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Cathy N. DavidsonVice Provost for Interdisciplinary StudiesCo-Founder, HASTAC*Duke UniversityThis presentation was designed in collaboration with Philip Lin, Project Manager, HASTAC

Expanding Cyber-Communities

1.30.2006 *HASTAC gratefully acknowledges support from

Arts

Human Sciences(Humanities)

Social Sciences

Natural SciencesTechnology

Humanities, Arts, Science,and Technology Advanced Collaboratory

www.hastac.org

Science Needs Technology…

40 Terabytes*Sloan Digital Sky Survey

*1 terabyte = 1000 billion bytes

40 TB

SDSS

Humanists Need Technology, Too

200 Terabytes Compressed Data

16 Petabytes*Uncompressed Data

* 1 petabyte = 1000 terabytesShoah VHF

200 TB

Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation• 52,000 video interviews

• 32 languages

• 56 countries

(Jan 2006: USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education)

The Mission of the Human and Social Sciences

• To understand what it means to be human by studying, analyzing, and interpreting the world’s cultures, societies, and human endeavors, past and present

• To create new theories, new interpretations, new narratives as well as works of art, music, dance, theater, performance, new media

• To ensure that the legacy of human activity and creativity endures for future generations by preserving the human archive in the most accessible, stable, and sustainable ways possible

So what is the Mission of the Human and Social Sciences in the Information Age?

“How Much Information?”

In one year (2003) . . . • 300 terabytes of print• 25 terabytes of movies• 375,000 terabytes of digital photography• 987 terabytes of radio• 8,000 terabytes of television• 58 terabytes of audio cd’s

And that leaves out . . .

• Video and on-line games• “Born digital” websites and other web-based materials• Text messages• Emails• Podcasts• Vodcasts• And whatever comes next . . .

Humanists Need Technology, Too

Reading Visualizing Hearing Writing Performing

Textual Databases Search Engines Virtual Museum Exhibits

Animation Films Choreography Composing Rituals

Oral History Sound Archives Historical Reconstructions

Semantic Web Distributed Research Communities Archival Tools

“Big Humanities”• Faces the challenges and opportunities of the Information

Age (Information R Us)

• Requires high tech, multi-site, collaborative partnerships

• Transforms intellectual paradigms (in the human and social sciences and often well beyond)

• Presents conceptual challenges that inspire and inform next-generation technological innovation

• “Loot” from Silk Road town of Dunhuang

• Scattered around museums and institutes in London, Beijing, Paris, St. Petersburg, Berlin—too fragile to move

• 100 BC -1200 AD• Together again at last! Virtually!

International Dunhuang Project

• Important for history and for cultural and social policy today• 50,000 hits a day (18 million in 2005 alone)

SAVE™• Provides framework for creating, archiving and

distributing on-line real-time scientific 3D cultural heritage models (such as Virtual Colosseum by UCLA’s Cultural Virtual Reality Lab)

• Hosted by Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at U of Virginia—one of the oldest and most important centers for digital humanities in the world

• Funded by NSF (Sept 2005)

• 88.5 Petabytes

Humanists need Terabytes . . .

And Petabytes and…

Exabytes and Zettabytes…

and Zottabytes and Brontobytes*

*That’s a 1 with 27 zeros

Massive Storage Requirements are just the beginning…

Accuracy

Language and Translation Considerations

Archival Longevity

Intellectual Property

Access

Intended Use

Unintended Uses

Violent or Disturbing Images

Interpretation

Cultural Implications

Faith and Intolerance

Security

Privacy

Veracity

Accuracy

Language and Translation Considerations

Archival Longevity

Intellectual Property

Access

Intended Use

Unintended Uses

Violent or Disturbing Images

Interpretation

Cultural Implications

Faith and Intolerance

Security

Privacy

Complex Issues for All of Us: Research, Workplace, Home

Veracity

These Are Scientific Issues, Too

Accuracy

Language and Translation Considerations

Archival Longevity

Intellectual Property

Access

Intended Use

Unintended Uses

Violent or Disturbing Images

Interpretation

Cultural Implications

Faith and Intolerance

Security

Privacy

Veracity

Expanding Cyber-Communities

• Communities of committed and trained educators must work together to address the most complex issues of the Information Age

• . . . Including the issue of how diversely trained researchers can work together successfully

Expanding Cyber-Communities

• Training• Expertise• Reward systems• Workplace culture• Mutual respect• Status of evidence• Role of theory• Importance of interpretation• Epistemological assumptions• Comfort-level with ambiguity and creativity

The Humanities Today

• Contribute a high comfort-level with (and appreciation for) ambiguity and complexity

• Methodologies: Investigate underlying human and social implications and assumptions of any endeavor by close reading of archives and texts (includes “deconstruction”: a method of close reading that is alert to contradictory impulses, unexpected nuances, special cases, surprises, inconsistencies, or anomalies)

• Study how issues of race, gender, sexuality, region, religion, nationalism, and other multi-valent social factors contribute to knowledge-formation, belief systems, and human values

• Understand that many of the most important questions (in education, research, workplace) do not admit simple or clear-cut answers

WHO Will Solve the Complex Problems of the Information Age?

