[Standards] unification and update of the standards documentation

[Piotr Banski]

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of the recent exchange, I would like to mention an 
initiative meant as the IDS's contribution to the work of the Standards 
Committee. Over the summer (with a vacation break), I intend to put 
together a proposal for unified documentation on the use of standards 
within CLARIN. I try not to think of this task as formidable and to 
split it into several stages, hoping to be able to ask for advice here 
when I get stuck (or panicky...).

The intention is not to revolutionize but merely to organize/update: see 
which standards the CLARIN centres can be safely assumed to rely on 
across the board, which of them can be thought of as enjoying "partial 
support" or are supported by some centres only, and which can be thought 
of as obsolete/obsoleted. This is because there currently exist several 
sources of standards recommendations within CLARIN, and it has been 
stated more than once that even if someone / some centre has the will to 
follow the CLARIN-recommended standards, they don't know where to begin 
(the Short Guides might be a good starting point in many cases, but then 
a sea of options suddenly opens, and if a newcomer reads a random paper 
on yet-another-standard, they might get an impression that a niche 
proposal is *the* CLARIN-recommended way, without being able to consult 
a unified resource and see what the alternatives are). Let me stress 
that I am undertaking this task not because I feel I am the best man for 
the job, but because it simply needs to be done and seems overdue. And I 
offer to start on my own only for the sake of efficiency -- even when my 
proposal is not judged as optimal, it might at least constitute a basis 
for improvement, a starting point for others to continue from, so it 
will hopefully be a step forward anyway.

The eventual shape of the proposal is intended to be elaborated also 
with the knowledge and participation of the Centres Committee, so that 
it could eventually be accepted by the individual CLARIN centres 
according to several criteria/parameters. I intend to be ready to 
present and discuss a draft of this in Aix.

I would like to begin in July (this is not going to be a full-time task 
for me), and I trust that I can ping this list with questions whenever I 
feel (close to) lost.

With best regards and counting on your support,

  Piotr

-- 
Piotr Bański, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher,
Institut für Deutsche Sprache,
R5 6-13
68-161 Mannheim, Germany