Minimal TEI Publishing with CETEIcean

This half-day workshop will introduce CETEIcean (pronounced /sɪˈti:ʃn/), a JavaScript library for displaying Text Encoding Initiative XML in a web browser. CETEIcean’s key feature is the isomorphic transformation of TEI into HTML by registering TEI elements with the browser as Custom Elements. This is in contrast to the typical methods for presenting TEI on the web that use the XML stack (XSLT/XQuery) to convert TEI XML sources to simple HTML—in the process discarding much of the information in the sources. Loading a TEI document with CETEIcean makes all of its information content accessible to the browser: TEI Custom Elements can be styled and made interactive with CSS and JavaScript just like HTML. We will begin with a discussion to contextualize this approach within the “minimal computing” movement, particularly as pioneered by the GO:DH Minimal Computing Working Group. This approach fosters “reconnecting with our knowledge production” in order to think critically about the question “what do we need?” (Alex Gil 2015 https://go-dh.github.io/mincomp/thoughts/2015/05/21/user-vs-learner/). Identifying the minimal technical stack for running a TEI project can help content creators to reach their goals quickly and effectively, even when there are constraints on the resources they can access or the computing environments they rely upon. Minimal computing principles argue that this can be an essential instrument in giving voice to underfunded and underrepresented groups. Attendees will work on a simple site publication embedding either a provided TEI example or their own TEI document.