• Academics will different sets of skills and expertise and “comfort levels” must work together—scientists, social scientists, human scientists, artists

• Lawyers, medical ethicists, environmental scholars and activists,

• All of us . . .

http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/

Center for the Study of the Public Domain

WHO?• And that means all of the talented,

educated, informed, skilled, experienced members of the academic community (library, art museum, university press, non-faculty lab researchers, IT intellectuals)

• And that means faculty, administrators, students, staff, community members

• We can no longer afford the divide between IT Intellectuals and faculty if our goal is “Big Humanities” and expanded cyber-communities

Who? That includes “IT Intellectuals”

• Domain Knowledge• Technical Knowledge• Talent Identifiers Across Campus

and Across Community• Enablers• Innovators• Networkers • Communicators

WHO?

And that means me, that means you.

• Encourages crossing of the academic divide between faculty, students, administrators, IT academics

• User-based technologies require such crossings on every level

• www.hastac.org

• New website launch: April 2006• DRUPAL-powered (open-source)

• Community Involvement– Participate in dynamic online surveys– Submit articles to Needle– Interact with live telecasts

• Online Collaboration– Discuss in online forums– Co-edit/author documents on HASTAC wiki– Post and comment on member blogs– Network through website messaging system– Contribute projects and images

“Why We Need the Humanities Now: A Manifesto for the Humanities in a Technological Age”

http://www.uchri.org/humanities_manifesto.htm

by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg

Chronicle of Higher Education, February 13, 2004, Section: The Chronicle Review, Volume 50, Issue 23, p. B7

“Managing from the Middle” by Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg

HASTAC’s practical philosophy: do what you can, do what you can afford, honor your own institution, and then expand the influence: communicate, share, leverage, co-publicize, network, co-develop, mod . . .

Chronicle of Higher Education, May 6, 2005, Section C, pp. 2-4.

Academic Modding

• Instead of re-inventing the wheel . . .

• . . . sharing one another’s innovations, testing them in new environments, reporting back in public forums, “modding” for new audiences and expanded purposes

User-Based Technology Innovation

• HASTAC’s guiding principle is the opposite of “build it and they will come”

• Instead: build what we need, build what we desire. . . and think together critically and creatively about function, application, access, inequalities (did we reach our target audience? Did we reach our goal?)

• Make sure the “we” is as expansive as the linked and human possibilities of the internet—and make sure all of the relevant parties are at the research-and-design table from conception to implementation to evaluation

• HASTAC online newsletter

• Launched first issue March 2005

• Has reached over 30,000 individual and institutional subscribers worldwide

http://vectors.iml.annenberg.edu/

http://www.theseptemberproject.org/

http://visservices.sdsc.edu/projects/explore/

Science Exploratorium

http://www.lib.wayne.edu/geninfo/units/lcms/dls/grants/ddgrant.php

http://citris.citris-uc.org/hosted/projects/ith/gallery/

Collaborative Gallery Builder

http://shl.stanford.edu/research/crowds.html

http://isis.duke.edu/events/podcasting/

Academic Podcasting

DukeUNIVERSITY

http://www.uchri.org/main.php?page_id=154

Humanities, Arts and Social Science (HASS-Grid) Portal Tool

InFormation 2006-2007

A year of public programming designed to form new networks and to inform expanded cyber-communities about creative, equitable, useful, and visionary possibilities of technology innovation for research, teaching, and life-long learning

In forming Forming

In Formation

Formative

InFormation 2006-2007

InFormation 2006-2007

Nine sites are coordinating local and webcast courses, exhibits, performances, workshops, public programming, and blogs on different InFormation themes—

Sept 06-May 07: Monthly webcasts on critical InFormation topics. . .

In ternational

tellectual Property

Community

teraction

justice

tegrationvitation

terfacenovation

In

InIn

InIn

InInIn

In

In

InFormation 2006-2007 Public Events(face-to-face, virtual, webcast, blogs . . .)

