

Did I take it too far?

Did I?

Chris Doody and I were talking as we poked around the UVic bookstore today, and he was shooting off some great suggestions for things we’d love to see at DHSI next year. Alicia Fahey and I also had a similar conversation with Zailig last night around the kitchen table. Some of these ideas are specifically for EMiCites, but most would also be of interest to the wider DHSI community. Some are lessons, some are tools, but all of them would be useful. Here are the ones that we’ve been discussing, but this will hopefully be a list that grows during the course of the week:

1. Image Markup Tool 2.0: Tools and Tricks
2. a standardized EMiC set of TEI tags, a schema, and a basic CSS template so that we’re all speaking the same language and our final projects have the same aesthetic. Of course we’ll all need to customize things for our individual projects, but consistent appearance and functionality across projects would be great for us as editors and for the EMiC “brand.” Along with this, of course, would be lessons in how to use them!
3. From Code to Digital Edition: CSS and XSLT Stylesheets for TEI
4. Successful Grant Applications 101
5. Issues in Permissions and Copyright

Some of these ideas could become documents that are hosted in a central location that all EMiCites can access. As it keeps getting repeated in TEI Fundamentals, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel, so the more we can all share information and tools, the easier all of our jobs get. Looking forward to hearing more ideas!