Open Scripture Information Standard (OSIS) is an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

application (or

schema The word schema comes from the Greek word ('), which means ''shape'', or more generally, ''plan''. The plural is ('). In English, both ''schemas'' and ''schemata'' are used as plural forms. Schema may refer to: Science and technology * SCHEMA ...

), that defines tags for marking up Bibles, theological commentaries, and other related literature.

Description

The schema is very similar to that of the

Text Encoding Initiative The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities, operating continuously since the 1980s. The community currently runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and main ...

, though on the one hand much simpler (by omission of many unneeded constructs), and on the other hand adding much more detailed

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

, and a formal canonical reference system to identify books, chapters, verses, and particular locations within verses. The metadata includes a "work declaration" for the work itself, and for each work it references. A work declaration provides basic catalog information based on the

Dublin Core 220px, Logo image of DCMI, which formulates Dublin Core The Dublin Core, also known as the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES), is a set of fifteen "core" elements (properties) for describing resources. This fifteen-element Dublin Core has ...

standard, and assigns a local short name for the work (similar to

XML namespace XML namespaces are used for providing uniquely named elements and attributes in an XML document. They are defined in a W3C recommendation. An XML instance may contain element or attribute names from more than one XML vocabulary. If each vocabulary ...

declarations).

Significant Features

OSIS gives particular attention to encoding

overlapping markup In markup languages and the digital humanities, overlap occurs when a document has two or more structures that interact in a non- hierarchical manner. A document with overlapping markup cannot be represented as a tree. This is also known as concur ...

, because Bibles exhibit such markup frequently, for example verses crossing paragraph boundaries and vice versa. The OSIS schema introduced a method for encoding overlap in XML, known as Trojan milestones, or "Clix".Steven DeRose,
Markup Overlap: A Review and a Horse
'' Proceedings of the Extreme Markup (2004)Syd Bauman,

'' Proceedings of the Extreme Markup (2005), (http://en.scientificcommons.org/43599936 Abstract)

Development

The OSIS schema was developed by the Bible Technologies Group, a joint committee sponsored by the

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

and the

Society of Biblical Literature The Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), founded in 1880 as the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis, is an American-based learned society dedicated to the academic study of the Bible and related ancient literature. Its current stated mis ...

. Other participants in the standards work are the

United Bible Societies The United Bible Societies (UBS) is a global fellowship of around 150 Bible Societies operating in more than 240 countries and territories. It has working hubs in England, Singapore, Nairobi and Miami. The headquarters are located in Swindon, Eng ...

SIL International SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...

, and various national Bible societies, along with individual expert volunteers. The officers include

Steven DeRose Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

(chair), Kees DeBlois (vice-chair), and

Patrick Durusau Patrick Durusau is an editor, document-representation standards expert and lawyer. He has been the co-chair and co-editor of the OASIS OpenDocument Format (initially sponsored by Sun Microsystems) and editor of the equivalent ISO International St ...

(editor). As of mid-2006, the current version is 2.1.1.

References

{{reflist

External links

The OSIS Website

OSIS User Manual, OSIS Schema 2.1.1, 2006

Go Bible
– electronic Bible application for

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

s created using OSIS and

Theological Markup Language The Theological Markup Language (ThML) is a "royalty-free" XML-based format created in 1998 by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) to create electronic theological texts. Other formats such as STEP and Logos Library System (LLS) were foun ...

Markup languages XML markup languages Electronic Bibles Electronic publishing XML-based standards Text Encoding Initiative

Description

Significant Features

Development

See also

References

External links