Re-using Oracc content for online teaching

As we get ever closer to the new academic year, I’d like to remind you of various ways in which you can re-use the free, open-access cuneiform content on Oracc.org:

1. Basics: Start with http://oracc.org/doc/help/visitingoracc/reusingoracc/index.html for simple ideas that anyone can use without a login: from creating links to lists of texts to embedding whole texts in your own web page. 
2. Next steps: go to http://oracc.org/doc/help/visitingoracc/citingurls/index.html for instructions on linking via key-words and glossary entries if you’re a bit more confident with HTML (again, no login required). 
3. If you have an Oracc login and know how to use it: see my old blog post at https://oracc.blogspot.com/2018/07/creating-proxy-parasite-project.html for guidance on creating your own bespoke “proxy” project if you want to create a whole corpus of texts for your class. For example, an old example of mine, that pulls in material from across many Oracc projects is http://oracc.org/cams/tlab which I built for an undergrad class, “Temple Life in Assyria and Babylonia”, a few years ago. 
4. If you’d like to learn how to make your own “proxy” project but don’t have a login or need a refresher, I’ll be running an interactive online workshop on Thursday 20 August (4pm UK time = 11 am US East Coast, 5pm mainland Europe, 6 pm Iraq, etc). Because I will need to issue Oracc logins in advance, and give proper tutorial support during the session, I have capped attendance at 12 people. Please sign up here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oracc-for-online-teaching-tickets-116639651337 and I’ll be in touch with more details. If there’s enough demand, I’ll run extra sessions.

I hope this is all self-explanatory but if you have any questions or problems, please leave me a comment below.

Knowledge and Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the original funders of the website Knowledge & Power in the Neo-Assyrian Empire no longer have access to the server on which it is hosted, which means that we cannot update it and many of the links (especially those to State Archives of Assyria online). We are currently trying to get it taken down with a redirect to the new site. Meanwhile, please update your links and bookmarks from http://knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/ to http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/knpp/

Updated documentation

Over the past week or so I've had a jolly time checking that all the Oracc documentation is up-to-date and reflects current practice, and that all the links work. I won't list every tiny change here, but would like to draw your attention to a few points in particular:

All users: Citing Oracc URLs online and in print

Oracc 2 makes systematic use of stable URIs, so that you can be confident that print references and online links will remain valid. That means, though, that some details of the instructions on how to cite Oracc pages and resources have changed.

Mostly for editors and managers: Oracc language codes

If you have already read my overview of how the new lemmatiser works, you'll know that now you always need to specify Akkadian dialects (unless you are producing ATF for CDLI) and that glossary merges must now always specify the language. I've also worked those changes systematically through the documentation.

For editors and project managers: builder documentation

Editors and project managers will also notice that I have rearranged the list of builder documentation. It's still all there as before but now, I hope, in a more logical order.

For project managers: glossary management

I have incorporated the L2 updates into the sections on glossaries in the pages on project management with Unix and project management with Emacs (and written it into the rest of the documentation).

For project managers: The Oracc Command

This page has been reorganised and updated, so that it is easier to find help on the commands you most need for everyday project management work.

And you'll now find a Documentation full text search at the top of every documentation page.

If you notice anything wrong, broken, missing, or just plain confusing, please let me know, either in the comments or by email. The documentation is for you, the users and project creators, so please tell me if (and how) it isn't serving your needs.

Blog redesign

Anticipating the launch of Oracc 2, I've redesigned the blog to look more like our new home page. And no, you can't see it yet! But it's coming soon, I promise.

I've also deleted and/or edited some of the old news items that were only of transient use, and started to label the rest. (I'll do the older ones over the next few days.) I hope the labels will help you find what you are looking for, whether you manage, edit or use Oracc projects.

Let me know in the comments or by email what you think of this new look, especially if you're reading on a mobile device. I'd also like to know if there are particular labels you'd find helpful.

New documentation

As the new-look Oracc comes onstream, you will find that it looks a little bit different, and that you can do a lot more with the texts than before. In particular, Steve has dramatically improved the search functionality. People making projects and corpora on Oracc will also, we hope, notice several significant improvements.

I have updated the online help pages for Oracc website users and for project creators. Please take the time to read the pages are most relevant to you, as they will help you get a great deal more out of Oracc. If you have any questions or problems, or can't find what you're looking for, please leave a comment here for me.

Links to help from the Oracc homepage will be reinstated shortly. What you see at the moment is just temporary, while the upgrade is in progress. Meanwhile they are here on the right.

For all Oracc website users

• Using the new-look Oracc 2 online corpora

You can also access this page from the Help button at the top of all Oracc corpus pages.

Note that this is a different URL to the old help pages, which I haven't yet taken down. So if you have bookmarked the old ones, please update your bookmarks. The main user help page has been updated though.

For Oracc project creators

• L2: how to use it

A one-page starting point for all editors and project managers, with links to all the relevant new documentation. You may not need all of this if you don't run a whole project single-handedly; just stop reading when it no longer seems relevant.

Not much has changed in fact, especially for text editing. You will find that lemmatisation is much improved; that you have much more control over individual languages, dialects and glossaries; and that projects rebuild much faster than they did before.

If your project has not yet been migrated it will be soon. We will email you when we are ready for your input. As the new system is much more rigorous than the old one, you will almost certainly have to spend some time error-checking and bug-fixing before you can continue routine work. Be prepared! Remember too that you will need to think of a new password.

Browser support in Oracc 2

Much of the development on Oracc2 over the last day or so has been porting projects to the new infrastructure and fixing some bugs in the lemmatizer. One change visible to web users, though, is that browser support has been improved.

O2 now has support for Safari, Chrome and Opera, in addition to FireFox. This support is not extensively tested, but basic functionality seems good. Of the three, Opera support is initially less robust than the two webkit-based browsers (Safari/Chrome).

It is possible that O2 will not support officially support Internet Explorer, which has a way of always requiring extra work to make basic things function. I hope that between FireFox, Safari and Chrome, with a possible option on Opera, people will have enough choice to be able to enjoy using Oracc.

New doco structure

As you'll see, the Oracc documentation is much fuller and more systematically organised than the old CDL doco. It's fully searchable from the Oracc home page.

You'll also find that visitors to your website can access all the user help from the [HELP] link at the left of every Page View and Item View header on your corpus pages.

But if you think anything is missing, or needs further explanation, please let me know.