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This paper analyses the results of the technical and scientific work in the DARIAH preparatory phase, a European infrastructure for digital arts and humanities. We were looking for an infrastructure model that would allow for the integration of services built around communities. To this end, DARIAH will be developed as a social marketplace for services. The paper presents the design decision we made and our proof-of-concept demonstrators and experiments.

Abstract Digital Image Modelling is becoming a standard approach in epigraphic studies, mostly expressed in the diffusion practice of research groups which want their materials being publicly accessible. However, there is an important lack of works which seek for the use of 3D tools to improve the epigraphic analysis and text reading. Therefore, this paper attempts to show the application of Photogrammetry Structure from Motion and Digital Image Modelling to 3D record and analyse inscriptions that are in poor state of preservation, aiming to resolve some text-restitution problems and contribute towards the definition of new methodologies in Roman epigraphy.

The article presents a method for automatic semantic indexing of archaeological grey‐literature reports using empirical (rule‐based) Information Extraction techniques in combination with domain‐specific knowledge organization systems. The semantic annotation system (OPTIMA) performs the tasks of Named Entity Recognition, Relation Extraction, Negation Detection, and Word‐Sense Disambiguation using hand‐crafted rules and terminological resources for associating contextual abstractions with classes of the standard ontology CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CRM) for cultural heritage and its archaeological extension, CRM‐EH.Relation Extraction (RE) performance benefits from a syntactic‐based definition of RE patterns derived from domain oriented corpus analysis. The evaluation also shows clear benefit in the use of assistive natural language processing (NLP) modules relating to Word‐Sense Disambiguation, Negation Detection, and Noun Phrase Validation, together with controlled thesaurus expansion.The semantic indexing results demonstrate the capacity of rule‐based Information Extraction techniques to deliver interoperable semantic abstractions (semantic annotations) with respect to the CIDOC CRM and archaeological thesauri. Major contributions include recognition of relevant entities using shallow parsing NLP techniques driven by a complimentary use of ontological and terminological domain resources and empirical derivation of context‐driven RE rules for the recognition of semantic relationships from phrases of unstructured text.

Digital archives of memory institutions are typically concerned with the cataloguing of artefacts of artistic, historical, and cultural value. Recently, new forms of citizen participation in cultural heritage have emerged, producing a wealth of material spanning from visitors' experiential feedback on exhibitions and cultural artefacts, to digitally mediated interactions like the ones happening on social media platforms. Citizen curation is proposed in the context of the European project SPICE - Social Participation, Cohesion, and Inclusion through Cultural Engagement - as a methodology for producing, collecting, interpreting, and archiving people's responses to cultural objects, with the aim of favouring the emergence of multiple, sometimes conflicting viewpoints, and motivating users and memory institutions to reflect upon them. We argue that citizen curation urges to rethink the nature of computational infrastructures supporting data management of memory institutions, bringing novel challenges that include issues of distribution, authoritativeness, interdependence, privacy, and rights management. To approach these issues, we survey relevant literature towards a distributed, Linked Data infrastructure, with a focus on identifying the roles and requirements involved in such an infrastructure. We show how existing research can contribute significantly in facing the challenges raised by citizen curation, and discuss challenges and opportunities from the socio-technical standpoint.

AbstractThe interdisciplinary field known as digital humanities (DH) is represented in various forms in the teaching and research practiced in iSchools. Building on the work of an iSchools organization committee charged with exploring digital humanities curricula, we present findings from a series of related studies exploring aspects of DH teaching, education, and research in iSchools, often in collaboration with other units and disciplines. Through a survey of iSchool programs and an online DH course registry, we investigate the various education models for DH training found in iSchools, followed by a detailed look at DH courses and curricula, explored through analysis of course syllabi and course descriptions. We take a brief look at collaborative disciplines with which iSchools cooperate on DH research projects or in offering DH education. Next, we explore DH careers through an analysis of relevant job advertisements. Finally, we offer some observations about the management and administrative challenges and opportunities related to offering a new iSchool DH program. Our results provide a snapshot of the current state of digital humanities in iSchools which may usefully inform the design and evolution of new DH programs, degrees, and related initiatives.

In addition to providing pleasant and stimulating experiences, complex cultural collections can require significant amounts of cognitive work on the part of visitors. Whether collections are situated in physical spaces or presented via web-based interfaces, the sheer richness and diversity of artefacts and their associated information can frequently lead to cognitive overload and fatigue. In this article we explore visualization methods that can be used to fend off fatigue and to support cognitive tasks such as collection exploration and conceptual comprehension. We discuss a variety of options to generate collection representations with multiple views and focus on the rarely heeded challenge of how to integrate information from these views into a bigger picture. By utilizing multiple space-time cube representations (through the PolyCube framework), we discuss an effective approach to integrating and mediating multiple perspectives on cultural collection data. We illustrate its potential by the means of a case study on the work of Charles W. Cushman and outline first insights drawn from a heuristic evaluation. Finally, we situate our approach within the larger epistemic and methodological environment of humanities approaches to visualization design.