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Presentation on a digital research infrastructure for the arts and humanities
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Towards a new research infrastructure for the arts and humanities
Peter DoornDirector, Data Archiving and Networked Services
AthensMay 6th, 2009
www.dariah.eu
What do humanities scholars have to do with digital research infrastructures?
Traditional image of the humanities scholar: a loner in his study
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Ideas about the future may be false...
How Rand Corporation envisioned the future (2004) home computer in 1954
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From Humanities computingto e-humanities
Roots go back to the 1960s:• text analysis, e.g. bible studies• quantitative social and economic history• linguistics• archaeology
E-humanities as analogy of e-science:‘science increasingly done through distributed global
collaborations enabled by the Internet, using very large data collections, large-scale computing resources and high performance visualisation.’
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Humanities computing
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Aetolian Studies Project: settlement
history from prehistory to modern times
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CLIWOC-project (Climate of the World Oceans)
Collaboration of historians and meteorologists
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Journal entry, 26-29 September 1758
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Shipping Routes 1750-1850
Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI
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Average yearly temperatures, 1750-1850
Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI
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Wind direction and speed
Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI
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Wind directions and rainy days, Atlantic, 1770-1780
Courtesy of CLIWOC project, KNMI
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Archaeology
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Data collection in the field
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Databases of finds
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Photos, GIS, sherds
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Virtual archive of finds, publications, data and documentation
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Electronic Depot Netherlands Archaeology (EDNA)
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Archaeological Data Service (UK)
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POLEMONGreek National Monuments Record System
Main characteristics• Geographical distribution – federated architecture• Administrative documentation for site monuments and moveable objects• Cartographic documentation (GIS component)• Connection with thematic databases and term thesauri• Operation modes: distributed, centralized, mixed• Easy installation and startup
By: Panos Constantopoulos
Installation and deployment on a national scale
~ 65 installations in Greece
~ 120,000 monuments recorded
Trained personnel in every ephorate
..
ΥΠΠΟ/ΔΑΜΔ
.
.
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Digital Research data in the arts and humanities
Digital materials collected for research purposes, e.g.:• History: digitized archival sources such as population
registers, shipping journals, historical censuses, judicial verdicts, medieval manuscripts
• Archaeology: excavation data - field reports, databases of finds, photos of objects, digital maps of sites, drawings of shards
• Linguistics: speech data, text corpora, video
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What does data look like?
Multitude of forms: data bases, spreadsheets, texts, audio, video, still images
Multitude of formats: since 1960s! From home-grown applications (legacy data) via standard software to open standards
Data is often coded or “enriched”: cannot be understood or used without ample documentation
Often: difficult to use without specific software
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Research Infrastructures (R.I.)• R.I. in general: permanent and physical• R.I. for the natural sciences: ice breakers for polar research,
satellites, telescopes, particle accelerators, laboratories• R.I. for the humanities?
• Cultural heritage in all forms is the main source of humanities research
• Libraries and archives are the traditional “laboratories” for the humanities
• In the digital age, essential for innovative humanities research is:• Access to digitised heritage data (data bases, text corpora,
speech, image collections, etc.)• Tools to process this information
• The most important new research infrastructure for the humanities is therefore a digital one
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European infrastructure challenges
• In spite of some achievements, existing infrastructures are primarily national... if they are there at all!
• European activities are until now funded on a project basis and carried out as voluntary activities by national partners
• Stable, pan-European data infrastructures for the humanities hardly exist
• Increasing internationalisation of humanities research puts new requirements for such infrastructures
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ESFRI Roadmap
ESFRI = European Strategy Forum on Research InfrastructuresFirst Roadmap launched in autumn 2006, update in 2008About 30 proposals for large scale research facilitiesSix proposals are in area of social sciences and humanities
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The DARIAH ideaThe Grand Vision:
• Provide Access to European humanities and cultural heritage information across time
• A Research Infrastructure that can Coordinate, Catalyse, Enhance, Support the digital humanities
Digital research infrastructure for the humanities:• Provide permanent access to data collected/digitised in
European projects: providing continuity for discontinuous activities
• Support research networks in the digital humanities• Structure: a strong nucleus in a cluster of networked
organisations and satellites
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Science Case
• Changing research practice in a networked environment:• Data (including text, images, and other media) is the
laboratory of the scholar in the humanities• Resources on the web are distributed (data grid)• The scale of research goes up: networked projects • New technologies and methods of analysis
• However, European projects have no continuity• The existing structures are too weak (ad hoc
networks, no permanence) and national in scope• Answer: strong European data infrastructure
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A digital research infrastructure for the humanities is comparable to a virtual
astrophysics observatory
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Outline of tasks of DARIAH Digitise – Curate – Preserve
• Standards development and promotion• Preservation and digitisation support• R&D, technology platforms, tools development• Legal services and advice on open access and I.P.R.
