The Google Book Settlement 18th February 2010

February 9, 2010 at 3:18 am · Filed under books, digital humanities, digitisation

I am just reading Professor Robert Darnton’s new book titled ‘The Case for Books’. Darnton is a well know book historian, especially of the French Enlightenment, and made the bold career move to become Harvard’s Librarian. Admittedly ‘the Case for Books’ is not that good, especially for those who have been involved in academic publishing debates for quite some time. In the quest to reach larger audiences, the book appears to have lost some rigour and Darnton’s first-person monologue is a little too personal at times (he should keep a blog). Still, there is a lot of information on the Google Book project, especially as it relates to the looming legal decision in which I am admittedly not on top of.

Here is a initiative from the UK’s JISC (The Joint Information Services Committee) who have attempted to create a ’social software’ solution for broader public consultation. Almost always these social software solutions do not work (as it the case here) as the sites lack of community feedback. Still there there is an excellent summary of the case and key issues (link to JISC’s site).

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What is Culture24?

February 9, 2010 at 2:57 am · Filed under art, communuity informatics, digital humanities

Culture24 exists to promote and support the cultural sector online and to serve the needs of online audiences. We are a not-for-profit online publisher, working across the arts, heritage, education, and tourism sectors.

A wonderful initiative. Also, check out there data-feeds that contain data from 4300 cultural venues across the UK…wow! (link).

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Making Government Better: New Online Tool

February 9, 2010 at 2:36 am · Filed under governance

A team of researchers from the LSE Public Policy Group and the OII have developed an online tool to help government organisations improve their communication with customers. The team was led by Patrick Dunleavy (LSE) and Helen Margetts (OII), and Tobias Escher (OII) developed and programmed the online checklist.

More information, access to online tool and report downloads:
http://www.governmentontheweb.org/

Paper forms, online applications and call centre scripts are the ‘face of government’ for most citizens. Earlier research by the team found that often forms were long, with confusing numbering. Some forms asked for the same information more than once and also requested information from customers that the government body already held. Our research found that this leaves customers frustrated, wastes the time of both customers and government staff, and often leads to inaccurate information where questions are badly designed.

The checklists were designed following work undertaken by the same research team for the UK National Audit Office on the Department for Work and Pensions. They allow government department staff to work through current forms (whether paper based, online or phone based) and identify aspects that are most difficult for customers to follow. They cover the language used, how customers prove their identity, how well help and guidance is provided for customers completing the form and the documentation customers are required to provide.

The online tool was launched last week at a seminar addressed by Sir Leigh Lewis, Permanent Secretary of the Department for Work and Pensions, hosted by the Institute for Government.

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New Book: Joseph Camilleri and Jim Falk “Worlds in Transition: Evolving Governance Across a Stressed Planet”, Edward Elgar, UK, December 2009

February 8, 2010 at 6:13 am · Filed under books, governance

The book that I worked on in 2006 as a Research Assistant with Professor Jim Falk is to be launched this Friday at the University of Technology; Sydney. The book is about the rise of ‘global governance’; driven by crisis such as climate and technological changes (I worked on the technology chapter).

The argument, and supporting studies, are built around a simple concept – that over the sweep of human history, ever more potent flows generated and shaped by ever more complex and sophisticated human activity, have increasingly developed across the boundaries around which prior governance institutions and processes have been erected. In this context the authors consider the growth of flows of finance, atmospheric pollutants, information, pathogens, and security threats, the challenges they pose, and the transformations to governance at all levels under way (link).

The book is to be launched by Helen Clark; the ex-Prime Minister of New Zealand. Well done Profs Jim Falk and Joseph Camilleri.

The book has its own web site (here).

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Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws

February 2, 2010 at 12:26 am · Filed under data, eresearch

This is one of the reasons we have eScience and citable, re-usable (and verifible) data.

