musicology in the digital age 26 april 2010 introducing musicspace david bretherton...
TRANSCRIPT
Musicology in the Digital Age26 April 2010
Introducing musicSpace
http://musicspace.mspace.fm David Bretherton ([email protected])
Contents
1. Motivation
2. Solutions
3. Evaluation
4. The Future
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1. Motivation (the problem we’re addressing)
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Centuries of material...
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... is now increasingly digitised,
yet data is typically siloed.
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yet data is typically siloed.
Geographical dispersal has been replaced by a virtual dispersal on the web. Data is now segregated into a plethora of online resources by: – Media type (text, image, audio,
video)– Date of creation/publication– Subject
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yet data is typically siloed.
Geographical dispersal has been replaced by a virtual dispersal on the web. Data is now segregated into a plethora of online resources by: – Language– Copyright holder– Ad hoc/insecure nature of project
funding
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yet data is typically siloed.
Crucially:
Data sources are not usually interoperable.
Data and metadata from one source cannot be used (automatically) as the basis for a query of another source
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The Google/textbox search paradigm is limiting.
Interacting with current data resources present barriers at all stages of the research process:
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Inchoate ideas Something on Monteverdi’s madrigals?
Specific complex questions Which scribes have created manuscripts of
Monteverdi’s works, and which other composers’ works have they inscribed?
What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded?
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What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a
particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded?
We’d use BLSA, Copac and Naxos.
1. Search for recordings where the composer is ‘Cage’ in: i. BLSA
ii. Copac
iii. Naxos
(Each requiring a different search formulation)
2. Collate results and make a list of performers.
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What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a
particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded?
3. Search Naxos for recordings where these performers are given as the ‘performer’ and ‘Cage’ is given as the ‘composer’.
4. Search BLSA and Copac for records that name these performers and Cage, and then manually filter out results where names do not occur in relation the appropriate role.
5. Manually collate repertoire lists for each Cage performer.
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The barriers to tractability and their solutions
Need to consult several sources … and metadata from one source cannot guide searches of another source.
Insufficient granularity of data and/or search option.
Multi-part queries have to be broken down and results collated manually.Pen and paper!
Solutions:
Integration
Increase granularity
Optimally interactive UI
2. Solutions
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Integration
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Rather than using many portals ...
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... what if you could use just one?
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Our partners use a variety of data formats
MARC-XML
MODS-XML
Custom MARC
Source-specific XML
Tables/CSV
We import these as RDF
Why RDF? 1.Standard format for the
Semantic Web.
2.It’s modular; we can add records and record fields without having to start from scratch.
3.RDF can be created using lots of different tools.
Granularity
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Metadata hierarchy
We use a multi-level hierarchy based on metadata type.
Person
Composer Scribe etc.PerformerAuthor
Crucially, our search UI exposes this hierarchy so that both broad and narrow searching is possible.
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Adding/exposing granularity
Where possible we add to/expose the granularity of the metadata.
Person: ‘Alcock, John [fmo]’.
Former owner: ‘Alcock, John’.
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Generating metadata: Grove works lists
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Our Tool for the Works Lists
User Interface
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‘musicSpace’ is a faceted browser
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What recording of works by Cage exist, which performers have recorded a particular work by Cage, and what else have they recorded?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZkMxWlquI4&hd=1
Screencast
3. Evaluation
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Initial Feedback
Integration: ‘All the information showed up very quickly, and it was easy to find material. It was really good to have different kinds of material in the same place.’
Changing search paradigm: ‘I would recommend musicSpace for its ability to manipulate queries in order to get results that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get [without starting over].’
Granularity: ‘I used musicSpace to explore how many operas have a character named Alceste. This information simply isn’t get-at-able using other search interfaces – you’d have to sort through the information by hand.’
An invitation to try our demo
Musicologists: – Monteverdi recordings– C19th opera buffa– Schubert’s songs – C20th electroacoustic music
Music librarians / library scientists
Music technologists / web scientists
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4. The Future
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Thank you!