TMEuro

Frans Wiering

TMEuro is an information system for Western music history that contains digitised and enriched source materials dating from before c. 1750. The aim of TMEuro is to provide effective and user-friendly access to these materials, to connect these to related materials outside the system, to store knowledge acquired by users and to communicate it to others, by means of suitable and innovative technology. TMEuro is destined for and supported by a broad group of academic and professional users.

TMEuro consists of:

1. reliable, high-quality and durable digital representations of sources (text, music notation, pictures, objects) in a suitable form (facsimile, transcription, edition, translation, sound or otherwise);
2. knowledge that is related to these sources (enrichment, annotations, links, thesauri, databases, electronic publications etc.);
3. a software environment providing access over the Internet (not excluding distribution through other media), making use as much as possible of SGML/XML and related technologies.

TMEuro is also an infrastructure into which existing systems may be integrated. There must thus be room for a variety of technical and scholarly approaches.

TMEuro is intended in the first place for education, research, and other non-commerical uses in the study of music and cultural history. In the second place, it acts as an 'experimenting ground' for the development of methods and techniques of information science, such as distributed systems, information retrieval, and standards of representation.

In addition to the consultation of existing materials, users are stimulated to enrich existing materials, to prepare new materials and to add their knowledge. Such contributions must meet appropriate quality norms, but these must be such that pluralism and discussion are encouraged and the expression of personal views is not restricted.

Costs may be charged to users, but only at a level that does not impede the access to the system. Payment is required for commercial use. The receipts will be used for maintenance and further development of TMEuro.

TMEuro is managed by a consortium with the following tasks:

1. the development of project methods;
2. the definition and maintenance of quality norms;
3. the production of content and software environment;
4. to guarantee survival, continuity and accessibility;
5. to stimulate use of TMEuro both as an information system and a forum for discussion;
6. to ensure that all methods and views of bona fide scholarschip and musicianship can be expressed through TMEuro;
7. to apply for (inter)national funding;
8. the dissemination of (methodological) knowledge;
9. to provide integration with other systems.