• Sep 2006 | International (Los Angeles)

School of Cinema-TV, Annenberg Center for Communication (ACC), The Institute for Multimedia Literacy, Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC), and Vectors Journal at University of Southern California (USC), Shoah Visual History Foundation

• Oct 2006 | Intellectual Property (New Brunswick)

Center for Cultural Analysis (CCA), Rutgers University Law School, and Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University

• Nov 2006 | InCommunity (La Jolla)

National University Community Research Institute (NUCRI) at National University

InFormation 2006-2007 Public Events

• Dec 2006 | Interaction (Berkeley/Palo Alto/Urbana-Champaign)

Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at UC Berkeley; Stanford Humanities Lab, Stanford Humanities Center at Stanford University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC); National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)

• Jan 2007 | Injustice (Ann Arbor)

Institute for the Humanities, Rackham Graduate School, School of Information, and Law in Slavery and Freedom Project at University of Michigan

InFormation 2006-2007 Public Events

• Feb 2007 | Integration (Detroit)

Interdisciplinary Studies Program, (WSU) Library System at Wayne State University; Detroit Historical Museum; Henry Ford Museum; Meadow Brook Hall at Oakland University

• Mar 2007 | Invitation (Seattle)

Simpson Center for the Humanities, Center for Digital Arts & Experimental Media (DXARTS), Center for Advanced Research Technology in the Arts and Humanities (CARTAH), Departments of Communication and Computer Science & Engineering, The Information School, and UW Libraries at University of Washington

InFormation 2006-2007 Public Events• Apr 2007 | Interface (Durham)

John Hope Franklin Center of Interdisciplinary Studies, Fitzpatrick Photonics Center, Franklin Humanities Institute, Center for the Study of the Public Domain, and ISIS (Information Science + Information Studies) at Duke University; National Humanities Center; Renaissance Computing Initiative (RENCI); NC Museum of Life and Science (NCMLS)

• May 2007 | Innovation (Irvine/San Diego)

University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI); San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC); Calit2

Apr 12 - 14 (Durham) HASTAC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

HASTAC International ConferenceApril 12 – 14, 2007 (Durham)

• Including research panels and demonstrations of tools developed by the HASTAC consortium, Virtual Reality tours, sensor space experiments, social science demonstrations, arts and humanities displays, gaming demos, semantic web applications, etc.

• Speakers will include:• John Seely Brown (Tech innovator, Author, Former Director of Xerox PARC)

• James Boyle (of Creative Commons)

• Kimberly Jenkins (founder of Education Division at Microsoft)

• John Unsworth (Chair of the ACLS Commission on “Cyberinfrastructure and the Humanities”)

• …and many more in academe and technological development.

Summer 2006: Two Workshops to Prepare for the InFormation Year

Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Humanists, Artists, and Social Scientists

San Diego Supercomputer CenterLa Jolla, July 24 - 28, 2006

• Introduce humanists, artists, and social scientists to commonly used and emergent information technology tools

• Topics include: data modeling, web services, geographic information systems, semantic web, and grid computing

• Further information forthcoming on UCHRI website: www.uchri.org

Applications due May 1, 2006

technoSpheres: futureS of Thinking

• Led by Anne Balsamo, USC, and David Theo Goldberg, Director, UCHRI • Hands-on collaborations with technology innovators, computational

scientists, humanities theorists, social scientists, performance artists and new media designers:

• Julian Bleeker, John Seely Brown, Craig Calhoun, Lisa Cartwright, Cathy N. Davidson, Scott Fisher, Tracy Fullerton, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Katherine Hayles, Lynn Hershman, Norman Klein, Geert Lovink, Tara McPherson, Michael Naimark, Saskia Sassen, Larry Smarr

UC Irvine Campus, August 14 - 25, 2006

Applications due March 15, 2006(links on the HASTAC and UCHRI websites)

technoSpheres: futureS of ThinkingWorkshop Topics• Wikis• Blogging • Google Jockeying • Creative Commons • New Genres of Digital Scholarship • History of Electronic Literature • Database Narrative • Semantic Web• Multimedia Documentary• Distributed Collaboration in the Humanities• Creation of Digital Archives • Next-Generation Partnerships • And…

EXPANDING CYBER-COMMUNITIES

How can you be involved?

We hope you will be part of the HASTAC movement

• Join the HASTAC list serve and exchange information and insights

• Participate in Summer Workshops or InFormation 2006-2007 events

• Communicate across your campus and your networks

• Identify faculty and IT Intellectuals who share an expansive vision

• Share your expertise, knowledge, experience, vision

• Expand your own “cyber-community” . . .

So WHY EXPAND CYBER-COMMUNITIES?

So we can work together . . .

. . . to rethink how we can think better together.

