Peter Flynn
Research Profile
Peter Flynn
Contact Details
Biography
Peter Flynn was Manager of the Academic and Collaborative Technologies Group (ACTS) in the IT Services unit until his retirement in September 2018.
He originally trained at the London College of Printing with a HND in Business Studies, and did his MA in Management studying computerised manpower planning systems at Central London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster). He gained his PhD in editing software usability with the Human Factors Research Group in UCC, identifying alternative user interfaces for structured documents.
In 1978 he joined the UK's Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board to help computerise their planning systems, and in 1980 he became Deputy Data Processing Manager. In 1982 he moved to United Information Services to work in technical support for City-based statistical, financial, and management information systems, and in 1984 he joined UCC as Project Manager for academic and research computing support.
From 1986–1989 he was Acting Director of Computing, but in 1990 he moved back to research computing support and installed Ireland's first Web server. Since then he has been concentrating on web and other electronic publishing support for academics and researchers, including the CELT project and a large number of research sites.
His books on HTML and on SGML/XML appeared in 1995 and 1998, and his online book Formatting Information was published by TUG in 2002 and is regularly updated. He is the editor of the XML FAQ and a contributor to conferences and journals in the fields of electronic publishing, markup systems, and Humanities computing.
Peter also maintains a technical blog and a number of public service websites with the information management consultancy Silmaril.
He originally trained at the London College of Printing with a HND in Business Studies, and did his MA in Management studying computerised manpower planning systems at Central London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster). He gained his PhD in editing software usability with the Human Factors Research Group in UCC, identifying alternative user interfaces for structured documents.
In 1978 he joined the UK's Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board to help computerise their planning systems, and in 1980 he became Deputy Data Processing Manager. In 1982 he moved to United Information Services to work in technical support for City-based statistical, financial, and management information systems, and in 1984 he joined UCC as Project Manager for academic and research computing support.
From 1986–1989 he was Acting Director of Computing, but in 1990 he moved back to research computing support and installed Ireland's first Web server. Since then he has been concentrating on web and other electronic publishing support for academics and researchers, including the CELT project and a large number of research sites.
His books on HTML and on SGML/XML appeared in 1995 and 1998, and his online book Formatting Information was published by TUG in 2002 and is regularly updated. He is the editor of the XML FAQ and a contributor to conferences and journals in the fields of electronic publishing, markup systems, and Humanities computing.
Peter also maintains a technical blog and a number of public service websites with the information management consultancy Silmaril.
Research Interests
Electronic publishing, typography, structured document editing, information management and manipulation.
The specific area of structured document editing was the topic of my 20014 PhD thesis (see https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/1690)
The specific area of structured document editing was the topic of my 20014 PhD thesis (see https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/1690)
Books
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2002) | Formatting Information.
Flynn, Peter; (2002) Formatting Information. Portland, OR: TeX Users Group. [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (1998) | Understanding SGML and XML Tools.
Flynn, Peter; (1998) Understanding SGML and XML Tools. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers. [Details] |
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| (1995) | The WorldWideWeb Handbook.
Flynn, Peter; (1995) The WorldWideWeb Handbook. New York, NY: International Thompson Computer Press. [DOI] [Details] |
Book Chapters
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2017) | 'Usability and Digital Typography'
Flynn, Peter (2017) 'Usability and Digital Typography' In: Kent L Norman and Jurek Z Kirakowski (eds). The Wiley Handbook of Human Computer Interaction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. [DOI] [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2020) | 'Historical Review of TeX'
Peter Flynn (2020) 'Historical Review of TeX'. TUGboat, 41 (3):360-367 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (2012) | 'A university thesis class: automation and its pitfalls'
Peter Flynn (2012) 'A university thesis class: automation and its pitfalls'. Tugboat, 33 (2):172-177 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2002) | 'Is There Life Beyond the Web?'
