TEI P2 -- the countdown commences
 
Apologies to readers of this list who feel it's been too quiet for too
long. That's not because nothing is happening in the TEI -- on the
contrary, a great deal has been happening, rather more than we poor
editors can keep track of, digest for public consumption and transmit
through this channel.  Nearly all of the specialist work groups set up
at the beginning of the summer have now had meetings, producing a mass
of working papers, comments, criticisms and proposals for the next
draft.  We've run two public workshops, both of which were oversubscribed
(and exhausting) and given more presentations than either of us cares to
think about ... and there's more to come.
 
But the most important piece of news is the time scale for the rest of
the project, which is the purpose of this note. Reach for your diary,
(if in North America, make that 'reach for your datebook') and then read
on.
 
15-17 Nov:  Myrdal Conference. The committees responsible for the major
            part of the original draft of the TEI Guidelines (TEI P1)
            will be reconvened for a special three-day meeting in a
            remote spot in Norway.  The main business of the meeting
            will be to review that draft, the public comments on
            it received to date, and as much as is available of the
            work done so far on the next draft (TEI P2) of the
            Guidelines.
 
30 Nov 1991:  Cutoff date for input to TEI P2, the second version of the
           Guidelines.  Work papers and specific proposals for changes
           and extensions to the Guidelines (reflecting the decisions
           taken at the Myrdal meeting) are due from all current
           work groups by this date.  This is also the closing date for
           public comment on TEI P1; comments received after this date
           will not be reflected in TEI P2.
 
January 1992:  Public release of TEI P2, the draft of the final version
           of the TEI Guidelines, for public comment. We haven't yet
           decided exactly how we'll be distributing it, and in what
           forms, but FTP is a distinct possibility.  (TEI P2 is expected
           to be marked up with tags conforming to TEI P2 itself.)
 
15 March 1992:  Deadline for public comments on P2. (This is the date
          you should mark on your calendar / diary / datebook!)
          Comments received after this date will *not* affect the
          form of the Guidelines presented to the Advisory Board.
 
Late April 92:  Final revisions of TEI P2 should be complete. A
         preliminary version of TEI P3 (i.e. the final draft of
         the final version) will be circulated within the TEI only,
         though there will, of course, be a presentation devoted to
         it at the ALLC-ACH '92 conference, 5-9 April 92 (mail
         [log in to unmask] for details of this conference
         if you need them)
 
30-31 May 92:  TEI Advisory Board meets in Chicago to review,
        and (we hope) endorse the final draft.
 
30 June 92:  Final publication of TEI Guidelines, incorporating any
        comments from the Advisory Board.  Editors take a long holiday.
 
What happens thereafter?  Well, that depends a lot on you.  Some
mechanism will definitely be in place to handle revision and further
extensions to the guidelines.  But we need to hear from you now if you
think the general direction and content of the TEI Guidelines is
seriously flawed -- next June it may be too late.
 
-Michael Sperberg-McQueen
 Lou Burnard