Transcript ppt format

Grand Challenges:
E-research in the arts and humanities
On a scale of one to ten, how important do
you consider web and internet resources are
in your research or routine work?
1 = superfluous
10= vital
Grand Challenges:
E-research in the arts and humanities
What do people mean by E-science
and E-research?
Why have the arts and humanities
arrived late?
What sorts of things can we do
with E-Research?
What sorts of infrastructure is
there already?
Dr William Kilbride
[email protected]
What do people mean by Escience and E-research? 1
‘E’: it deploys innovative
computing
Research: it’s about discovery
and exploration
Massive: it exploits enormous
data sets
Virtual: it’s collaborative
What do people mean by Escience and E-research? 2
Science: it tends to be
positivist / hypotheticodeductive
Distributed: it challenges
organisational boundaries
Standards: it uses mutually
compatible systems
What do people mean by E-science
and E-research: material concerns
Specific R&D programme (time
limited)
Led by DTI and NESC
Research Councils
E-social science
And as of last week …
E-research in the humanities
Why have the arts and humanities
arrived late? Organisational reasons
Still coming to terms with the Internet?!
No Research Council
No specific funding
ICT skills are harder to find
Collaboration is weaker
Much wider range of disciplines
Groups are cellular and modular
RAE rewards (historically) less clear
Why have the arts and humanities
arrived late? Intellectual reasons? 1
Fragmented and partial data:
interpolation is risky
Particularist and historical:
rules are contentious
Discovery and exploration:
nothing to explore
Interpretative: data constituted
differently
Why have the arts and humanities
arrived late? Intellectual reasons? 2
Standards: naming things is
controversial
Localisation of specialisation:
small set of global issues
Pace: change is slower
Need: we already do what we do
BUT strong tradition of research
into research process
AND rapid changes in our
expectations of ICT
What can we do with E-research in
the humanities?
Text mining for linguists
Pattern matching for musicians
Visualisation for archaeologists
Data crunching for historians
Simulation modelling for economists
But not just for its own sake!
What are our Grand Challenges?
What do we need to do and what
infrastructure is there already?
Standards-based data sharing
Ontology building
Data archives
Virtual research environments
Standards-based Data Sharing:
infrastructure we can re-use
ARENA: Archaeological Records
of Europe Network Access
Multiple datasources
No single language
Overlapping data sets
PL
When
Presentation Layer
RO
Translation Layer:
Six language mini
thesaurus, lat/long
and period lookup
NO
What
DK
Where
Portal
IS
Search and retrieval
Using mix of open
Standards: Z39.50
And OAI PMH
Data Layer
UK
When
Presentation Layer
PL
Analytical Layer
RO
Translation Layer:
Six language mini
thesaurus, lat/long
and period lookup
NO
What
DK
Where
Portal
IS
Search and retrieval
Using mix of open
Standards: Z39.50
And OAI PMH
Data Layer
UK
Standards-based Data Sharing:
issues
Authentication
Little incentive to build such systems
Focus is on searching not processing
Imported Standards
Ontology building: making explicit
the links between concepts
Not just word matching but finding the domain relevance
Cross walk from one vocabulary to another
Primitive set of concepts: conceptual reference model
•Begins to exist
•Ceases to exist
•Occurred at place
•Caused to be created (etc)…
Relationship between things and events
Degrees of separation
Ontology building: making explicit
the links between concepts
King Ine
Wessex
705 AD
Hamwic
‘H’ series sceatta
Cotton MS
X is linked to Y through process A
Y is linked to Z through process B
X is linked to Z through process AB
Ine was King of
Wessex in 705 AD
when the Cotton MS
originates and the
port of Hamwic (aka
Southampton) was
active and creating
sceatta coins
These are found in
contexts with pottery
from Rouen
Ontology building:
issues
Standards need more development
Need to be a lot more controversial
Standards are not neutral!
This is not research: a way to begin research
Link to semantic web
Data Archives: open, accessible and
secure
Data Archives:
issues
Archives need grid enabled
Archives need to be populated
File formats and documentation
Rights management
Virtual research environments:
collaborative working spaces
Need to re-imagine how we work
Threat to organisational boundaries
Discipline group as single VO?
OASIS example …
OASIS:
Current situation
Fieldwork unit
Print out
National Monuments
Record
Post
Backlog
Backlog
Post
Local Govt.
Print out
OASIS:
Current situation
Exhaustion!
10,000 unpublished
or “grey literature”
reports
Research Gap
Public excluded
Backlogs of data
In an ideal world the machines
should do the talking …
Fieldwork input
Print out
Post
Backlog
Local Archive
govt
National agency
Backlog
Post
Print out
But at each point where data is keyed in,
it is validated by experts …
Local govt: local knowledge
Is this what it claims to be?
Do we have monuments like that here?
That’s the wrong parish name
That field unit is no good
National Agency: national standards
It’s not MIDAS compliant
It’s not like other records
The terminology is different
That SMR is very good
So need to capture the validation
process but eliminate the drudgery
National Monuments Records
Fieldwork
OASIS record
Local SMR
ArchSearch
E-research in the arts and humanities:
Bland conclusions
A+H has come late to e-research
•Good reasons and bad
Big opportunities
•Financial, intellectual, cultural
Needs to be research led
Needs to be collaborative
Additional not instead of
Dr William Kilbride
[email protected]