Phil Jones, the beleaguered British climate scientist at the centre of the leaked emails controversy, is facing fresh claims that he sought to hide problems in key temperature data on which some of his work was based.

A Guardian investigation of thousands of emails and documents apparently hacked from the University of East Anglia’s climatic research unit has found evidence that a series of measurements from Chinese weather stations were seriously flawed and that documents relating to them could not be produced (link to Guardian).

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The new Wheeler Centre Melbourne

January 29, 2010 at 9:59 am · Filed under books

The new Wheeler Centre is about to open in Melbourne and is hosting a number of events.  It appear to be somewhere between a think tank and writers centre. Can’t wait!

Our City of Literature status is not about Dickens on the tram, Nabokov in the Great Southern Stand or a Bronte or two over breakfast. It’s a recognition and celebration of Melbourne’s passionate readers.

We’re home to many of Australia’s best and best-loved writers, past and present. We host an extraordinary network of booksellers, a diverse publishing culture and a vibrant community of thinkers.

Being a City of Literature is about engagement locally and globally. Because there’s a public conversation going on: in our papers and online, on our TVs and radios, in our workplaces and homes. Books, writing and ideas flow through Melbourne and there is something for everyone (link).

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Tim Berners Lee on free data and the BBC’s Virtual Revolution

January 27, 2010 at 2:11 am · Filed under data, governance

Tim Berners-Lee discusses the launch of the government’s new open data project, and Dan Gluckman explains why the BBC was so keen to open the development of a new series about the social history of the web (link) Also see: http://data.gov.uk/

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Manuscript account of Newton’s apple made public

January 19, 2010 at 12:53 am · Filed under digital humanities, digitisation, humanities computing

The manuscript is one of a number published online to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science, and can be accessed at www.royalsociety.org/turning-the-pages (from the Age)

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TEI by example

January 16, 2010 at 2:23 pm · Filed under digital humanities, humanities computing

The Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (CTB) of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) of King’s College London, and the Department of Information Studies of University College London, are pleased to announce that funding has been secured to develop the online resource “TEI by Example”. Featuring freely available online tutorials walking individuals through the different stages in marking up a document in TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), these online tutorials will provide examples for users of all levels. Examples will be provided of different document types, with varying degrees in the granularity of markup, to provide a useful teaching and reference aid for those involved in the marking up of texts (link).

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The Case for Books; Past Present and Future

January 5, 2010 at 10:13 pm · Filed under books

I am back in Melbourne now and normal viewing will resume once when I find my feet.

In the mean time, here is a new book from the cultural historian, Robert Darnton who has recently taken up the post as Librarian at Harvard University.

“In The Case for Books, Robert Darnton offers an in-depth examination of the book from its earliest beginnings to its shifting role today in popular culture, commerce, and the academy. In a lasting collection drawn from previously published and new work alike, Robert Darnton lends unique authority to the life and role of the book in society. The resulting book is a wise work of scholarship – one that requires readers to carefully consider how the digital revolution will broadly affect the marketplace of ideas.”–BOOK JACKET.
Full contents Google and the future of books — The information landscape — The future of libraries — Lost and found in cyberspace — E-books and old books — Gutenberg-e — Open access — A paean to paper — The importance of being bibliographical — The mysteries of reading — The history of book (link to library catalogue)

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In Tasmania…

December 21, 2009 at 11:20 pm · Filed under gadfly

OK, sorry that I have been a slow blogger of late but I am in Tasmania and the Internet connection that I have is not that swift. Normal viewing will resume shortly.

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Digital Humanities in India

November 29, 2009 at 4:29 pm · Filed under conferences, digital humanities, humanities computing

I am  not sure if there is a defined ‘Digital Humanities’ field in India (where I am at the moment), but there is activity occurring in numerous places. The Library Science is one area to find Digital Humanities activities in India as per this International Conference on Digital Libraries in New Delhi early in 2010.

