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.

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 = superfluous10= vital

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?

Grand Challenges:

E-research in the arts and humanities

Dr William Kilbride

[email protected]

What do people mean by E-science and E-research? 1

‘E’: it deploys innovative computingResearch: it’s about discovery and explorationMassive: it exploits enormous data setsVirtual: it’s collaborative

What do people mean by E-science and E-research? 2

Science: it tends to be positivist / hypothetico-deductiveDistributed: it challenges organisational boundariesStandards: 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 NESCResearch CouncilsE-social scienceAnd 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 CouncilNo specific fundingICT skills are harder to findCollaboration is weakerMuch wider range of disciplinesGroups are cellular and modularRAE rewards (historically) less clear

Why have the arts and humanities arrived late? Intellectual reasons? 1Fragmented and partial data: interpolation is riskyParticularist and historical: rules are contentiousDiscovery and exploration: nothing to exploreInterpretative: data constituted differently

Why have the arts and humanities arrived late? Intellectual reasons? 2Standards: naming things is controversialLocalisation of specialisation: small set of global issuesPace: change is slowerNeed: we already do what we doBUT strong tradition of research into research processAND rapid changes in our expectations of ICT

What can we do with E-research in the humanities?

Text mining for linguistsPattern matching for musiciansVisualisation for archaeologistsData crunching for historiansSimulation 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 sharingOntology building Data archivesVirtual research environments

Standards-based Data Sharing: infrastructure we can re-use

ARENA: Archaeological Records of Europe Network AccessMultiple datasourcesNo single languageOverlapping data sets

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Standards-based Data Sharing: issues

AuthenticationLittle incentive to build such systemsFocus is on searching not processingImported Standards

Not just word matching but finding the domain relevanceCross walk from one vocabulary to anotherPrimitive set of concepts: conceptual reference model•Begins to exist•Ceases to exist•Occurred at place•Caused to be created (etc)…Relationship between things and eventsDegrees of separation

Ontology building: making explicit the links between concepts

Ontology building: making explicit the links between concepts

King Ine

Wessex

705 AD

Hamwic

‘H’ series sceatta

Cotton MS

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

X is linked to Y through process AY is linked to Z through process BX is linked to Z through process AB

Ontology building:

issues

Standards need more developmentNeed to be a lot more controversialStandards are not neutral!This is not research: a way to begin researchLink to semantic web

Data Archives: open, accessible and secure

Data Archives:

issues

Archives need grid enabledArchives need to be populatedFile formats and documentationRights management

Virtual research environments: collaborative working spaces

Need to re-imagine how we workThreat to organisational boundariesDiscipline group as single VO?OASIS example …

OASIS:OASIS: Current situationCurrent situation

Fieldwork unit Print out Backlog Local Govt.

Print outNational MonumentsRecord

Backlog

Post

Post

OASIS:OASIS: Current situationCurrent situation

Exhaustion!10,000 unpublished or “grey literature” reportsResearch GapPublic excludedBacklogs of data

In an ideal world the machines In an ideal world the machines should do the talking …should do the talking …

Fieldwork input Print out Backlog Local Archive

govt

Print outNational agency

Backlog

Post

Post

But at each point where data is keyed in, it is validated by experts …

Local govt: local knowledgeIs this what it claims to be?Do we have monuments like that here?That’s the wrong parish nameThat field unit is no good

National Agency: national standardsIt’s not MIDAS compliantIt’s not like other recordsThe terminology is differentThat SMR is very good

So need to capture the validation process but eliminate the drudgery

Fieldwork

Local SMR

National Monuments Records

ArchSearch

OASIS record

A+H has come late to e-research•Good reasons and badBig opportunities•Financial, intellectual, culturalNeeds to be research ledNeeds to be collaborativeAdditional not instead of

E-research in the arts and humanities:

Bland conclusions

Dr William Kilbride

[email protected]