Flynn P. (2002) 'Is There Life Beyond the Web?'. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 17 (1):49-59 [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (1999) | 'Using the TEI Writing System Declaration (WSD)'
Birnbaum, David J;Cournane, Mavis;Flynn, Peter (1999) 'Using the TEI Writing System Declaration (WSD)'. Computers and The Humanities, 33 (1/2):49-57 [ Publisher's Version] [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (1997) | 'W[h]ither the web? The extension or replacement of HTML'
Flynn, Peter (1997) 'W[h]ither the web? The extension or replacement of HTML'. Journal of The American Society For Information Science, 48 (7):614-621 [ Publisher's Version] [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (1990) | 'Aspects of the COSINE X.500 Pilot Project'
Flynn, Peter (1990) 'Aspects of the COSINE X.500 Pilot Project'. Computer Networks and Isdn Systems, 19 (3/5):261-264 [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (2006) | 'Rolling your own Document Class: Using LaTeX to keep away from the Dark Side'
Peter Flynn (2006) 'Rolling your own Document Class: Using LaTeX to keep away from the Dark Side'. The Practex Journal, 2006 (4) [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2005) | 'What does XML give the LaTeX user?'
Peter Flynn; (2005) 'What does XML give the LaTeX user?'. The PracTeX Journal, 2005 (2) [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2005) | 'LaTeX on the Web'
Flynn, Peter; (2005) 'LaTeX on the Web'. TUGboat, 26 (1):66-67 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2005) | 'In My Opinion'
Peter Flynn; (2005) 'In My Opinion'. The PracTeX Journal, 2005 (1) [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2002) | 'Is there life beyond the Web?'
Peter Flynn; (2002) 'Is there life beyond the Web?'. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 17 (1):49-59 [ Publisher's Version] [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (2001) | 'TeX: a mass market product? Or just an image in need of a makeover?'
Flynn, Peter; (2001) 'TeX: a mass market product? Or just an image in need of a makeover?'. TUGboat, 22 (3):137-139 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (1999) | 'The vulcan package: A repair patch for LaTeX'
Flynn, Peter; (1999) 'The vulcan package: A repair patch for LaTeX'. TUGboat, 20 (3):208-213 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (1995) | 'HTML and TeX: Making Them Sweat'
Flynn, Peter; (1995) 'HTML and TeX: Making Them Sweat'. Baskerville, 5 (2):14-18 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (1994) | 'ACH/ALLC 1993 Conference Report'
Flynn, Peter; (1994) 'ACH/ALLC 1993 Conference Report'. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 9 (1):87-100 [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (1993) | 'TeX and SGML, a Recipe for Disaster?'
Flynn, Peter; (1993) 'TeX and SGML, a Recipe for Disaster?'. TUGboat, 14 (3):227-230 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (1991) | 'Developing a pop-up help facility for TeX on PCs'
Flynn, Peter; (1991) 'Developing a pop-up help facility for TeX on PCs'. TUGboat, 12 (3-4):523-527 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Conference Publications
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2020) | Balisage — the Markup Conference 2020
Peter Flynn (2020) Cooking up something new An XML and XSLT experiment with recipe data Balisage — the Markup Conference 2020 Online, [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2020) | TeX Users Group 2020
Peter Flynn (2020) Your personal LaTeX bookshelf: improving your background in a time of lockdown TeX Users Group 2020 Online, [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2019) | MarkupUK
Peter Flynn (2019) Software we have lost MarkupUK London, , 07-JUN-19 - 09-JUN-19 , pp.11-38 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2017) | Balisage 2017
Peter Flynn (2017) Your Standard Average Document Grammar: just not your average standard Balisage 2017 Rockville, MD, , 01-AUG-17 - 04-AUG-17 [ Publisher's Version] [DOI] [Details] |
|
| (2015) | Balisage 2015
Peter Flynn (2015) XML (almost) all the way: Experiences with a small-scale journal publishing system Balisage 2015 Bethesda, MD, , 10-AUG-15 - 14-AUG-15 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (1993) | TeX Users Group Conference 1993
Peter Flynn (1993) TeX and SGML: A recipe for disaster? . In: Beeton, B;Burbank, M;Rahtz, S eds. TeX Users Group Conference 1993 Aston University, UK, , 26-JUL-93 - 30-JUL-93 , pp.227-230 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (2013) | Balisage 2013
