Mark Hedges

Rule-based curation and preservation of data: A data grid approach using iRODS

Research is generating large quantities of digital material, much of it irreplaceable, and there is a pressing need to maintain long-term access to it. Not only is the quantity of data growing in size, it is becoming much more diverse and complex, significantly complicating the issues around its curation. Automation of curation is key if a scalable solution is to be found. We describe an approach to automation in which digital curation policies and strategies are represented as rules, which are implemented in data grids based on the iRODS middleware.

Arts and Humanities e-Science From Ad Hoc Experimentation to Systematic Investigation

This paper will explain the role, activities, and context of the arts and humanities e-science initiative in the UK, which is funded by the AHRC, EPSRC and JISC. It will firstly present last years pioneering phase with ad hoc experiments by the early adopters. Secondly, the award holding projects for the major funding scheme for Arts and Humanities e-Science will be described, as they start their work in autumn 2007. This second phase can be seen as one of systematic investigations where specific experimentations will deliver parts of an e-Infrastructure for the arts and humanities.

Management and preservation of research data with iRODS

This paper presents first steps towards implementing a data layer to support a semi-automated preservation management system for research data in the arts and humanities. We suggest to use e-Science technology and grid middleware to implement a virtualised storage system for research data. We will outline how iRODS (Rule-Oriented Data management System)can be used within an architecture to implement complex,automated,scalable digital preservation strategies.

Deploying general-purpose virtual research environments for humanities research

Several virtual research environments (VREs) have been developed to address specific tasks or application domains. Building on the experiences and use cases coming out of these projects, this paper addresses the creation of more general-purpose VREs for the humanities, which move beyond specific, focused tasks, and instead provide services and environments that support more general-purpose humanities research activities. Specifically, we are investigating use cases related to the organization and integration of the dispersed and heterogeneous information on which such research is based. These use cases are highly interactive, interpretative and researcher centric, addressing topics such as annotation environments and support for ‘active-reading’ processes and scholarly dialogues. We present the background to our work and the technical approach taken, and report the results obtained so far.

Arts and humanities e-science-Current practices and future challenges

This article offers an analysis of UK arts and humanities e-Science practices in order to identify current trends. It also considers challenges of how arts and humanities disciplines fit into the overall e-Science agenda. We will discuss a first phase of early experimentation projects in 2007 and continue with a second phase since 2007, which more systematically investigates methodologies and technologies that could provide answers to grand challenges in digital arts and humanities research.

Preparing DARIAH

This paper analyses the results of the technical and scientific work in the DARIAH preparatory phase, a European infrastructure for digital arts and humanities. We were looking for an infrastructure model that would allow for the integration of services built around communities. To this end, DARIAH will be developed as a social marketplace for services. The paper presents the design decision we made and our proof-of-concept demonstrators and experiments.

Back to our data — Experiments with NoSQL technologies in the Humanities

In this short paper we discuss our work on developing a data infrastructure for Holocaust research. Faced with the challenge of integrating data with widely varying characteristics, we decided to pursue an approach based on the property graph model and corresponding graph databases. These provide intuitive modelling capabilities and the ability to fluently evolve in structure to meet the needs of the data but require more basic implementation work, as the technology is less mature.

Modelling OAIS Compliance for Disaggregated Preservation Services

The reference model for the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) is well established in the research community as a method of modelling the functions of a digital repository and as a basis in which to frame digital curation and preservation issues. In reference to the 5th anniversary review of the OAIS, it is timely to consider how it may be interpreted by an institutional repository. The paper examines methods of sharing essential functions and requirements of an OAIS between two or more institutions, outlining the practical considerations of outsourcing. It also details the approach taken by the SHERPA DP Project to introduce a disaggregated service model for institutional repositories that wish to implement preservation services.

Exploring manuscripts: sharing ancient wisdoms across the semantic web

Recent work in digital humanities has seen researchers increasingly producing online editions of texts and manuscripts, particularly in adoption of the TEI XML format for online publishing. The benefits of semantic web techniques are underexplored in such research, however, with a lack of sharing and communication of research information. The Sharing Ancient Wisdoms (SAWS) project applies linked data practices to enhance and expand on what is possible with these digital text editions. Focussing on Greek and Arabic collections of ancient wise sayings, which are often related to each other, we use RDF to annotate and extract semantic information from the TEI documents as RDF triples. This allows researchers to explore the conceptual networks that arise from these interconnected sayings. The SAWS project advocates a semantic-web-based methodology, enhancing rather than replacing current workflow processes, for digital humanities researchers to share their findings and collectively benefit from each others work.

Building Bridges between Islands of Data - An Investigation into Distributed Data Management in the Humanities

Ancient documents represent a primary source for research in the humanities. A substantial body of digital material has evolved containing information about these documents. Unfortunately these digital resources are often held within myriad locations, owned by a range of groups or individuals, are held within a diverse range of formats and are either unavailable or are available only in isolation. This paper describes a successful investigation into using the OGSA-DAI distributed data management software to build bridges between these islands of data and so to facilitate navigation across a larger data space than is otherwise achievable. An overview of a proof-of-concept that was developed is given along with the technical challenges encountered. Discussion from researchers in the humanities about such an architecture reveals the possibility of creating virtual data centres for the coordinated sharing of such resources. It also raises important questions as to how distributed data resources can be meaningfully federated and queried.