1co-funded by the European Union

Humanists and Linked DataDM2E – Final EventPisa, 11. December 2014

Steffen Hennicke, Kristin Dill, Gerold Tschumpel, Klaus Thoden, Christian Morbidoni, Alois Pichler

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• Investigate how genuine research interests of humanists can be operationalized in the particular context of Linked Data and Pundit.

• Interpretative approaches and Linked Data through annotations and visualization

12.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments - Engaging Humanists with Pundit

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• 15 students (BA) from the Fachhochschule Potsdam (FHP)

• topic: diplomatic correspondence in the forefront of the Crisis of July 1914

• data: pre-selected sample of digitized original correspondences from the Political Archive of the German Foreign Ministry

• task: devise and apply editorial guidelines

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Editorial and Archival Sciences

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• 1 trained historian from the Georg-Eckert-Institute (GEI)

• topic: representations of the nation and the globalized world in school books

• data: selected digitized school books from GEI available through DM2E

• task: identify topoi and their connotation in different types of school books

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Educational History

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• 15 BA/MA history students from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (UBER)

• topic: learning critical analysis of digitized historical photographs

• data: students search and selected their own photographs from the Web

• task: conduct an analysis of photographs based on a prepared vocabulary

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Visual History / Didactics of History

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• Preparatory Phase− sequence of several meetings− conceptual: specifying the topic and approach, devising a

vocabulary for annotation etc.− technical: in cooperation with Net7, e.g. accessibility of sources

(HTML pages or scraper), bug-fixing of Pundit 2, implementing the vocabulary, preparing visualization options

• Working Phase− with two full-day workshops for each use case and work at home

in-between− introducing Linked Data and Pundit, discussions, annotating,

questionnaire etc.• Follow-up Meetings

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Process

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Experiments – Annotations in Pundit

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Experiments – Annotations in Ask

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• Experiments underline the usefulness of the principal approach of Pundit and of Linked Data for humanities.− evidence for applicability in the context of interpretative

approaches in the humanities• Simple Linked Data annotation vocabularies

− proved to be relatively accessible to humanists− results can be obtained with relatively low prerequisites− participants created, understood and applied vocabularies

within a few hours− support different kinds of research interest

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Some Tentative Results

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• The vocabulary as an epistemological tool− Students (are forced to) reflect on their own work

process because of the explicitness of the vocabulary.− Teachers have a pedagogical tool for communicating

theoretical and practical representations of methods.− The vocabulary provides a common basis for

discussion about the method and interpretation process.

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments – Some Tentative Results

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• Scholarly Activities are determined by the Social Context− authority, trust, legal issues

• Can I annotate this text or image? Who owns the triple? Can I download my annotations?

− provenance and citation of triples and resources• authorship and reputation: Who created the triple? Who

checks the quality of annotations?• selective sharing of “factual” statements vs.

“interpretative” statements (the intellectual work / outcome): Sharing what with whom?

• “composite triples”: Who’s work is it?

11.12.2014 DM2E – Final Event (Pisa)

Experiments