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In message <[log in to unmask]>, Ellis Mike <[log in to unmask]> writes > >The lesson we're all starting to learn is to try and START with all >your exhibition text as XML and then you can easily go the OTHER way, >repurposing and re-interpreting stuff to web/pdf/etc as you see fit... This is an approach CIMI was exploring all of ten years ago (using SGML - XML hadn't even arrived them). We were looking into ways of marking up exhibition catalogues and wall texts using the TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) framework, and exploring ways of introducing museum-specific markup into TEI so that you could cross-link related resources and do context-specific searches (e.g. for personal names) directly on these texts. It's interesting to note that CIDOC is now starting to collaborate with the TEI on much the same problem: using the CRM (Conceptual Reference Model) to express the museum-specific aspects of an information resource. We hope to have a workshop on TEI at the CIDOC conference in May. One interesting question we might explore is why the practical adoption of this good idea has been so long in coming. Certainly, the CIMI collaborators found the process of marking up in SGML (using the then leading-edge Author/Editor program) to be very challenging. Also, converting your SGML to various delivery formats was far from straightforward: DSSSL was the only standards-based option, and it made XSLT look totally trivial. I think things are much easier now, but I would be interested to hear other views on the practicability of adopting an "XML first" strategy for textual museum resources. Richard Light -- Richard Light SGML/XML and Museum Information Consultancy [log in to unmask]