Wendell Piez

Leadership

A recognized expert in the field of Humanities Computing, Wendell Piez has been working with SGML and XML technologies since 1994. His innovative work with and theoretical treatments of XML, XSLT and related technologies such as SVG and Schematron are read and cited by researchers and in graduate and undergraduate curricula on markup theory and practice. Since 2006 he has served as General Editor of Digital Humanities Quarterly (http://digitalhumanities.org/dhq/), an online journal published by the Association for Computers and the Humanities.

With Dr Jeni Tennison, Dr Piez is lead developer of LMNL (the Layered Markup and Annotation Language), a prototype technology designed to support the markup of overlapping structures in text.

His papers on the theory and design of markup languages and on methods and techniques for creating, managing and processing electronic text have been featured at industry and academic conferences and published in Markup Languages: Theory and Practice. Other writings include book reviews, editorials and shorter pieces, as well as frequent contributions to XSL-List; his solutions to and explanations of a number of XSLT problems are cited in the XSL FAQ.

Dr Piez has been a member of the Association for Computers in the Humanities since 1999, serving on its Executive Council from 2000-2002.

Skills

XML-based Publishing and Data Conversion Systems - Dr Piez has designed and built XML-based systems for publishers, retailers, archives, libraries, and a variety of other large and small XML users. He has also built XML tools to support Mulberry's own production processes, including such applications as publishing training materials in multiple formats (for web and print).

Dr Piez was the lead developer of the publication framework for the Proceedings of the Extreme Markup Languages series of conferences (2000-2007) and has served in the same capacity for the successor conference to that series, Balisage: The Markup Conference. For Digital Humanities Quarterly, he has been responsible for strategic planning and design of schemas and stylesheets for online publication of scholarly research articles.

Dr Piez has been lead developer of transformation pipelines supporting large-scale XML-to-XML and SGML-to-XML data conversions, work which included analysis and specification of conversions, coding and testing. Several of the publishing applications he has designed (producing presentation HTML and/or PDF from XML source), and for which he provided maintenance documentation and training, are now completely maintained by their owners with no need for outside support. He has also developed specialized applications of XSLT such as stylesheets for markup proofing and quality assurance.

Additionally, small-scale XML applications developed by Dr Piez have served as demonstrations and prototypes for leading-edge media applications, including The Sonneteer (an online poetry anthology), Scholia (a language-learning interface) and WGLL, a tag language he has developed for his own use in the production of graphic media, especially presentations.

Training - Dr Piez is an experienced instructor both of technologies and academic subjects. He teaches XML concepts and syntax; XSLT, XPath, and XSL-FO; XML tools; and several more specialized courses covering topics such as SVG, Schematron and related technologies, to both technical and non-technical audiences in the academic, public, and private sectors. Since 2008 has has taught courses at the Graduate School of Information and Library Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the premier programs for the study of information science in the US.

Prior to joining Mulberry Technologies, Dr Piez worked as a university educator, teaching composition and literature; in the field of markup technologies he taught principles of text encoding, SGML concepts and syntax, the TEI and EAD SGML document types, and SGML and XML software at a number of venues including the CETH Summer Seminar (1996); various CETH workshops (1996-1997); Princeton University's graduate-level program "New Tools for Teaching and Research" (1996); and the New York Public Library's workshop series "Institute for Web Publishing: Advanced SGML" (1996-1997). Audiences included graduate students, junior and senior faculty, librarians, and administrative staff.

Employment History

Consultant, Mulberry Technologies, Inc. - 1998 to present. Mulberry Technologies, Inc., is a consultancy specializing in SGML and XML design and training, particularly document (information) analysis and DTD development.

Adjunct Faculty, Graduate School of Information and Library Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - 2008 to present. In 2008, UIUC GSLIS was rated first among library schools by US News and World Report.

Humanities Computing Specialist (Faculty), Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities, Rutgers and Princeton Universities - 1995 to 1997. At the time of Dr. Piez’s tenure, CETH was a national center for development and education of electronic text applications in Humanities research and higher education.

Project Archivist, Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives - 1991 to 1995. Rutgers SC/UA is the manuscripts, archives, and rare books division of a major state university research library.

Lecturer, Rutgers University - 1985 to 1997. As a graduate student and after receiving the doctorate, Dr. Piez taught courses in Composition and Rhetoric, English Poetry, English Romantic and Victorian Literature, and Rhetorics of Electronic Text.

Education

Ph.D., English, Rutgers University, New Brunswick NJ, 1985-1991.

B.A., Classics (Ancient Greek), Yale College, New Haven CT, 1980-1984.