Open data in thearts and humanities
Jonathan [email protected] / @jwyg
Open Knowledge Foundationhttp://www.okfn.org / @okfn
What?Why?How?
What?
'open data'?
'data' :
any information published instructured, machine readable form
For example?
Biographical dataLibrary/archive catalogue dataJournal index dataEncyclopedia dataDictionary/thesaurus dataGeospatial/temporal dataData on correspondence… and so on
'open' :
free for anyone to reuse for anypurpose without restriction(see opendefinition.org)
From legal uncertainty...
… to legal clarity.
Why?
How might open data be of valuein arts and humanities disciplines?
What do we mean byarts and humanities?
No single common thread(only 'family resemblances')
How can digital technologies aidresearch in the arts and humanities?
Researchers are clever,computers are stupid
Digital tools enable us to dosome things better...
… but many things will be doneas they were before.
What kinds of things couldnew digital tools help us to do better?
Enabling large scale collaboration
Mapping research/researchers
For example:
What works have been publishedabout Giambattista Basile?
What was published on Schopenhauerin English between 1900-1950?
Bibliographica:'Wordpress for bibliographies'
folktales.ed.ac.ukanamorphosis.kuleuven.be
novalis.hu-berlin.decriticallegalstudies.org/biblio
… and so on
Mapping citations / influence
Who read X?Who wrote about X?Who had a copy of a work by X?Who read someone who read X?Who borrowed a book by X?Who attended lectures on X?
Historical data:
Library lending dataOld lecture listsExhibition cataloguesConcert programmesExtracting data from nachlässe
Computer assisted analysis(text mining, contextualisation, ...)
For example:
Uses of the word 'democracy' inBoston from 1800-1900?
Which 19th century writers allude toEdward Young in relation to debatesabout authorship and originality?(And where do they mention him?)
For example:
When does Shakepeare first use theword 'football'?
Where does Nietzsche allude to anyof Emerson's essays?
Scholarship that was previouslypossible but very laborious
Representing complex informationin more intuitive ways
For example:
Graphing relations/citations(e.g. who wrote to who?)
Information on maps/timelines(e.g. reception history of Faust)
And so on ...
Opening up data enables peopleto do interesting things with it
Two metaphors:
Infrastructure(pipes, electricity, ...)
Raw material(soil...)
How?
1. Use and promote open licenses
For example:
CC-BYCC-BY-SACC0OdbLPDDL… and so on
(see opendefinition.org/licenses)
2. Make open datasets easy to find
E.g. register open data on ckan.net
3. Encourage others to open up
4. Listen to what researchers want
5. Tell people about your ideas
Join our open-humanitiesmailing list:
http://bit.ly/open-humanitieshttp://lists.okfn.org
[email protected]://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg
Image creditsPierre Vivant's Traffic Light Tree by William WarbyThe Green Light by Ted PercivalPlumbing bits by cmurtaughCompost 06/08/2007 by suavehouse113Get excited and make things by Matt Jones
These slides are available under a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike License. While most imagesare available under an open license (see above) some are used for illustrative purposes and rights may bereserved by their creators.