NeDiMAH Working Groups
At the core of the Network will be six working groups charged with investigating ICT methods across the disciplines. Participation in these working groups is via an open call on the NeDiMAH website (under construction), inviting participants in workshops and expert seminars.
Working groups will consider specific methodological areas over the entire duration of the Network. They will investigate the topic from the three areas of scientific focus:
- Investigating the use of ICT methods in European digital humanities projects
- Analysis and documentation of current practice
- Modelling ways in which the method can be applied across the disciplines in scholarly practice.
WG1. Space and Time
Group Leader: Leif Isaksen, UK
As high-level, cross-cutting concepts, Space and Time provide important reference points that transcend disciplinary boundaries. ICT approaches to representing and analysing these dimensions include GIS, statistical distribution metrics, dynamic webmapping, geo-referencing, network analysis, mobile computing, augmented reality and semantic annotation of places, periods and events. Geospatial technologies are increasingly widespread in the arts and humanities, often in partnership with cultural heritage and memory organisations. ICT methods for dealing with time have an equally high potential of opening up new avenues of research.
WG2. Information Visualisation
Group Leaders: Fredrik Palm, Sweden and Orla Murphy, Ireland
Visualisation refers to techniques used to summarise, present and enact rich materials visually, and is becoming increasingly important as an integrated part of the research processes in the humanities. Visualisation is taken to include different types of interaction (e.g. sensor technology), technologies (including high-resolution and multiple displays) as well as materials such as geographical data sets, images, 3D representations, graphs, tables, networks, and archival materials.
Visualisation is used for both descriptive as well as analytical purposes. Technology and research methodology can together improve research in the humanities. However, these technologies need to be used critically since many techniques for visualisation are developed in other scientific areas meaning one has to consider issues concerning ambiguity and complexity.
WG3. Linked Data and Ontological Methods
Group Leader: Christian-Emil Smith Ore, Norway
An important objective of the use and development of ontologies is in providing the semantic definitions and clarifications needed to transform disparate, localised information sources into a coherent resource, be it within a project, an institution or on the global level.
In this way, the use of common or compliant ontologies enables information exchange and integration between heterogeneous sources of information by for example Open Linked Data.
WG4. Developing Digital Data: Building and Developing Collections of Digital Data for Research
Group Leader: Jean-Phillipe Mague, France
Building digital collections of data for research involves consideration of the subsequent use, and re-use, of these collections for research using ICT tools and methods. The use of digital collections for research has an impact on the creation, management and long-term sustainability of digital data, and the use of digital resources for the creation and publication of new knowledge is a vital part of the digital life cycle.
The creation, description and structuration of digital resources, access to these resources (both in term of authorisation and interoperability), their curation and preservation, and the publication of results of research they enable are connected parts of this process.
WG5. Using Large-Scale Text Collections for Research
Group Leader: Karina van Dalen, NL
ICT tools and methods, such as information retrieval and extraction methods including text and data mining for example, can reveal new knowledge from large amounts of textual data, extracting hidden patterns, analysing the results and summarising them in a useful format.
This working group will examine practices in this area, building on the work of corpus linguistics and related disciplines to develop a greater understanding of how large-scale text collections can be used for research.
WG6. Scholarly Digital Editions
Group Leaders: Matthew Driscoll, Denmark and Elena Pierazzo, UK
Digital editions are now establishing themselves as the norm in many areas of philological endeavour, with a number of large-scale digitisation and editorial initiatives under way.
This working group will promote the use of existing digital technologies in the production of scholarly editions, bringing together experts from a wide variety of disciplines and time-periods to establish the state of the art and recommend a set of best practices in order to ensure maximum interoperability and long-term preservation of, and access to, digital data.
