Balisage Paper: A Centralised Index of the Sisterhood of Markup Events
Sheila E. Thomson
Sheila Thomson is a software developer who has been working with XML technologies since the early 2000s, in domains such as online news and journal publishing, banking and manufacturing, for a variety of organisations but highlights include the BBC, Nature, LexisNexis, Sopra Steria and, most recently, Saxonica. She has a BA(Hons) in Information Studies and Librarianship and an MSc in Computer Science and is honoured to have been a member of a team that won a Webby Award. She is based in London and, when not developing, sings in a local community choir, chauffeurs Basset Hounds for a charity and takes deep dives down family history-related rabbit holes (such as shoemakers in 18th century Glasgow).
Abstract
When I have an idea for a paper, I like to check if someone's already presented it
or something similar. If it's not a new topic, then maybe I can build on what's gone
before — but I need to know what that was. There are also occasions when the research
is not driven by a prospective project but simply curiosity or to support learning.
Each time I go through this process, I think to myself Wouldn't it be nice if there was a centralised index of all the markup papers?
This paper is a case study on the creation of such an index, in particular its scope,
processes, challenges, and solutions.