comments on EML handbook

[Mark Schildhauer]

Hi folks,

Attached is a copy of David and Jeanine's draft of the EML Handbook to 
which I have added extensive comments for about the first 20 pages, 
using "track changes".

The draft is a very solid start, and captures a lot of what needs to go 
into this document.  So, thanks for the hard work, David and Jeanine.

I read over Chad and Matt's comments as well, and agree with most all of 
their points.  Especially-- no criticism or mention of NSF is necessary, 
aside from thanking them for funding in the acknowledgements.  I think 
the approach of using humor, and the verbosity associated with it, 
detracts from the effectiveness of the document.  I do like the various 
scenarios (Metalogs), and think these serve well if some of the cornier 
trappings are eliminated (like moving fictional characters to a more 
straightforward Q&A)

Like Chad and Matt, I believe all the more technical stuff should be 
moved to an Appendix.  That way the main body of the document can be 
read and understood by a large "research ecologist" audience, while the 
formal details can be found in the Appendix for those who are simply 
curious or information managers needing a greater level of technical 
depth.  I think the XMLSPY visualizations need to be vastly simplified 
for the main text, and other descriptions of XML structure and 
references to "schema" etc. relegated to an Appendix wherever possible. 
  For the Appendix, the XMLSPY figures might be totally appropriate, 
particularly if there is some initial explanation about what the various 
symbols represent.

I think the most important functions of this document are 1) to clarify, 
thru simple scenarios and accessible prose, the basic structure and 
purpose of EML, and (very importantly) 2) to describe a critical subset 
of EML tags and their intended usage.  This latter function, if 
successfully achieved through a set of compelling examples, could be 
extremely useful to someone initially confronting the huge set of tags 
comprising EML.

IMHO, David and Jeanine have done a very good job identifying and 
describing a number of these tags, and what is necessary is to simply 
polish the presentation and organization of this subset.  That presents 
some major challenges for sure-- for example how to communicate the 
re-usage of "ResponsibleParty" elements in various contexts.

In any case, great start and I look forward to seeing the next draft!

Cheers,
Mark S./NCEAS

-- 
Mark P. Schildhauer, Ph.D. --  Director of Computing
NCEAS --  National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
735 State St., Suite 300       Santa Barbara, CA   93101-3351	
Email: schild at nceas.ucsb.edu   WEB: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu
Phone: 805-892-2509            FAX: 805-892-2510
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