THANK YOU

Acknowledgments• I gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation for Grant # SCI-0542128, “Expanding Cyber-

communities: A Workshop on Developing New Models for the Natural, Social, and Human Sciences. ” I especially wish to thank Dr. Miriam Heller, Program Director, Office of Cyberinfrastructure.

• On behalf of HASTAC, I thank the Digital Promise Initiative, for a grant supporting our work and for their tireless efforts on behalf of non-profit educational institutions. Digital Promise is lobbying Congress to create the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT), a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency designed to meet the urgent need to transform learning in the 21st century.

• For assistance on this presentation, I thank:– Philip Lin, NSF-funded Project Manager for HASTAC –the collaboration of design and ideas

exemplifies the HASTAC model– Anne Balsamo, Professor of Interactive Media and Gender Studies, and Director of

Undergraduate Academic Programs for the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the University of Southern California

•

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to quote or reproduce images:

Abernathy, Dean. “The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) – Exterior Perspective.” Online Image. 10 May 2003. UCLA Cultural Virtual Reality Lab. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://www.cvrlab.org/projects/real_time/colosseum/colosseum.html>.

Alt, Casey. “Event Photos of Podcasting Symposium.” 27 Sep. 2005. Duke Podcasting Symposium. Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS), John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University.

Bowall, Tony and Silabhadra. “Khmer-Buddha-Head-guimet-Museum-Paris-ears-removed-bw.” Online Image. Silabhadra. 22 Jan. 2006. <http://www.silabhadra.com/Khmer-Buddha- Head-guimet-Museum-Paris-ears-removed-bw.jpg>.

Courant, Paul, et al. “The Draft Report of the American Council of Learned Societies’ Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for Humanities and Social Sciences.” 5 Nov. 2005. ACLS. 20 Jan. 2006. <http://www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/acls-ci-public.pdf>.

“CITRIS Collaborative Gallery Builder Screenshots.” Online Image. CITRIS Collaborative Gallery Software. Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://citris.citris-uc.org/hosted/projects/ith/gallery/>.

“Crowds Website Screenshots.” Online Image. Crowds. Stanford Humanities Lab. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://shl.stanford.edu/Crowds/withflash.html>.

Doty, Jason. “Podcasting Symposium Poster.” 27 Sep. 2005. Duke Podcasting Symposium. John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University.

Acknowledgements (cont’d)

GustavoG. “FlickrVerse.” Online Image. Apr. 2005. Flickr. 13 Jan. 2006. <http://www.flickr.com>.

“HASS Grid Portal Tool Images.” PowerPoint Slides. HASS Grid Portal Tool Application. University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI). 13 Jan. 2006.

“Image of Brooch.” Online Image. Digital Dress: 200 years of Urban Style, A Model Web Portal for Library/Museum Collaboration. The Henry Ford Costume Collection. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://dlxs.lib.wayne.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?page=index;c=hfhcc>.

“Images of Dress, Shoes, and Hat.” Online Image. Digital Dress: 200 years of Urban Style, A Model Web Portal for Library/Museum Collaboration. Detroit Historical Museums Historic Costume Collection. 6 Jan. 2006.

<http://dlsx.lib.wayne.edu/d/dhhcc/documentation.htm>.

Sarahseptemberproject. ”Seattle Central Public Library Event Photos.” Online Image. 11 Sep. 2005. Flickr. The September Project. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://www.flickr.com/groups/septemberproject/>.

“Science Exploratorium Screenshots.” Online Image. Visualization Services, San Diego Supercomputer Center. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://visservices.sdsc.edu/projects/explore/screenshots.php>.

SDSS Collaboration. “M78 Nebula (12.0 arcmin x 8.8 arcmin).” Online Image. Sloan Digital Sky Survey. 25 Oct. 2005. <http://www.sdss.org/data/98_1451D.175dpi.jpg>

“Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Home Page Screenshot.” Online Image. USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. 25 Oct. 2005. <http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/vhi/>.

Acknowledgements (cont’d)

“Sodigan Funerary Couch.” Online Image. International Dunhuang Project. Miho Museum Shiga Japan. 20 Jan. 2006. <http://idp.bl.uk/pages/collections.a4d#2>.

Turner Home Entertainment. “King Kong movie still 1933.” Online Image. King Kong – The Eighth Wonder of the World!. 20 Jan. 2006.

<http://www2.netdoor.com/~campbab/kong3.html>.

“Vectors Screenshot.” Online Image. Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular. 6 Jan. 2006. <http://vectors.iml.annenberg.edu.index.php?page=5&pageLast=6|1>.

End of Presentation