XML marks the spot

In 1996, just in time for the Olympics, a group of local academics and arts advocates released the “New Georgia Guide,” a reference guide intended for visitors streaming into the Peach State for the Games. More than 10,000 guides were sold. “It was a real confidence builder,” says Jamil Zainaldin, president of the Georgia Humanities Council. “People appreciated an effort to say what Georgia really was.”
Energized by the guide’s success, the same group — comprised of the University of Georgia Press and the Georgia Humanities Council — was emboldened to carry the idea even further, in the form of a massive website. But instead of wining and dining venture capitalists, they headed to the State Capitol to woo then-Gov. Zell Miller and current Gov. Roy Barnes. Their idea? A pioneering, online project called the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the first state or regional encyclopedia to be conceived and executed exclusively for online purposes — and powered by the Web-building language of the future, XML or Extensible Markup Language.
“It was the timing,” says Zainaldin, who helped dream up the original concept. “And Zell Miller being a historian. And Governor Barnes being very techno-savvy.”
Although you won’t see the final product on your browser until the summer of 2002, the New Georgia Encyclopedia has already drawn national attention. The National Endowment for the Humanities has established grant funds specifically for electronic encyclopedias in other states.
To many, Georgia is little more than high-tech, CNN and the Braves. Zainaldin thinks this is a travesty, particularly for a state chartered in 1732. After all, Georgia history is taught in public schools only once, in eighth grade. Even then, it isn’t mandatory. And with so many newcomers moving to Dixie, the cultural distinctions on which Southerners have always prided themselves are beginning to fade fast. However, says Zainaldin, it’s not just a Georgian phenomenon. “This is a national problem. We’re not good at keeping our past alive.”
But the encyclopedia is more than just notations on a unique past. The site is being wrangled into broader areas ranging from the pre-history of Georgia and archeological remains all the way to the present. History, art, biography, government and politics, transportation, business, geology, media, literature, folk life, religion, science and medicine are just a sampling of what will be found within this virtual portal to the state. Someone interested in the paper industry, for instance, will be directed to information about the middle Georgia mining of kaolin, a product crucial to the manufacturing of paper.
“The burden of accuracy is so high for a project of this kind, because this will be the first line of reference for many people about the state of Georgia,” says Nancy Grayson, project coordinator. “I range from being elated to down at times because it’s so overwhelming. But we’ve made remarkable progress.”
Project leaders are gathering section editors who are proven and competent in their fields, about two thirds coming from higher education. Section editors are then responsible for identifying appropriate writers for sub-topics within their designated section.
Says Grayson: “We’re trying very hard not to make this just an Atlanta-focused operation, trying to involve section editors from all over the state. We have conducted town meetings all over to find out what local movers and shakers think should be included. We still have places to get to.” So far, more than 100 pieces have been compiled, on everything from Brunswick stew to the carpet industry.
So far, almost $2 million has been raised for the project, mostly from the state and private sector donors such as UPS, BellSouth, Georgia Power, the Peyton Anderson Foundation, the Woodruff Foundation and the Chattahoochee Historical Commission.
To ensure the New Georgia Encyclopedia has the latest technology to keep it running smoothly, the entire work is being coded using XML, not HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), the current “language” commonly used for website construction. HTML works merely as a “display language,” telling your browser what to show: “Make this bold,” “display this in big letters,” “skip a line.” XML on the other hand is a “meta-language,” a way of describing data. For instance, if your search word is “poultry,” the new language will be smart enough to return any articles on chicken, even if the word “poultry” is never mentioned.
Mike Merrill of Merrill-Hall New Media, the company responsible for actually building the site, says XML is the future of the Web, that the old code was useful only as a starting point. “It [HTML] was just a warm-up to what’s coming,” he says. “It was the telegraph to the TV. What’s coming is much bigger and will affect much more of our lives. We don’t want our legacy to get lost like the eight-track tape player.”