Peter Flynn (2013) Markup to generate markup to generate markup: Using XML to create and maintain LaTeX packages and classes Balisage 2013 Montréal, , 05-AUG-13 - 09-AUG-13 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (2009) | Balisage 2009
Peter Flynn; (2009) Why writers don't use XML: The usability of editing software for structured documents Balisage 2009 Montreal, , 08-AUG-09 - 14-AUG-09 [ Publisher's Version] [DOI] [Details] |
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| (2007) | Irish Universities Information Services Colloquium
Peter Flynn (2007) Developing an infrastructure for online publishing and electronic journals: Maintaining points of reference in the digital soup Irish Universities Information Services Colloquium Athlone, , 07-MAR-07 - 09-MAR-07 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2006) | Extreme Markup 2006
Peter Flynn (2006) If XML is so easy, how come it’s so hard?: The usability of editing software for structured documents Extreme Markup 2006 Montréal, , 07-AUG-06 - 11-AUG-06 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2006) | Irish Universities Information Services Colloquium
Peter Flynn (2006) Publish or let die?: Guarding the future of e-documents in institutional and national repositories Irish Universities Information Services Colloquium Derry, , 24-MAR-06 - 25-MAR-06 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2006) | Materiality and Text
Peter Flynn (2006) Paper paradigms on the Internet: The materiality of electronic texts Materiality and Text Cork, , 03-MAR-06 - 04-MAR-06 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2006) | Living and Working with LaTeX
Peter Flynn (2006) Sorry, Professor, the dog ate my thesis Living and Working with LaTeX London Mathematical Society, , 20-OCT-06 - 20-OCT-06 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (1995) | SGML'95
Flynn, Peter; (1995) Making more use of markup . In: Graphic Communications Association eds. SGML'95 Boston, MA, , 04-DEC-95 - 07-DEC-95 , pp.158-167 [Details] |
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| (1992) | SGML'92
Flynn, Peter; (1992) Tagging Irish Manuscripts [B416] . In: Graphic Communications Association eds. SGML'92 Danvers, MA, , 25-OCT-92 - 29-OCT-92 , pp.25-30 [Details] |
|
| (1990) | Second Joint European Networking Conference
Peter Flynn (1990) Developing a low-cost electronic mail fax gateway . In: P. Van Binst, J. Harms, V. Cerf eds. Second Joint European Networking Conference Elsevier Special Issue, [Details] |
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| (2013) | Balisage 2013
Peter Flynn (2013) Could writers really author in XML one day? Balisage 2013 Montréal, , 05-AUG-13 - 09-AUG-13 [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (2004) | The 16th Joint International Conference of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing and the Association for Computers and the Humanities
Julianne Nyhan and Peter Flynn (2004) Ending the Tyranny of the Lemma: linking corpora, lexicons, and dictionaries with XSLT The 16th Joint International Conference of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing and the Association for Computers and the Humanities Göteborg University, Sweden, , 11-JUN-04 - 16-JUN-04 [Details] |
Other Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (1998) | 'SGML/XML Conference Report 1997'
Flynn, Peter; (1998) 'SGML/XML Conference Report 1997' Web+Open+Technologies, 40 . [Details] |
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| (1990) | 'Network Sources of TeXware'
Peter Flynn (1990) 'Network Sources of TeXware' :45-47. [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (1991) | 'PPL — The P-Stat Programming Language'
Flynn, Peter; (1991) 'PPL — The P-Stat Programming Language' .EXE Magazine, 6 (4) :76-79. [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (1991) | 'Programmable Typesetting in TeX'
Flynn, Peter; (1991) 'Programmable Typesetting in TeX' .EXE Magazine, 6 (2) :72-76. [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
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| (1991) | 'PCL — Speed is not enough'
Flynn, Peter; (1991) 'PCL — Speed is not enough' .EXE Magazine, 6 (7) :62-66. [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Thesis/Dissertation
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2014) | Human Interfaces to Structured Documents.
