On February 10, 2012, TAPAS announced its first call for beta-testers and contributors of test data to help us test early versions of the service.
In the first year, our goal is to permit contributors to upload TEI files and associated data to a Fedora repository, create metadata, and perform basic file management. Here’s how beta-testers and test contributors can help:
1. In summer 2012, we will be developing the ingestion interface through which TEI data can be submitted to TAPAS. We’ll be looking for feedback on usability and required features, as well as basic information about your TEI data.
2. In fall 2012, we will be testing the submission and ingestion interface. We will need test contributors with TEI data willing to upload it to TAPAS and tell us how we can improve the process.
3. In late summer and early fall 2012, we will be working on documentation and will need readers who can help us identify areas that need explanation, and help us clarify difficult points.
4. Throughout the development process, we'll be glad of thoughtful test users of all kinds interested in being part of a "virtual focus group."
We welcome participants willing to help with any or all of these activities. Even if you don’t have any TEI data right now, but will have some soon, we would be glad to hear from you. And if you'd just like to be kept on our mailing list for when we start recruiting TAPAS members, you can sign up for that as well.
A few caveats are important here. Our long-term goal is to provide a fully functional repository and publishing service for TEI data. However, in this phase of the project we are building and testing the service in a very preliminary way. Data contributed by beta-testers will be used for testing purposes to help us develop schemas, stylesheets, and interface features, but we cannot make any guarantees about functionality, long-term storage, or anything else at this early stage. Test data and projects will be visible (and visibly thanked!) on the TAPAS site.
To express your interest, please register here: http://bit.ly/ufjOFO