Job: 1 Offer

[Philippe Blache]

From: John Bateman <bateman at uni-bremen.de>


WITH APOLOGIES FOR POSSIBLE MULTIPLE DELIVERIES
=============================================



Researcher/Communicator: Genre and Layout in Multimodal Documents

We are seeking a Researcher/Communicator to join our team on the
ESRC-funded
project Genre and Multimodality (GeM): a computer model of genre in
document
layout. The post will be based at the University of Stirling, but the
project is a collaboration with John Bateman (University of Bremen) and
Patrick Allen (University of East London). The post is fixed-term for 24
months, to begin as soon as possible. Salary will be within Grade 1A of
the
Research and Analogous staff salary structure (£15735 to £23631) p.a.

The project aims to capture in a computer model the knowledge that
experts
draw upon in designing and laying out pages or runs of pages. The genre
of a
page ñ?whether it's an encyclopaedia entry, a set of instructions, or a
Web
page, for example ñ?plays a central role in determining what graphical
devices are chosen and how they will be employed in illustrated
documents.
The project is intended to model exactly what this role is, and how the
different purposes of the document are expressed through graphical
resources. The resulting model will allow alternative and novel layout
genres to be explored through automatic generation.

We need a lively, practical, expert communicator with initiative and
team
spirit who can entertain ideas from publishing design, psychology,
artificial intelligence, art history, linguistics, and pretty much
anywhere
else, and who can use and develop happy working relationships outside
academia. The successful candidate will work with layout professionals
and
with a corpus of sample layouts to synthesise expertise in document
design,
drawing both on their own experience of layout and on the expertise of
publishing professionals whose involvement the postholder in particular
will
co-ordinate. The postholder will be someone who's constantly in dialogue
with the research team and the user groups to ensure that the project
results are based in the real-world constraints of commercial document
production. The second key role of the postholder will be to design and
implement a Web presence for the project that dynamically reflects the
state
of our knowledge about layout, and for this reason you will need, or be
able
to acquire very quickly, skills with modern web-based tools, and a
knowledge
of HTML, XML, Java and emerging standards in document layout. The post
will
also involve:

                ï       collecting and scanning an appropriate corpus
                        of illustrated documents
                ï       developing an annotation system for marking
                        up layout characteristics and applying it to
                        the corpus
                ï       comparative analysis of documents to work
                        out how they differ, and relating differences to
                        a model of genre
                ï       discussing results and eliciting expert
knowledge
                        from user groups of publishers and other
                        layout experts
                ï       drafting reports and papers, and presenting and
                        publicising our results

Informal enquiries should be addressed to Dr. Judy Delin, the project
co-ordinator (01786 467974, email j.l.delin at stir.ac.uk). Further
particulars
are available from the Personnel Office, University of Stirling,
Stirling,
FK9 4LA, tel: (01786) 467028, fax (01786) 466155 or email
personnel at stir.ac.uk. Closing date for applications: 19 July 1999.






Dr Judy Delin
Department of English Studies
and
Centre for Research in Communication and Language
University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK
Phone: +44 1786 467974
Fax: +44 1786 466201 (F)
Email: j.l.delin at stir.ac.uk