Start date: 1 January 2004
End date: 1 July 2010
Funding programme: Support for e-Research programme
Project website:
http://ahds.ac.uk/ictguides/
JISC theme(s): e-Research
Introduction
ICT Guides is the only portal of its type within the digital arts and humanities field and has become a core resource in the field; listing many definitive projects along with the methods and tools used in their construction. It builds in part on the outcomes arising from the JISC funded ARIA project.
Aims and Objectives
ICT Guides is an effective model to promote existing resources in the arts and humanities whilst at the same time encouraging researchers to develop new projects, tools, and methods. The focus on high-quality and high profile projects means that the portal will always remain relevant to the work in the field and central and its methodological advances. The portal will continue to actively gather high quality content; especially about projects in specific subject communities.
Project Methodology
One of the most important features of the project database is that it built upon an extensive taxonomy of computational methods that are common in the digital humanities. The methods taxonomy serves as a controlled vocabulary for the database. Scholars, invited to provide project input for the database are asked to choose the terms from the taxonomy that denote most closely the computational methods they have employed in the course of their research. By gathering of information on the employment of methods in a controlled fashion, the database’s capability for structured searching is greatly enhanced.
For the purpose of the method taxonomy, computational methods are defined as follows:
a) The term method broadly denotes all the techniques and tools that are used to gain new knowledge in the various academic fields which constitute the arts and humanities.
b) A method is a computational one if it is either based on ICT (i.e. database technology), or critically dependent on it (i.e. statistical analysis).
c) As the initial version of the database focuses on projects involved in the creation of digital resources, the taxonomy focuses on computational methods used for the creation, analysis and dissemination of such resources.
ICT Guides is built upon a highly-developed knowledge structure and careful administrative and editorial practices. The project centric approach works best for ICT Guides as it gives the service clarity, direction, and purpose. Although there are some areas where the service could be improved in terms of community input, the value of the service is in the structure if the knowledge it contains and the means of gathering, filtering, and synthesising this knowledge. Opportunities to increase the value of this knowledge are being explored by making it available in innovative new ways such as through the ‘web-service’ approach and through an API.
Implications / Deliverables / Stakeholders
The primary audience for ICT Guides are those involved in the digital humanities in the UK who wish to:
- Build tools and digital resources for the arts and humanities
- Investigate the application of ICTs for arts and humanities research and learning
An additional audience is an international one who wishes to view the innovations in the digital humanities in the UK. The digital humanities in the UK benefit from and contribute to an international epistemic community; especially in subject areas that are not geographically specific.
Deliverables
- Continue populating ICT Guides with details of new, ongoing and completed projects
- Investigate and assess tools to expand the tools registry
- Investigate and assess training opportunities to improve and extend the training registry
- Develop relationships with Centres of expertise, forums, and seminars to gain knowledge to add to and extend information in ICT Guides
- Identify communities of practice and develop productive relationships with them
- Link to relevant information based around these communities, methods and other areas of interest
- Seek to develop jointly appropriate content for inclusion in ICT Guides, including case studies, information papers, and guides to best practice
- Seek to develop appropriate training and promotional activities such as conferences, seminars, workshops, and usability forums
- Seek to jointly develop the ICT Guides online community forums in terms of the promotion/moderation of the discussion of methods and the promotion of the discussion of tools
- Liaise with e-Science community to record methods, projects, and tools available in that field and promote the opportunities available to the broader Arts and Humanities community
- Expose the methods taxonomy of ICT Guides to a ‘community platform’ so methods can be discussed and debated