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This proposal describes a community outreach program focused on providing the TEI community with access to TEI expertise, with particular emphasis on TEI customization and schema design, encoding documentation, and project strategy with respect to TEI encoding. In this proposal we refer to this program as the “Community Outreach Program” but better names can no doubt be found.
The goals of the Community Outreach Program are to assist groups and individuals in developing successful TEI projects and funding proposals for such projects, and to provide TEI members with access to advice and consultancy on all aspects of TEI usage. For the most part, its services would be offered as a membership benefit, although this would probably not be possible to enforce closely.
Its activities include:
- 1. TEI consultancy listing
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The COP would provide a listing of consultants who are competent to offer assistance in a broad range of TEI project development activities (schema customization, stylesheet development, conversions, grant proposal development, project planning, etc.) This listing would be informational only; the TEI would not make any guarantees of their competence or their work. However, to be listed all consultants would be asked to complete a form indicating their competence in specific areas (e.g. TEI customization; XSLT; project documentation; grant proposal writing; etc.) and the languages in which they are prepared to consult, and these areas would be indicated in the listing at the TEI site. The list would be kept current by the program’s coordinator.
The expectation is that these consultants would be hired by projects, and paid out of project funds or grant funds. The program coordinator could offer advice in choosing a consultant (e.g. advice on what skills might be required for a particular project) but the choice and all arrangements (contract terms, payment, etc.) would be entirely up to the project and consultant to arrange.
Fees would not be set by the TEI, although in order to be listed consultants would be expected to provide a discount to TEI members or subscribers, and in any case not to charge more than a maximum set by the TEI.
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- 2. Consultancy grant program
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The COP would support an annual grant program (target for disbursement in the first year might be 15K USD total) to provide support to small, pilot, or unfunded projects. This program would involve an annual call for proposals, with awards in the range of 2000 to 3000 USD. These funds could be used to cover consultant fees, travel, or both. (In some cases, consultants might agree to do this work pro bono, or while funded by another grant, in which case travel expenses might be the only cost). Proposals would be evaluated both on their merits and on their benefit to the TEI community: for instance, a successful proposal might be to develop a documented TEI customization for oral histories, or to develop a set of useful conversion stylesheets, or to develop a funding proposal to support some TEI-related work. Applicants could include TEI SIGs, projects, organizations, or individuals. Successful applicants would be required to provide the TEI with any materials developed as a result of the grant.
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- 3. TEI grant assistance program
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The COP would also take over and formalize the TEI’s existing grant assistance program. Consultants who are listed as willing/able to help projects develop grant proposals could indicate whether they are willing to do so pro bono on a purely advisory basis (as is now the case), and projects seeking such assistance could request it from the program coordinator, who would match the project with an appropriate consultant. For very large grant proposals, this might be a paid consulting activity but we expect this to be rare.
The types of outside projects that would be the primary focus for the COP are those that are developing materials, guidelines, or customizations that are for use by more than one project. E.g. things like MEP, EpiDoc, or TEI in Libraries. That is, the most important focus would be on assisting groups or projects to produce materials which are potentially of value to the wider TEI community or portions thereof.
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