Alfalab Construction and Deconstruction of a Digital Humanities Experiment

Alfalab

Construction and Deconstruction of a

Digital Humanities Experiment

Joris van ZundertHuygens Institute (KNAW)

The Hague, The Netherlandsjoris.van.zundert@huygensinstituut.knaw.nl

Anne BeaulieuVirtual Knowledge Studio (KNAW)

Amsterdam, The Netherlandsanne.beaulieu@vks.knaw.nl

Douwe ZeldenrustMeertens Institute (KNAW)

Amsterdam, The Netherlandsdouwe.zeldenrust@meertens.knaw.nl

Introducing Alfalab

Alfalab is being created by Anne Beaulieu • Joris van Zundert • Douwe Zeldenrust • Rob Zeeman • Maarten Hoogerwerf • Charles van den Heuvel • Smiljana Antonijevic • Ruud Bronmans • Dirk Roorda • Leen Breure • Karina van Dalen • Ronald Dekker • Arjen Versloot • Sander Strating • Derk Drukker • Kees Mandemakers • Henk Wals • Paul Wouters • Peter Doorn • Reinier Salverda • Melle de Vries • Hans Bennis • Suzanne van Kaam • Bas Doppen • and a growing number of others cooperating...

Motivation for Alfalab

• Our Cultural Commonwealth, The report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences. ACLS, 2006

• Tools for Data-Driven Scholarship: Past, Present, Future. A Report on the Workshop 22-24 October, 2008, Turf Valley Resort, Ellicott City, Maryland. March 2009

Motivation for Alfalab

• Little uptake of digital tools and 'method' in humanities

• Lack of Collaboration

• Lack of VRE's and Virtual Laboratories

• Lack of critical mass of digitized

• Problem of heterogeneity of tools, data and method

• Alfalab tries to meet the suggested requirements in a small controlled community setting

What Alfalab wants to be

• A collaboration on all levels

• Exploration of and experimentation on the 'laboratory metaphor'

• Objectives Success and fail factors Community building 'how-to' Exploration of form and

function of tools

• Work in progress

The naive nativity of an 'alpha-lab'...

Learning in progress

• Less portal

• Less lab

• Focus on community building

• Rethinking interfaces and visualization

• Rethinking academic publishing and peer review

• Reconciling heterogeneity

• Organizational model

• tools & interfaces• distributed data• workshops• desimination

Collaboration key

networked project leadershipshared development effort

collaborative vision

community involvement

Project scope

• Phase 1

Exploration

Planning, motivating & financing phase 2

Networking (DARIAH, CLARIN, Nines, Bamboo etc.)

Phase 2

Implementation

• Less infrastructure

• Focus on networking, organization

• Mapping research heuristics on tools and data

• 1.4 MEuro

• Phase 1: 2009 - 2011

Current state

• From portal to distributed networked tools and data

• Tools: 2 demonstrators in progress

• 'TeksLlab' (TextLab)

• 'GisLab' (GeospatialLab)

• 3rd demonstrator lab planned

• Project on digital publication and peer review

• Finding and leveraging synergy effects

• Collaborative publications

• TekstLab * GisLab

Alfalab

microtoponym pilot

Rob ZeemanMeertens Instituut (KNAW)

Amsterdam, The Netherlandsrob.zeeman@meertens.knaw.nl

Charles van den HeuvelVirtual Knowledge Studio (KNAW)

Amsterdam, The Netherlandscharles.van.den.heuvel@vks.knaw.nl

Douwe ZeldenrustMeertens Institute (KNAW)

Amsterdam, The Netherlandsdouwe.zeldenrust@meertens.knaw.nl

Arjen VerslootFryske Akademy (KNAW)

Leeuwarden, The Netherlandsaversloot@fryske-akademy.n

Sander StratingFryske Akademy (KNAW)

Leeuwarden, The Netherlandssstrating@fryske-akademy.nl

Leen BreureUniversity of Utrecht,

Utrecht, The Netherlandsleen@cs.uu.nl

Google Earth

Google Earth

Google Earth

Google Earth

Google Earth

Prototype Microtoponym Meertens Instituut

Knowledge Infrastructure Cultural History (KICH)

Closing – Q&A

Joris van Zundertjoris.van.zundert@huygensinstituut.knaw.nl

Douwe Zeldenrustdouwe.zeldenrust@meertens.knaw.nl

Anne Beaulieuanne.beaulieu@vks.knaw.nl

AlfalabConstruction and Deconstruction of a Digital Humanities Experiment

http://alfalablog.knaw.nlhttp://earth.google.comhttp://www.hgnnederland.nlhttp://www.kich.nlhttp://www.meertens.knaw.nlhttp://www.huygensinstituut.knaw.nlhttp://www.vks.knaw.nl