Discover – Access – Deliver• Authentication and authorisation, • Harvesting, aggregating, hosting• User-friendly discovery and delivery
Connect – Collaborate – Use• Supporting communities of practice in digital humanities• Facilitating innovative research practices• Tools development and tools registries
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Preparation Project: Overview of the Work Packages
1. Project management2. Dissemination3. Strategic work4. Financial work5. Governance and logistical work6. Legal work7. Technical reference architecture8. Technical: Conceptual modelling
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DARIAH preparation project partners
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Aspiring Partners
• Italy• Spain• Austria• Switzerland
Other prospective partners in:Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Serbia, FYROM
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Strategic, financial, organisational and legal objectives
Strategic:To determine the strategic vision, goals, objectives and policies for DARIAH,
ensuring they are based upon and will meet stakeholder requirements, clearly identified business drivers, and identified benefits for European research
Financial:To define a sustainable business model for DARIAH that allows for the provision of
long-term services to the European research community in the humanities, while ensuring adaptability to new user needs and new technological developments
Logistical:To deliver a business plan that describes the organisational set-up and the
management structure, the role of the institutions and persons involved (stakeholders, staff, experts, partners, expansion with new partners)
Legal:To determine the rights and obligations of different types of DARIAH partners and
allowing for the inclusion of new partners; draft licence agreements, products and services contracts; ERI or non-ERI, that is the question.
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Technical and conceptual objectives
Architecture: To draft the technical reference architecture of DARIAH, consisting of draft
engineering plans, as well as demonstrators for key enabling technologies.
Conceptual: Develop foundation of a coherent, interlinked, and collaboratively
maintained virtual infrastructure of digital resources in the partner institutes. Model and evaluate the research processes in selected digital humanities disciplines.
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Arena Demonstrator
Exemplary Service-Oriented Architecture:• ARENA at ADS a Culture 2000 portal• Added value of DARIAH: Migrate legacy applications• Database integration: Integrate access
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Fedora (manuscript) demonstrator
The NFI collection - The manuscripts AM 366-371 fol. in the Arnamagnaean Collection contain drawings and descriptions of all the Danish and Norwegian runic monuments (stones with runic inscriptions) which were known in the 1620s
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Arts and humanities disciplines according
to European Reference Index for
the Humanities (ERIH) and in selected countries
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Relations to other projects and networks
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Preparing DARIAH: time schedule
2008 2009
May 2007Deadline Capacities call
ESFRI projectsQ3 2008
Agreement EC funding
Q4 2008Start “Preparing DARIAH”
20102007
October 2006Publication ESFRI
Roadmap December 2006
Publication relevant FP7 call
Q1 2010 DARIAH conference
Q1 2011Start construction DARIAH
Financial Commitment?
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Summary• Mission: to enhance the European research
infrastructure in the humanities • linking (and upgrading) distributed digital resources
and merging them into a grid-empowered architecture• designing new facilities for pioneering research,
preferably of an international and interdisciplinary nature
• Structure: a single, distributed organisation that combines specialist knowledge of the fields with technology expertise in digital information and communication structures
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Summary (continued)
• Organising principle: a decentralised network; an international core in a cluster of national and thematic satellites• The core will bear responsibility for organising and
supporting the network, for the basic infrastructure, and for the method and means of communication.
• The national ‘hubs’ will bear responsibility for the specific thematic or disciplinary expertise. The hubs will be prominent institutes and research networks with a leading role within the European context. The model is an open one and will be able to embrace new, promising fields that are as yet unable to play such a leading role in Europe.
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Additional information
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