On Friday 25 February 2005 07:11 pm, Bruce Albrecht wrote:
I don't know if DP will try to replace all previous versions of texts with TEI-Lite documents, but my guess is that once a system is in place, there will be volunteers that will go back and rework the texts, just as we have volunteers today providing revised editions of earlier texts with HTML and text versions that follow the current formatting guidelines.
As always, volunteer in the ways you see fit, but I suspect many here (at least us DPers) would argue that working on new texts hitherto unavailable to PG is probably a better use of your time than providing multiple reformatted versions of existing works.
I'm one of the volunteers who is going back and providing reworked versions of existing older PG texts, and my approximate criteria for selection are: Older than (roughly) number 7000, is only in text version at PG, text version has many "hard" errors (tbe, arc, arid, etc. as opposed to "soft" problems such as formatting), illustrations not present, and most importantly, ones that I have a physical copy of the book from which to make the corrections from. This clearly falls under the "value-added" category of thinking. While I share your position that simple reformatting is mostly a waste of time, going back and rehabilitating existing works is not, and I hope that people interested in working on that aspect are not discouraged. I think of it much like carpentry; there are some people who are more of a framing temperament, those who are interested in finish work, and those who like to do restoration or renovation work. All of those skills/mindsets are necessary to complete a strong and attractive project.