I'm working on a long-term database project involving literature and economics, in which I'm gathering price data from a wide range of 18th and 19th century English texts.
On my project website, I have an editorial statement and FAQ designed to provide context for the project both for people who are familiar with lit./econ. studies, and less so. I don't want to give away my IP, so most of the project itself is walled off. But I'm at the stage where I'm going to be looking for interested collaborators, and so I'd like to put as much on display as possible while protecting my work.
With that in mind, I'm trying to make a decision about whether to share a sample entry with full TEI markup. It's important, I think, that I show how my work uses the current TEI guidelines; especially because in a couple of areas, I'm extending them to meet the needs of my data. That brings me to the data dictionary, and the question of whether to make it visible, so that people can see my rationale for the choices I've made.
I could password protect some parts of the site, and maintain a certain amount of control over who can access it that way, but that doesn't provide a lot of security, and to be truthful, I'd prefer to have the site open, so that someone who found it could explore without having to contact me first.
I looked back through previous posts, and though I found acknowledgments that code is often kept out of the public eye, I didn't find any clear statements regarding the fine balance between making code public as a way of illustrating that you know what you're doing; and sharing too much.
Anyone have any recommendations? And thanks, very much, in advance.