TERI invites your attention to ICDL 2010, the third conference in the Institute’s ICDL (The International Conference on Digital Libraries) series. ICDL 2010 is proposed to be organized during 23-26 February 2010 in New Delhi. The theme of the conference is ‘Digital Libraries : Shaping the Information Paradigm’ and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development (link).

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The Digital Future is Now: A Call to Action for the Humanities

November 20, 2009 at 10:18 am · Filed under digital humanities, e-science

This paper is based upon the Keynote lecture given at Digital Humanities 2009 in Maryland, USA by Professor Christine Borgman (link).

ABSTRACT
The digital humanities are at a critical moment in the transition from a speciality area to a full-fledged community with a common set of methods, sources of evidence, and infrastructure – all of which are necessary for achieving academic recognition. As budgets are slashed and marginal programs are eliminated in the current economic
crisis, only the most articulate and productive will survive. Digital collections are proliferating, but most remain difficult to use, and digital scholarship remains a backwater in most humanities departments with respect to hiring, promotion, and teaching practices. Only the scholars themselves are in a position to move the field forward. Experiences of the sciences in their initiatives for cyberinfrastructure and eScience offer valuable lessons. Information- and data-intensive, distributed, collaborative, and multi-disciplinary research is now the norm in the sciences, while remaining experimental in the humanities. Discussed here are six factors for comparison, selected for their implications for the future of digital scholarship in the humanities: publication practices, data, research methods, collaboration, incentives, and learning. Drawing upon lessons gleaned from these comparisons, humanities scholars are “called to action” with five questions to address as a community: What are data? What are the infrastructure requirements? Where are the social studies of digital humanities? What is the humanities laboratory of the 21st century? What is the value proposition for digital humanities in an era of declining budgets? (original link to paper).

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Ordnance Survey maps to go free online

November 18, 2009 at 12:46 pm · Filed under creative commons, data, digital humanities

The government is to explore ways of making all Ordnance Survey maps freely available online from April, in a victory for the Guardian’s three-year Free Our Data campaign. The move will bring the UK into line with the free publication of maps that exists in the US.

Gordon Brown announced the change at a joint event in London today with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, who is now information tsar advising on the handing over of private government data to the public (thanks to Andy W for the link).

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On being critical…

November 17, 2009 at 4:19 pm · Filed under digital humanities, eresearch, humanities computing

A recent post I placed on Humanist; one of the most important academic initiatives in the Digital Humanities run by Professor Willard McCarty of the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King’s College London. In this post, I sort of hijacked the subject somewhat but this needed to be said because as I see it, the otherwise wonderful infrastructure agenda in the Digital Humanities in this instance lacks clarity and purposefulness.

From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
Subject: critical thinking

What I think all this has to do with computing is in our understanding
better what computing has to do with the culture in which it has surfaced.
The utilitarian argument (”the computer is useful”) is so trite, so dull, so
incapable of supporting for long the professional activity we would like to
see given a better place in the sun. The principle of reprocity that governs
human relations says we need to be useful for sure, but to attract the sort
of students we want as well as keep ourselves alive intellectually I’d think
we need to offer something with a real bite to it. What has that bite? Not a
totally paranoid vision, though the thrill of the threat of it is a start.

Dear Willard and Humanist,

This is an interesting argument and given the institutional arrangements of the Digital Humanities, they aren’t going to be resolved quickly. I think where we find ourselves in the Digital Humanities is wedged somewhere between a contemporary version of CP Snow’s Two Cultures argument. But rather than wedged between ‘Science’ and ‘Humanities’ we find ourselves stuck somewhere between highly skilled technical  labour and academic labour. They are both two very valuable and different cultures with divergent approaches to work, merit, aspiration, and research significance. This division is especially problematic in the UK context given the history of the class system where working class kids went to technical school and middle class kids were given the opportunity to become academics. This of course changed significantly with mass tertiary education and the rise of the Polytechnics.

Read the rest of this entry »

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