Peter Flynn (2014) Human Interfaces to Structured Documents. Cork: Thesis/Dissertation [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Book Reviews
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2011) | Review of JIRA 4 Essentials.
Peter Flynn (2011) Review of JIRA 4 Essentials. Mountain View, CA: Book Reviews [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
|
| (2003) | Georgina Ferry: A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer.
Flynn, Peter; (2003) Georgina Ferry: A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the World's First Office Computer. Mountain View, CA: Book Reviews [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Computer Program
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (1997) | The HTML Professional DTD.
Flynn, Peter; (1997) The HTML Professional DTD. Cork: Computer Program [Details] |
Manual
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (1994) | How to Write HTML Files.
Flynn, Peter; (1994) How to Write HTML Files. Cork: Manual [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Technical Publication
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (1998) | The XML FAQ.
Flynn, Peter; (1998) The XML FAQ. Cork: Technical Publication [ Publisher's Version] [Details] |
Professional Associations
| Association | Function | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish Computing Society | Fellow | 01-JAN-87 / | |
| Printing Historical Society | Member | 01-JAN-76 / |
Conference Contributions
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2008) | TeX Users Group Conference,
Flynn, Peter (2008) Organiser. [Conference Organising Committee Chairperson], TeX Users Group Conference, UCC , 21-JUL-08 - 24-JUL-08. [Details] |
|
| (2008) | TEI Symposium,
Färber, Beatrix; Flynn, Peter (2008) Encoding for Life, the Universe, and Everything: some CELT experiences with the TEI. [Oral Presentation], TEI Symposium, Moore Institute, NUI Galway , 02-APR-08 - 02-APR-08. [Details] |
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| (2004) | Practical TeX 2004,
Peter Flynn (2004) TeX and the Interface. [Keynote Speaker], Practical TeX 2004, San Francisco, CA , 19-JUL-04 - 22-JUL-04. [Details] |
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| (2001) | Enterprise Ireland XML Seminar,
Flynn, Peter; (2001) Why we use XML. [Invited Oral Presentation], Enterprise Ireland XML Seminar, Waterford , 07-JUL-01 - 30-DEC-99. [Details] |
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| (1999) | LaTeX for SGML and XML Users,
Flynn, Peter (1999) Combining markup with markup. [Invited Lectures (Workshops)], LaTeX for SGML and XML Users, Philadelphia PA , 05-DEC-99 - 06-DEC-99. [Details] |
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| (1993) | Irish Universities Information Systems Colloquium,
Flynn, Peter; (1993) Setting up text-based databases. [Oral Presentation], Irish Universities Information Systems Colloquium, Newcastle, Co Down , 03-MAR-93 - 30-DEC-99. [Details] |
|
| (1991) | P-Stat European User Group Conference,
Flynn, Peter; (1991) Computer services management with P-Stat. [Oral Presentation], P-Stat European User Group Conference, Princeton, NJ , 10-OCT-91 - 12-OCT-91. [Details] |
|
| (1990) | 5th European TeX Users Group Conference,
Flynn, Peter (1990) Organiser. [Conference Organising Committee Chairperson], 5th European TeX Users Group Conference, UCC , 03-SEP-90 - 06-SEP-90. [Details] |
|
| (1989) | P-Stat European User Group Conference,
Flynn, Peter; (1989) Analysing WHO-conformant data on caries incidence. [Oral Presentation], P-Stat European User Group Conference, City University, London , 06-JUN-89 - 30-DEC-99. [Details] |
|
| (2008) | Digital Humanities Observatory Launch,
Färber, Beatrix; Flynn, Peter; Purcell, Eamer (2008) CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts Online. [Poster Presentation], Digital Humanities Observatory Launch, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin , 23-OCT-08 - 23-OCT-08. [Details] |
|
| (1998) | BeLux SGML User Group,
