Digital Technologiesin the Humanities

(at RENCI)

Leesa BriegerRenaissance Computing Institute

(RENCI)

RENCI

• New web site: http://www.renci.org• Resources

– immersive media camera (take a look at the KML file)– DeltaSphere 3D Laser Scanner (see

http://www.deltasphere.com/)– Social Computing Room – a wrap-around-the-room desktop– Showcase Room – a 15-ft tilted dome (pseudo 3D)– ultra-high resolution teleimmersion facilities (3D glasses

and all)– touch screens, touch tables (see the YouTube videos)– coming: high-resolution setup to photograph art– engagement sites: UNC-CH, Duke, NCSU, UNC-A, ECU, UNC-

C, Coastal Studies Institute– compute, storage resources

RENCI

• Some of the focus areas:– Education and Outreach(http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/education-and-outreach )

– Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing(

http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/humanities-arts-and-social-science)

– Visualization and Collaborative Environments(

http://www.renci.org/focus-areas/humanities-arts-and-social-science)

RENCI

• The Shoah VHA from USC

• hosted for the Triangle by RENCI• see http://college.usc.edu/vhi/generalvideo/• Jennifer Shelton, manager of Outreach and

Education, takes this educational material out to the public schools (teacher conferences and materials)

• three parts: data collection, cataloguing (curation), dissemination and education

RENCI

• The Archimedes Palimpsest Project

• http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/palimpsest_making1.html

• imaging (multi-spectral, X-ray fluorescence)• optical character recognition• RENCI in discussions to collaborate

(visualization, high-def resolution, interface to the data/value-added applications)

RENCI

• NARA Transcontinental Persistent Archive Prototype

• a DICE group project, iRODS technology• UNC provides a node on the NARA data grid (RENCI,

SILS, Odum)

• RENCI 2030• how North Carolinians (non-scientists) view emerging

technologies• to inform policy makers, educators, legislators, RENCI

strategists on the public’s level of education about and attitude towards technology

RENCI

• Software to enhance collaboration in the Social Computing Room

• wrap-around imaging (Infomesa-like)• position/movement sensors• adapting gadgets and applications to the

room

• Information Visualization• Coauthorship (data from Mark Newman)• RTP start-up firms (data from Ted Zoller)

RENCI Partners

• (Croquet) Cobalt – at Duke– See

http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page

– Higher education’s answer to Second Life– Potential for collaborative environments,

innovative interfaces to data collections

• IAH’s CHAT festival – February 2010– Kick off a movement of digital arts and

humanities at UNC

Examples from the Great Wide World

• Rome Rebornhttp://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/

• The Blake Archivehttp://www.blakearchive.org/blake/

• Hypercitieshttp://www.hypercities.com/

• People like Dan Anderson, Comparative Lit at UNChttp://www.thoughtpress.org/writenow

• Institutional repositories/digital libraries (CDLA, CDR)

Wide World

• DIRT: Digital Research Toolshttp://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com/

Information about tools and resources that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively.

From Richard Marciano’s reference: http://www.hastac.org/node/1934

Interview with Brett Bobley, Director of the NEH's Office of Digital Humanities (ODH)

Perspective

• The Horizon Report - a collaboration between the New Media Consortium (http://www.nmc.org/about)

and Educause (http://www.educause.edu/)

• Data, data, data– primary resources accessible world-wide– safety of the data (curation, preservation)– access to the data (interfaces): exploration,

discovery– analysis

• data mining, knowledge discovery• simply by comparing more data than ever, notice new things

More Perspective

• A vast distance between developers and consumers of CS in the humanities (article by Plaisant, et al)

• What will really change in the humanities?– education?– communication?– expression?– collaboration?