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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">Dear all,<br>
<br>
during the work on the MEI sample collection, questions appeared
on how to encode the creators of each electronic file correctly.<br>
In MEI2012 the normal path (or better said: the way, we first
chose to encode it) was to encode several
<persName>-elements within the statement of responsibilty. A
differentiation between several involved persons only became
apparent through additional @role-attributes, i.e. <br>
<respStmt><br>
<persName role="composer">Anton Webern</persName><br>
<persName role="creator">John Doe</persName> </font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"></respStmt><br>
<br>
In a second step we decided not to encode ourselves as "creators"
of the file (although we are), but as "encoders" and to assign the
composer of the encoded work as creator, i.e.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif"><respStmt><br>
<persName role="creator">Anton Webern</persName><br>
<persName role="encoder">John Doe</persName> </font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"></respStmt><br>
<br>
The decision is based on the fact, that we encode the <u>intellectual
creation</u> of a composer's work. We tried to keep up the
distinction between the composer and the encoder. <br>
<br>
</font>MEI2013 will offer some new elements to specify the role of
persons, organizations etc. a bit more: <creator>,
<contributor>, <editor>, <funder> and
<sponsor>. <br>
In this regard it is now the question how to encode this best:<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><respStmt><br>
<creator> <br>
<persName>Anton Webern</persName><br>
</creator><br>
<creator><br>
<persName>John Doe</persName> <br>
</creator><br>
</font> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"></respStmt></font></font><br>
<br>
or<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif"><font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><respStmt><br>
<creator> <br>
<persName role="composer">Anton
Webern</persName><br>
</creator><br>
<creator><br>
<persName role="encoder">John
Doe</persName> <br>
</creator><br>
</font> <font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"></respStmt></font></font></font><br>
?<br>
<br>
We first thought, it would be a good idea, to add a
<composer> element to the list. But that alone would not be
sufficient, as the creative aspect regarding musical works is
difficult to manage. In this case, we would rather have to extend
the list by adding some more elements like <arranger>,
<lyricist>, etc. But this can soon become very unwieldy.<br>
<br>
I have to admit that I don't prefer to encode detailed
specifications only within child elements. However, if we choose
to maintain the 'more detailed elements', I would at least like to
see some mandatory child elements, such as <persName>,
<name>, <corpName> etc., in there. <br>
<br>
When thinking about all this, I came to the conclusion, that it
might be enough to allow a <creator> and a
<contributor> element (with some mandatory child elements).
I am not even sure, if we should offer a separate <editor>
element or if an editor should be considered as a contributor as
well.<br>
What is to be said against a specification of the role on the
<creator> or <contributor> element? Wouldn't this make
things easier to handle for the encoder, who might not know as
much about the encoding of persNames with MEI?<br>
<br>
<br>
Any comments on this?<br>
<br>
Best,<br>
Kristina</font><br>
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