[okfn-help] openMilton

Sat Aug 16 17:35:24 BST 2008

On 12/08/08 13:28, Iain Emsley wrote:
> Dear Rufus,
 >
> You read my mind on this and I was going to test something and post  
> tonight but you've beaten me to it... :)

:)

> What I was going to suggest is that I create the Milton text package  
> and the Milton templates and effectively supply a patch to the core  
> Shakespeare code. Effectively you could transform the shakespeare code  
> into "openLiterature" (since open Text I think has gone or is too  
> close to another project) with the shksprdata file just called data.  
> Then all we need to do to extend it would be to provide the packages  
> of authors with a readme, the text files and template files for the  
> guide and any changes one wishes to make.

Yes this seems exactly the way to go. We should probably start trying to 
spec out exactly what is in the core and not so we can reduce 
duplication and refactor as cleanly as possible.

> At that point all the user need do is drop the relvant packages in the  
> data and
> templates, run db create, db init and paste serve your-name.ini and  
> one running project (well, you need to install it first)!
> 
> I think that would also fulfill the componentization part of the Open  
> Knowledge (though the ref currently escapes me - sorry).
> 
> Just so you know I'm currently looking at the idea of using LinkedData  
> [1] to provide machine interfaces if somebody does use this on a  
> webserver. Okay, I also wanted to explore how the web of data/data web  

Interesting way to go. Originally I was thinking that people would 
simply install the shakespeare package themselves but more and more 
stuff is becoming 'online services'. By the way if you do this it might 
make sense to implement this in the shakespeare 'core' rather than 
simply in Milton.

> can be used to serve Open Knowledge projects. I'm curious to see if it  
> can lead somewhere meaningful. I was hoping that if we can  
> find/develop a framework of ancillary texts/audio/video for  
> consumption / generation. Any thoughts (apart from it could become  
> Frankenstein's monster.)?

I think developing a framework ab initio is hard. My suggestion would be 
to start storing/referencing this stuff and then see where this leads us.

> Perhaps an IRC meeting would be useful, not just for this but also the  
> Text Mining stuff that's begun to sprout. I think that there are a  
> load of avenues that could be explored and it would be useful to  
> create a public roadmap.

Good idea. We can use the trac instance we have:

http://knowledgeforge.net/shakespeare/trac/

Current tickets are at:

http://knowledgeforge.net/shakespeare/trac/report/1

~rufus