Transcript
Page 1: ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

ICT in Arts and Humanities Research ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

e-Science in the Arts and Humanities

7 July 2006

Page 2: ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme• includes the creative and performing arts

– practice-led research • £3.8m for 5 years from October 2003• Part of a uniquely centralized system of public support for ICT

in the arts and humanities– but precarious...

Page 3: ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

Existing provision • AHRC Research Panels

– Up to 2003, about 50% of £100m of research projects have some kind of digital output and/or input

– What kind of projects?• Support services funded by AHRC and JISC

– Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)• creation, curation, preservation, and on-line

dissemination of digitised research materials– Resource Discovery Network (RDN: now Intute)

• gateways for the discovery of online resources

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

ICT Programme’s aims:• to build capacity nation-wide in the use of ICT for arts and

humanities research– complementing existing provision

• to develop, promote and monitor the AHRC's ICT strategy– later...

• strong infrastructure in place on which to build up e-Science activities– despite arriving at the table very late

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

Main activities:• ICT Methods Network: £1m for 3 years from April 2005

– use of advanced ICT methods• Projects and methods database (with support from JISC)

– methods taxonomy– will be part of a unified on-line resource: ICTGuides (AHDS)

• including training materials at all levels• register of experts• list of centres

• ICT Strategy Projects (£1m)– knowledge-gathering: needs, uses, scoping surveys– resource-development

• Problems of funding tools development

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

AHRC-JISC Arts and Humanties e-Science Initiative (EPSRC?)• e-Science vs e-Research

– Oxymoron?• Agenda rather than a methodology, still less a subject• As developed in the natural sciences and technology

– Infrastructure of advanced technologies for collaboration and resource-sharing across the Internet

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

AHRC-JISC Arts and Humanties e-Science Initiative• Grid technologies

– Computational grid– Data grid– Access grid

• Associated technologies– Visualization– Data mining– Security

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

e-Science

• Why is it important for the humanities?

– Money

• tools and generic resource development

– Injection of new technologies

• collaborations between computer scientists and arts and humanities researchers

– Dispersed and heterogenous nature of typical humanities data resource

• the typical AHRC-funded resource

– Not an instant solution

• Combination of top-down and bottom-up developments to integrate resources

– But not just the data grid

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

AHRC-JISC Arts and Humanties e-Science Initiative• Now

– Scoping survey (later)– JISC A&H e-Science Support Centre (King’s: 2006-8)

• based in AHDS and Methods Network– AHRC A&H e-Science Research Workshops – EPSRC e-Science demonstrators

• This Summer/Autumn– six 4-year AHRC e-Science postgraduate studentships. – AHRC-JISC e-Science research projects (£1.2m + EPSRC?)

• varying emphasis on tools development and research findings

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

AHRC-JISC Arts and Humanties e-Science Initiative• Scoping survey: Scoping e-science and e-social science

developments and their value to the arts and humanities (Sheila Anderson, King’s College London)– Identify, collate and analyse information on e-science

technologies, projects and outputs – Match these against methods and challenges in the arts and

humanities – series of expert seminars– Create an on-line information base for consultation by arts and

humanities scholars• Draft report end July• Final report mid-August

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

Expert Seminars on….• Library and Information Studies• Archaeology• Literary and Textual Studies• History• Visual Arts • Performing Arts• Linguistics and Languages

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

Workshops in e-Science for the Arts and Humanities

• Alan Bowman User Requirements Gathering for the Humanities

• Paul Ell Geographical Information System e-Science: developing a roadmap

• Angela Piccini Performativity/Place/Space: Locating Grid Technologies

• David Shepherd The Access Grid in Collaborative Arts and Humanities Research

• Gregory Sporton Building the Wireframe: E-Science for the Arts Infrastructure

• Melissa Terras ReACH: Researching e-Science Analysis of Census Holdings

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

– cross dataset searching (across complex and fuzzy data) and developing a configurable tool to undertake record matching

• not merely limited to historians and census material• physicists and astrophysicists working on the

Astrogrid – to track and trace different entities in space

across massive datasets

Workshops in e-Science for the Arts and Humanities

• Melissa Terras ReACH: Researching e-Science Analysis of Census Holdings

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

e-Science Demonstrators (EPSRC)

• Peter Ainsworth Virtual Vellum: Online Viewing Envionment for the Grid and Live Audiences

• Charles Crowther

A Virtual Workspace for the Study of Ancient Documents

• Sarah-Jane Norman

Motion Capture Data Services for Multiple User Categories

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ICT in Arts and Humanities Research

e-Science and other current issues:• Sustainability, standards and quality assurance of e-

resources – quality– reusability– harmonization and interoperability

• The added value of ICT for the quality of research– achievements to date – possible quantum leap resulting from grid technologies

• Need for interagency collaboration


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