Flynn, Peter (1998) XML and SGML in Action. [Keynote Speaker], BeLux SGML User Group, Antwerp , 05-OCT-98 - 07-OCT-98. [Details] |
Committees
| Committee | Function | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSAI/TC 2/SC 14 Review | Member | 2014 / | |
| Working Group 3 (Directories and Naming) of RARE (Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Éuropéenne) | Irish representative | 1988 / 1990 | |
| Faculty Board, XML Summer School | Organising | 2000 / 2017 | |
| Working Group 3 (Directories and Naming) of RARE (Réseaux Associés pour la Recherche Éuropéenne) | Secretary | 1990 / 1992 | |
| EARN Ireland | Deputy Director | 1987 / 1995 | |
| P-Stat European Users Group | Chairman | 1985 / 1992 | |
| HEAnet Management Committee | UCC Representative | 1986 / 1990 | |
| Irish Computer Society, Munster Branch | Secretary | 1988 / 1993 | |
| TeX Users Group | Secretary | 1992 / 1995 | |
| IETF Working Group on HTML | Member | 1994 / 1996 | |
| W3C XML Special Interest Group | Member | 1996 / 1998 |
Employment
| Employer | Position | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board | Planning Analyst | 04-SEP-78 / 31-MAR-80 | |
| Printing and Publishing Industry Training Board | Deputy DP Manager | 01-APR-80 / 12-MAR-82 | |
| United Information Services | London Technical Consultant | 01-APR-82 / 30-MAR-84 | |
| Central London Polytechnic | Part-Time Lecturer, MIS | 01-SEP-77 / 24-FEB-84 |
Education
| Year | Institution | Qualification | Subject | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | London College of Printing | Diploma | HND Business Studies (NCAA) | |
| 2014 | University College Cork | PHD | Interfaces to Structured Documents | |
| 1978 | Central London Polytechnic | MA | Management and Computing |
Languages
| Language | Reading | Writing | Speaking | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German | Fluent | Fluent | Fluent | |
| French | Fluent | Fluent | Functional | |
| Latin | Functional | Basic | Basic |
Consultancy
| Client | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| National Science Foundation/EDUCOM | European Union delegate to NSF/Educom workshop on the interim National Research and Educational Network (Washington, DC). |
|
| MIT Press | Editorial board member, Journal of Markup Theory |
Outreach Activities
| Description | |
|---|---|
Internet Society’s INET’93 International Networking Conference in San Francisco 17–20 August 1993. Taught multinational groups about World-Wide Web servers and markup. |
|
Guest lecturer, INET'93 Developing Countries Workshop, Stanford University, CA, August 1993 |
Journal Activities
| Journal | Role | To / From | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proceedings Of The Balisage Series On Markup Technologies | Referee | 14-AUG-01 - 21-AUG-15 |
Teaching Interests
From 1977 to 1983 I taught adult evening classes on programming and systems management to the part-time postgraduate business students at Central London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster).
In retirement I still run classes and workshops in LaTeX, XML, and automated document management, privately and within the university, and in conjunction with conferences on typesetting and markup.
I give occasional classes in XML and the application of markup to postgraduate courses in the digital arts and humanities.
In retirement I still run classes and workshops in LaTeX, XML, and automated document management, privately and within the university, and in conjunction with conferences on typesetting and markup.
I give occasional classes in XML and the application of markup to postgraduate courses in the digital arts and humanities.
Recent Postgraduates
| Graduation Year | Student Name | Institution | Degree Type | Thesis Title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Julianne Nyhan | UCC | PhD | The application of XML to the historical lexicography of old, middle, and early-modern Irish: a lexicon-based analysis | |
| 1998 | Mavis Cournane | UCC | PhD | The application of SGML/TEI to the processing of complex multilingual historical texts |