On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 09:37 pm, Van-Couvering,EJ (pgr) wrote: > 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. > As the project initiator, I start up the project because I saw the need, not because I had any particular skill in project software management. Also I am a poor programmer. I would love to get in and do some coding myself but I am so bad at it I get very bad tempered and my wife complains.
I mention this to emphasis that Bruce and I would appreciate any advise we can get on how to more effectively run the project and more constructively engage this and the wider community. > 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 worked in IT operations and support roles and have done a bit of high level application and database design. But my skills are more in the humanities. I have just complete a History MA thesis on the early Irish sagas. > > I have two questions: 1) what kind of resource support do we need? A quick list - Application designers GUI Interface designers Programers Documentation writers People to develop style templates > And > 2) why do we have to get it from Sun? To enable the type of application we want for the bibliographic system we need to have changes made to the core Word Processor and User Interface code. Theoretically a volunteer could look at the existing code and make the changes required. In practice there is a huge hurdle in leaning how to do this because of the complexity of the OpenOffice Application. There is a manual that explains the OpenOffice Application programming interface (API) and it has about 1500 pages. A volunteer would need to make a big commitment in time and energy and brain space to do this. If you were a young programmer setting out you would probably want to learn the microsoft .NET API (a similar size) in preference because it enhances job prospects. Young people might not believe this but you can only learn a limited number of such complex systems in a lifetime. Anyway no one has volunteered to undertake this task. This leaves the SUN people who designed built and understand current system. Our plan is to ask the SUN people to create a simple Bibliographic API that would allow our volunteer programmers then work from a very simple to learn and understand interface. This would also allow other people to build alternative bibliographic support components to to build interfaces to the commercial products. The situation with Sun is looking reasonable - we have been told that after OOo version 2 is released in March-April the SUN people will be be able to "start some work" on the bibliographic system. We need to prepare (and negotiate) a proposal for the first stage of work. > 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. It would be really cool. But how do we find the skilled volunteers ? The demand is greater than the supply. There are many Open Source projects languishing because of lack of skilled volunteers and probably from burnout of the founders. For example - I still can not ditch MS from my house because there is still no linux OpenSource OCR program to run with my scanner that is even close to being as good as the ones you get for Windows with even the cheapest scanner. There are several OpenSource OCR projects but they are developing very slowing. And I presume that this is due to lack of person-power. > 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. Perhaps we need a grant application and fund raising working party. Are there any skilled grant hunters and writers out there ? Actually someone has raised the question of donating a small amount of money to the project. The easiest option is donating to OpenOffice and requesting that it be used for the bibliographic project. If the project was to accept money directly we would need to set up a some sort of foundation which would incur significant legal set up and ongoing costs. I have no skills in this area at all. There is also the problem of the international character of the project (I am in Australia). > > 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] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
