Unlocking the ivory towerFOSS in collaborative humanities research

Claudine Chionh

University of Melbourne

20 January 2010 / LCA2010

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Unlocking the ivory tower

1 Founders and Survivors

2 Humanities computing

3 Why FOSS?

4 Challenges

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Founders and Survivors

The Claudine

Woolwich 24/aug/1821 to Hobart 15/dec/1821 – 113 days at sea

160 male convicts boarded, 159 survived/landed (not a bad record)

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Founders and Survivors

Journal

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Founders and Survivors

Conduct registers

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Founders and Survivors

Archives of Tasmania convict index

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Founders and Survivors

Founders and Survivors

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Founders and Survivors

Van Diemen’s Land

Transportation period, 1803-1853

∼ 13,000 female convicts

∼ 25,000 male convicts

∼ 1 million rows of data

Quantifiable data: conduct registers, BDM. . .

Text: journals, newspaper reports

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Founders and Survivors

Genealogists

What happened to convicts after they were freed?

Links with genealogists for lives of convicts and their families.

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Founders and Survivors

The ‘factory plan’

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Humanities computing

‘Humanities computing’

Or ‘digital humanities’?

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Humanities computing

Old questions, new tools?

Digitisation

Analyse large[r] amounts of material

Public access and collaboration

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Humanities computing

The Valley of the Shadow

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Humanities computing

The Valley of the Shadow

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Humanities computing

Old Bailey Online

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Humanities computing

Perseus Digital Library

Virgil’s Aeneid

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Humanities computing

Literary and linguistic applications

Index Thomisticus (1946)

Perseus

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Humanities computing

Historical applications

Digitisation

Data analysis

Collaboration

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Humanities computing

Digitisation

Documents

Images

Linked/cross-referenced presentation of sources

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Humanities computing

Tasmanian Police Gazette, 1861-1933

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Humanities computing

Surgeon’s journals

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Humanities computing

Conduct registers

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Humanities computing

Data analysis

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Humanities computing

GIS

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Humanities computing

Collaboration

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Why FOSS?

Why FOSS?

Use of resources

Community of developers

Using and adapting tools

Access

Values

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Why FOSS?

Use of resources

Expenses:

Processing power

Storage

Bandwidth

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Why FOSS?

Community of developers

Mutual support

Don’t reinvent the wheel

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Why FOSS?

Using and adapting tools

e.g. TEI, GEDCOM

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Why FOSS?

Access

Make archival sources and research results accessible to general public

e.g. online museums

Sharing data with other researchers

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Why FOSS?

Values

Public interest

Free access, free expression

Dialogue

Public participation

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Challenges

The Two Cultures

The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution

CP Snow, Rede Lecture, 1959

Literature/humanities vs science/tech

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Challenges

Many cultures?

Translating between academics, IT professionals, diverse publicaudience

Different priorities, research questions

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Challenges

Geeks and non-geeks

Non-geeks may not understand the values behind FOSS

Technology as magic

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Challenges

Where do developers belong?

Identity crisis

‘Digital humanities professional’?

Background – IT or academic?

Autonomy

Career progression

Where do humanities computing projects belong?

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Challenges

Resources and evaluation

Resource needs and output not like in traditional academic projects

In: computer resources, not just research time

Out: software, web, data, not just articles

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Challenges

Evolving field

Challenging

Exciting

Where to from here?

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Challenges

Links

The Valley of the Shadow http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/

Old Bailey Online http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/

Perseus Digital Library http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

Index Thomisticus http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/it/

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Challenges

Links

Founders and Survivors http://www.foundersandsurvivors.org/

Mapping Our Anzacs http://mappingouranzacs.naa.gov.au/

Australian Newspapers (National Library)http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/

Essays in Humanities Computinghttp://www.digitalhumanities.org/Essays/

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Challenges

This presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/claudinec

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