Thanks for the update, Bruce, this is very interesting stuff. I think basically you said that apart from complaining that it's not here yet and how important it is, the folks on this list can't do anything to help. My complaint therefore follows below. But in addition, I think there must be a way that we can more constructively engage this community, and your thoughts on that would be welcome.
Signpost here: I'm not very technical - pretty average - and I work in the social sciences. I know nothing about BibTeX, DocBook, or the other things that people have been mentioning. I hardly grasp what XML and XSLT are. I personally want a more or less out-of-the-box application that I can understand, and that doesn't require advanced configuration for basic use. That's why OoBib is so important - I can't switch to anything open without it. I have two questions: 1) what kind of resource support do we need? And 2) why do we have to get it from Sun? I thought the cool thing about open source projects was that you could mobilize volunteers, like ourselves but obviously with a few more skills, to write and test your code. And also, even if cold hard cash is necessary, aren't there other ways of fundraising? This is an important project, and I hate to think we are at the mercy of corporate bureaucracy. Elizabeth -----Original Message----- From: Bruce D'Arcus [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 10 February 2005 17:57 To: [email protected] Subject: [users-biblio] status (was Re: [users-biblio] kent state capstone project?) On Feb 10, 2005, at 12:38 PM, Van-Couvering,EJ (pgr) wrote: > Oooh, open XML. Are you guys cool or what? Well, what can we say? ;-) > How can we help? Posting your ideas here (which I can forward to the people at Sun who make resource decisions) certainly can't hurt. The status of things is that we're slowing getting the pieces in place: 1) The OASIS Technical Committee that oversees the development of the file format (now called OpenDocument) has approved new citation coding which will make dramatically improved functionality (that goes beyond Endnote, in fact) possible. 2) No promises, but I will submit a proposal to the same TC that they replace the current bibliographic metadata coding with the MODS XML schema from the Library of Congress. Why? It's much richer, and it's standard (you can download MODS records from the Library of Congress catalog, using a web browser!). 3) I've been working on a side project that consists of this new XML style language -- called Citation Style Language (CSL) -- and XSLT code that will format documents based on them. http://xbiblio.sourceforge.net/ I've not announced it yet, but should give a sense (more aimed at developers though). 4) We've got someone working on GUI design docs. The critical next step is that we need to get Sun to dedicate resources to make it possible to bring all of the above into a finished application. Without that, nothing will happen. The good news is that we've gotten encouragement from them, and so are optimistic this will happen. We're trying to design things in ways that they not only improve free bibliographic software, but also open it up (though open standards, interfaces, etc.). Bruce --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
