How can tools like TAPoRware interact with texts elsewhere?
They will only work if e-text projects explose their texts for analytical tools elsewhere. Many e-text project either let you browse html (which is sometimes generated from XML) or they bundle a customized search environment with the texts. Setting aside issues of intellectual property, there is a problem with bundling in that it forces the researcher to use the bundled tool for analysis. While it is useful for new users of a resource to be able to use customized search tools to familiarize themselves with a corpus, the bundled tool can become a limitation if it does not support original analysis. Research involves the asking of new questions which can involve the using new methods. Bundled tool/text combinations where the text is not exposed in an open and documented fashion limit our capacity to use new methods and ask new questions. Therefore: Expose your texts.
Here is a PowerPoint outline of a talk I gave on the subject: Download file.